Preparing Garden Bed for Peas

I waited until just about three weeks ago (April 13) to plant peas ... they can handle a light frost and prefer cool temperatures for germination, but I thought I should wait until I was sure it would be above -10 C overnight!

For the bed preparation, I have plenty of wood ash from using the wood stove all winter.  This worked into the soil provides for a more alkaline condition which peas like.

I also set up a teepee for them to grow on.  Last year they were in the greenhouse growing on a trellis.  This is my first time using the teepee set up.  I suppose I'll have to train them up the poles??

When I planted the seeds, they went into the soil all around the base of the bamboo poles.  Some of the seeds popped back to the surface (I assume from all the rains?), but you can see that after about 9 days some were already sprouting.

I also planted some radish in between (can you see the thin lines of green below?):

 The radishes should be ready before the peas start climbing the poles so I should be OK to harvest them (I hope?!).  Radishes tend to prefer a more neutral or acidic soil, but they seem to be doing fine so far.  Here is the radish tonight (3 weeks old):

I will likely follow these with a mid-summer planting of brassicas.  I do not plan to start any brassicas (broccoli, cauliflower or brussels sprouts) too early as the heat of our summers always leads them to bolt and/or not form heads properly.  So I'll start them later in the year.