I got a rad comment and some pics from a twitter friend, @mjguth, who also lives in my town. He says in the comments:
I strongly recommend NOT using poles for peas. Their grasping runners are neither very strong nor rough enough (unlike beans) to really grab a pole and hold themselves up. Mine usually ended up sliding down to encircle the bottom of each pole.
I use a set of A-frames I built from 3/4 inch PVC water lines. They are connected with slip fittings and anchored to the ground with aluminum tent stakes. Think of two triangles (really upside-down V’s), 5 feet tall and 5 feet at the base, standing 5 feet apart. The triangles are then connected to each other with three horizontal 5-foot sections, one at each corner, so two run along the ground and the last one is for hanging strings for the peas to climb. Then I pushed the bottoms as close together as I could, about 1 1/2 to 2 feet wide at the base and anchored them with aluminum tent stakes.
I use a natural fiber string, like hemp or sisal, so at the end of the growing season, I can dismantle the whole structure and just slide the string and pea plants off the one pipe into the compost pile.
I’ll try to tweet a couple pics to you. You may do whatever you like with them.
Another idea for a fall crop of peas is to put a couple climbing peas around each corn stalk. The corn shades the newly germinated peas, the peas grow up the stalk and provide nitrogen to the heavily feeding corn. This also works with pole beans.
He was kind enough to send 2 pics. One of them is above and here is the second one.
I’m totally going to copy some of this stuff when I do my peas again. I am learning that the sisal or hemp tip is a great timesaver–those things sure do tangle themselves up around things.
I also found, via Instapundit, this cool Garden Zombie from ThinkGeek. Surely the perfect addition to any formal gardenscape.
