when is the last time I can plant green peas & +++++??!!

I have been working so hard to get my garden started but physical disability make it hard to get so much done at one time. I have probably gone WAY over my head but it has been fun and challenging just the same.

I want to plant some green peas, one called "canoe" and one "wando" I want to plant some sweet peas. Best I can figure our zone is 8b. We live in zip code 92220 but that is the city at 2300 ft. elevation -- we are at 3600. We have the luxury of 4 seasons here. There are peach & some apricot orchards out on our Banning Bench. It bumps 100 in the summer with a typical 20% humidity. Winters come on slowly but we get snows sometimes as early as November but it doesn't stick. Most everything goes dormant.

We are blessed with a small ranch with several fruit trees (apple/white fig/pomegranate/nectarine/peach, white & cling/cherries/almonds/persimmon, Fuji & hachiya.

We grow wonderful tomatoes, peppers, corn, green beans but I want to add peas, garlic, onions, beets, broccoli, and cauliflower, red & green cabbage. I have 2 12' x 12' boxes and 4 - 4' x 8' boxes and plenty of ground in between. I am making a 4' x 4' box for asparagus which I am going to plant ASAP also - I bought them in root or tuber form.

I also bought a several varieties of summer bulbs/roots/tuber that must go in the ground!!! I have already tilled the ground.

I wanted to mention that we have very clay soil here.

Sorry for writing a “book” the first time I post but I am desperate for information and HELP before I waste all my money in mistakes!!

Thanks for any help I can get!

Susie

To my knowledge, all green peas are cool season crops. You may already be getting too close to weather that will be too warm for them. It gets real hot down here where I live so I always plant my cole crops and peas in the fall so they will have cool temps.

Hi Susie. Here's a suggestion. Make a list of all of the crops you want to grow and next to each list the number of days to maturity. Next mark which ones are for cool-weather (leafy greens and root crops plust some flowering crops like broccoli and cauliflower) and which are warm-weather--those with fruits--tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, melons, beans. You are near the time to put the warm-weather crops in the garden, so save the cool-weather crops for the end of summer planting so that they mature in the cool of autumn (and plant those again next year in February and March). With the days to maturity, you can draw a simple garden map to plan how long each crop will sit in the garden, and when it comes out which crop can replace it. Make sure the cool-weather crops are ready for harvest before the temps average more than 80F. Make sure the warm-weather crops go in the garden when the temps are averaging 65F to 75F each day. If you want to get a head start on the weather, you can sow seeds indoors and transplant out each crop when the weather is right. Keep a few notes this year on how things go and you will be a step ahead next year. Keep the garden small; grow just what you will use. Next year you can expand and every year you will learn from experience and get better at it. (You might lose a few seeds or plants the first year, but that is part of the learning curve.) Check with neighbor gardeners or at the local nursery for tips as you go along.