Excerpts from script: Fifty years ago, in 1954, a shy 19-year-old truck driver named Elvis Presley recorded his first commercial single, "That's All Right!" which was aired to immediate success in Memphis. What does this have to do with gardening? Well, 2004 is not only a landmark year in rock ‘n roll history, but it’s also the Year of the Pea, according to the National Garden Bureau. Turns out that Elvis loved peas... Peas are a universal vegetable. Some varieties produce edible pods, and the small white or purple-pink flowers are also yummy. Peas thrive, even in marginal conditions, and they’re nutritional heroes... Even NASA has a love affair with peas. Last year, aboard the International Space Station, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin successfully raised a crop of peas to the point of flowering and producing pea pods--an important first in space... This piece is a sample module in the UpBeet Gardener series and first ran on July 29, 2004.

Excerpts from script: Fifty years ago, in 1954, a shy 19-year-old truck driver named Elvis Presley recorded his first commercial single, "That's All Right!" which was aired to immediate success in Memphis. What does this have to do with gardening? Well, 2004 is not only a landmark year in rock ‘n roll history, but it’s also the Year of the Pea, according to the National Garden Bureau. Turns out that Elvis loved peas... Peas are a universal vegetable. Some varieties produce edible pods, and the small white or purple-pink flowers are also yummy. Peas thrive, even in marginal conditions, and they’re nutritional heroes... Even NASA has a love affair with peas. Last year, aboard the International Space Station, cosmonaut Nikolai Budarin successfully raised a crop of peas to the point of flowering and producing pea pods--an important first in space... This piece is a sample module in the UpBeet Gardener series and first ran on July 29, 2004.