Green, or English, peas should already have been planted, and should be flowering and/or bearing peas now. You could try planting them now, especially since we've been having all this cold weather. But if things warm up and stay warm, you might not get any peas because it might be too warm. English peas are a cool season crop.

Beans are different. They like warm soil. If you put them in the ground and it's too cool, most of them will eventually sprout, but germination won't be as good as if you had just waited for consistently warm weather. Also, it's possible to stunt the growth of your bean plants by planting them too soon, if we have cold spells after they've started growing. This is especially true for lima beans. (I'm not so sure about green beans as I don't grow them).

I always wait until May to plant my climbing lima beans, and even then I'm not in a hurry. When they sprout and start to grow, they'll more than make up for lost time. And since I plant climbers, they'll continue to produce beans all summer, right up to the first hard frost (and sometimes even after that, if I can get them covered or if they're growing in a protected area).

Field peas (crowder peas, black-eyed peas, and the like) are also warm-season crops. They, too, should be planted after the soil has warmed up and the temperatures are consistently warm. The way things are going right now, it's anyone's guess when that will be!

Tell me more about beans, please. I was under the mistaken impression that all beans/peas were cool-weather crops. If I can plant beans for the summer, I would like to try. I have a small vegetable garden and I love lima beans and other shelling beans.

Thank you, westender, for your advice. I will probably wait until next year for the sweet peas, but I might try to plant a row or two of field peas.

Last year I planted my pole (green) beans in June and they did really well, but I was under the impression that I had planted them late. That's why I've been anxiously awaiting the time to plant them this year, hopefully earlier than June. So maybe I wasn't all that late last year, after all!

Twinkle, the only beans I've ever planted are what my family calls "black pole beans." We are really not sure what their real name is. I know they are not Kentucky Wonders or any others I've seen. The seeds I have originated from my great-grandmother back in the late 1800's to early 1900's. They are the only kind I'll eat. The only bad thing about them is that they do have strings...lots of strings so you have to be careful to try to get all of them when snapping them. I had one row about 15' long last year and had a good harvest from them, even up until October.

There are bush green beans, Kentucky Wonders, Rattlesnake, and several others that you could grow if you didn't want to have to stake them. I have never grown limas, so somebody else will have to tell you about those.

I tried bush limas last year but I do recommend pole limas. Bush did not give us enough. I was told King of the Garden limas were great for our climate.

I grow the several green beans in bush form and like yellow pencil pod and Blue Lake the best myself. I LOVE Royalty Purple Pod - a good producer, climber but not too tall. They are a string bean.

Then I grow yard long beans. I ADORE these. Heavy bean taste but love heat/humidity. They are an asian bean and also come with different seed colors and pod colors. This year I have red.

Baker Creek Seeds and Southern Exposure Seed Exchange have great beans for the South!

GGG