JamesY40,

I'm no expert but I plant mine anywhere from 6-8 inches apart.

I plant them the same way autheray does. I don't really plant in rows that often, but if I were planting in your 3 foot wide bed, I'd plant two rows and would plant the plants 6-8" apart in the rows, assuming they are a bush variety that doesn't need to climb a trellis.

Instead of planting in rows, I usually plant in a raised bed in a grid pattern (sort of like square foot gardening if you're familiar with how square foot gardeners plant X number of plants per square foot) with the southern peas planted on 8" centers if they are a variety that makes a fairly compact bush or on 12" centers if they are a variety that gets larger and tries to send out runners. It is a crazy jam-packed jungle by the time harvesting starts, but that just means that the plants shade the ground all around themselves and I don't have to pull weeds. It also means I harvest carefully as snakes like to hang out in the deep shade. With plants planted that densely, I likely get fewer peas per plant, but I get more plants packed into the space, so I get a larger yield overall.

http://www.willhiteseed.com/products.php?cat=54 James, this is a good source in case you don't know about them.

On 8" centers I have grown these: Texas Cream 12, Quick Pick, Lady Pea, Texas Cream 8, Early Scarlet, Old Timer (aka Purple Hull Speckled Cowpea), Six Week Purple Hull, Black Crowder, White Acre, Pink Eye Purple Hull and Knuckle Pink Eye Purple Hull.

On 12" centers I have grown Knuckle Pink Eye Purple Hull (it probably did better on 12" than 8" centers but it produced fine either way), Colossus, Queen Anne, Zipper Cream, Dixie Lee, Elite, CT Pink Eye Purple Hull, Blue Goose Crowder and Pink Eye Purple Hull BVR.

The only real difference in the plants on 8" centers versus 12" centers is that it is easier to pick the really bushy spreading ones when they are planted slightly further apart. I get really good yields either way.

Southern peas can be unpredictable. Mostly they stay in their intended spot and grow bushy/shrubby, but sometimes they get a crazy yearning to send out runners and climb. I'd had lots of them do this when there is a bed across a pathway from them that has tomato cages in it. For whatever reason, the runners will shoot across the pathway and climb to the tops of the tomato cages if I let them. It is unpredictable and doesn't happen with every variety or in every year. Many of the variations of Pink Eye Purple Hull will do this though. They'll stay 2-4' tall and bushy if there isn't anything to climb nearby, but if there's a fence or tomato cages or whatever close enough that they can spread out and reach it, they'll climb it.

And, of course, it goes without saying that with the vining types, I grow those on trellises or fences. This year I'm growing both Red Ripper and Yellow Ripper on the back garden fence.

I've ALMOST never met a southern pea variety that we don't like, except for anything with the words California or Blackeye in the name. I don't care for any of the California blackeye types, having grown them only once and just not caring for their flavor. If I want grocery store peas like California blackeye, I can buy them at the grocery store. We much prefer the older southern varieties with purple hulls, as well as crowders, zipper, lady and cream pea types to standard old green eye or black eye types, so we grow the ones we like best. I grow 8 to 10 varieties a year because you can never have too many southern peas.

do you have extra seeds of any of these varieties ,purple hulls ive heard of the others are unknowns