The only possible concern I can think of is that both peas and pumpkins sometimes can have problems with powdery mildew. That's not necessarily a negative, but it might be a cause for concern if the pea plants had a major powdery mildew outbreak because you'd be planting pumpkins into a spot where one of their major diseases already lurks. Having said that, I wouldn't let it deter me from following peas with pumpkins. I would, however, remove all the pea plants and either dispose of them or compost them in a hot compost pile.

Last year, I planted one pumpkin plant in every raised bed after I had begun harvesting the earlier crops. The onion bed, for example, still had a few Roselle plants in it after all the onions were harvested but I just stuck pumpkin plants in between the Roselle plants, which were spaced about 5-6' apart. I ended up following onions with pumpkins, tomatoes with pumpkins, southern peas with pumpkins, and some of the cucumbers/Armenian cucumbers and some of the Irish potatoes with pumpkins. The southern peas made me nervous---not because pumpkins shouldn't follow them, but because the voles ate the roots of one pea plant every night over the course of a few weeks, leaving me to wonder if they'd nibble on the pumpkin plants. They didn't. Usually, about mid June to early July, I walk around the garden with winter squash or pumpkin seeds in my hand and poke them into the ground in any available space. We get lots of pumpkins, and it keeps the garden from emptying out and having bare spots as earlier crops finish up.

In a lot of ways, the pumpkins can crawl and sprawl their way across the garden and benefit it by shading the ground and helping keep the soil more cool and more moist, Occasionally the pumpkins get too aggressive and try to cross a pathway and climb a tomato cage, but it only takes a minute to put the offending vine back into its own space. If the pumpkin plants are foolish and grow through the fence, the deer prune them for me and we're all happy. Well, except for the pruned pumpkin plant. I doubt being eaten by deer was on those plants' To Do list.

I think that's a great idea. You could plant the pumpkins even before you yank the peas. As always, Dawn's response is so complete that there is little need to add much.

George
Tahlequah, OK