I also start them indoors by soaking the seeds in water.
When they start to show the roots, then I put them in the ground.
That way the soil temperature does not slow germination.
Peas do great in the cool weather once they are started but sometimes getting them started is slow.
Before I put the tomato cages in and the chicken wire on, this year I took a couple old under the bed boxes and put them over the peas.
Nice portable, lightweight cold frames.
When the first peas started poking through, then the tomato cage and chicken wire went up.
They did terrifically at my daughter’s school this year, big bushy beautiful plants, early early. But to start them in mid spring, they’d be horrible and cut short in summer. I think I’d start them in February. We are in a very arid corner of SoCal, not desert but not for climate wise from high desert, not coastal.