What to do in the garden in May: Sow peas

Garden peas are so much more satisfying than anything bought, and frankly irresistible straight from the popping pod. Take out a spade-wide drill a couple of inches deep, and place the seeds thinly along and across it from end to end. Put a stout stick in at each end, and sufficient others at intervals to support some netting or mesh, then neatly shovel soil back over the seeds. Makeshift tunnels of chicken wire will protect the seedlings from birds until they can get going up the framework. The whole set-up occupies very little space, and the rewards are prolific.