On Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:33:00 +0100, david taylor wrote:


"shazzbat" wrote in message
...

"Welsh Witch" wrote in message
news
Here I am standing in the vegetable garden. I have lost tons of labels
and
I have enormous brassica plants on one hand but my present problem is
the peas.
I know I planted both the mangetout type and the ordinary I think
called "early onward". Now there are peas everywhere including sweet
peas I grew on the cage. Is there any way of telling which are mange
tout and which are real peas. I can't imagine it would be poisonous
were we to eat the pods of ordinary peas(?) but I don;t want to
deprive the family of the
other sort either. What a mess...I haven't done the vegetable garden
before as my responsibility, and the vegetables I choose to grow my
husband has never grown to give his advice!! He always grew
conventional veg, I've got lots of stir fry etc
I'd be very grateful of anyone can tell me which is which. Thanks W
*************************

I know it's a bit late now for this year, but for future reference, you
have the ideal tool to avoid this happening again. It's called a
computer. I have made an excel document, and as a page of it has
approximately the same proportions as my allotment, I use the rows and
cells to record what I plant and sow where, print it out, take it to
the allotment, write in what I add/remove, and update it when I get
home. Easy.

HTH

Steve
Sweet Peas are poisonous indeed- the plants are easily recognised with
flat ribs(?) along the sides of the growing stems. The sed pods are thin
with pointed ends. In any event you should be able to recognise the
flowers before they seed.
Ordinary peas develope an inedible parchment in the pods before the peas
have grown to any extent.
Pick a pod from uncertain peas and chew it. If it masticates down it is
mangetout, if it feels like cardboard or fibre glass, it is a standard
pea. mangetout fill out reasonably well if you leave them on the plant.
regards
David T
****************************
Ah!! Thanks I did eat one which tasted OK and certainly didn;t have a
cardboard or fibregalss feel....Good..I gues they're mange tout then!!
***********************************