Volunteer Peas? WTH

This is a volunteer pea. Honest to goodness! There are two of them in the old pea bed from last year (it’s a lettuce bed this year). I don’t think I have ever seen a volunteer pea in my life. I don’t think pea seeds are normally hardy enough to survive the winter here in Cleveland.

But, as we who live here know, this past winter was an odd one. Yeah, it got cold and we got our infamous lake effect snow, but it stayed warm much longer than it normally does. I went and checked and in mid-November, we were still getting temps of 70F. That’s 20 degrees above normal and about as odd as you can get here in Cleveland. Mother Nature normally thinks that Cleveland does not get enough snow and cold, not the other way around.

So I have two little peas growing among the lettuce seedlings. I will let them grow there, but I am going to have to figure out how to keep them upright. I normally use tomato cages for my peas to grow on, but I don’t want the tomato cages to get in the way of the lettuce. Maybe stakes?

Well, here’s to green survivors and warmer winters. I hope we see more of both.