I will keep an eye out for stable Early Girl seeds. The trouble with cloning them is that I would still have to bring them through the winter. Tomatoes just won't go through the winter in my cool greenhouse. Funny, too, because some years I can get peppers and eggplants to come through but not tomatoes.
Peas as a cover crop seems like a good idea, but I would be amazed if you could over winter them in Helena, MT, even with blankets. You are a devoted gardener, though, and would probably not forget to cover them. I would have a problem with that.
I usually follow something that needs nitrogen
where I planted peas the year before. Same with beans and that would be corn. We do have a leaching problem here because of the rain, but the rotation seems to work pretty well.
Today I ordered a bush bean called Renegade. They are supposed to have an old-fashioned bean flavor and are great for eating fresh or canning.
Give Peas a Chance
Here are links to three other on-line customizable planting calendars (all are free):
http://www.chestnut-sw.com/growform.htm
http://www.johnnyseeds.com/e-PDGSeedStart.aspx?source=SeedCalcHome0610
http://bioarray.us/Skippy%27s%20planting%20calendar.html
I actually created my own in Excel, but I used these as reference material and as "second opinions".
That Johnny's Seeds calendar is great!
>> http://westsidegardener.com/quick/timetable.html
I also found maritime PNW advice from someone 12-13 miles further inland from me, and 50 miles further south. We seem to have the same avg-last-frost-date. I think having the same rainfall patterns, slow-spring-transition and cool-summer-mild-winter make his advice potentially very helpful, especially WRT fall/winter crops .
I was surprised not to find much planting-calendar advice online (yet) from the local extension service and "edu" websites.
Corey
One of my all time favorite gardening books (kind of old now) is Gardening West of the Cascades by Steve Solomon. He pretty much covers it all.