no worries- they'll probably be fine. if you can, don't stake them up- let them lie flat until it warms up a little more- that will protect them. or you can lay reemay/spunbond material overtop to give them some protection. i've planted this time before for snow peas and snap peas and had good luck. it really just depends on if we get a really nasty cold snap. the main thing this year will be keeping them moist enough to do much.

watch the forecasts and cover if you think you have to....remember last Easter morning?? 16 degrees at my house. Hope we don't see THAT again this spring

I wasn't here last Easter, but I've heard terrible things. I've actually seen peas get snowed on and live to bear a wonderful crop. The only thing I ever had to worry about was the weather warming too fast. Northern-grown Peas do not like hot weather. Isn't it funny how plants react differently depending on where they grow. How do they know where they are? Maybe there's something in that little seed that says "Hey, look, we're not in Kansas anymore!"

i've actually had much better luck with peas (all kinds, including the flower sweet peas) by planting them fall until about now, allowing them to come up, leaving them lay on the ground and covering with leaves or reemay if necessary, which only happens if it's going below about 15. then when it's reliably more temperate (not below 25 or so), lift them up to their trellis or support and they'll go gangbusters. if you wait too late to plant, it gets hot here really fast in april or may (low 90's and 80's are common) and then they just don't have time to produce well before they want to quit. unless we have a protracted slow spring, which is rarely the case. thing is, our winter temps here are comparable to the spring temps up north. i've found this to be true for anything that's traditionally an early spring crop or cold tolerant up there- ie: cole crops, peas, spinach, lettuces, asian type greens, carrots, radishes, beets, chard, etc . so you're a-ok.

that late frost last year was awful, and given the 80/90 degree temps a week or 2 ahead of it, there was really nothing that could be done to protect stuff. fortunately, tho late frosts aren't uncommon here, one of that severity is.

How do you keep the rabbits from getting them? DH wintersowed some sugar peas and they are WAY up but he doesn't want to put them out in the garden because the rabbits will just mow them down. I think it will take fences. Any other thoughts?

could you spray with a hot pepper spray? it's not like you'd have to reapply it often with as little rain as we're getting. or, use the deer fence /bird netting stuff. it's very lightweight. if you spaced some sticks a little ways from your peas and ran that around, i'd think that would keep them off. you could lay it right on the vines, but they'll try to grow up it and get their tendrils all knotted in it.

btw, peas of any sort don't like to be transplanted, so if he doesn't have them in the garden yet- get them there pronto or he's liable to lose them once he plants. i always direct sow them.

lindakimy: I'd be happy to lend you my dog...except she'd eat every other vegetable/fruit in your garden. I'm serious. I cannot grow carrots because she digs them out of the ground and eats them. Same with strawberries. She loves bok choy, too. There isn't a vegetable/fruit she will not devour.
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Oh, sure, she looks real innocent in the photo. Goofy mutt. I keep her around because she makes me laugh.