omg, that's a lot of ???
I love peas. Not like, love. The best part of living here is that I can grow peas about 6 months of the year, with planning. YMMV, and that's a probable. So, you'll want to get as much out of your garden as possible in as short a time as you can. Good news is that you can grow 2 crops, spring and fall. And you can do them two ways: plant all at once, with early, mid, and late maturing peas, or plant every 3 weeks for continuing harvest.
I like to plant peas everywhere, all the time. I'm growing short, medium, and pole peas, too.
If you want real quantity, though, you want sugar snap peas. Sweetest, and productive over a long time, and the most product per vine. I find shelling peas to take up too much space for the amount you get, and they're way more work. Ugh. Of course, there is one exception to the rule--I grow petite pois just for fresh eating, and only for myself. They never make it to the house. I once dreamt that I could grow enough to freeze. Ha!
Sugar Sprint and Sugar Ann are my current favorites, but I'm trialing Cascadia, Sugar Daddy, Super Sugar Snap, Golden India, Mangetout Carouby, and a purple podded snap this year. For snow peas, the Dwarf Gray and Oregon Snow are good, but once you've tried snap peas, it's hard to love the others as much.
Peas can tolerate some shade, especially if it gets hot quickly where you live. My own opinion is that it's hot nights that lead to peas giving up the ghost, though, which is why they go all summer here most years. Our nights seldom stay above 60, and almost never above 70.
As to spacing, I plant mine in raised beds, behind my tomatoes, in a 12" row, with a trellis down the middle, with the peas 4" apart. That's 16 peas per square foot. The secret is make them grow up, not out.
I plant them with Mykos, which is much less expensive than innoculant, but when I'm flush, I use that, too. I'm planting 4 squares of Cascadia this afternoon, as soon as I'm done here, because you have me all fired up and it's 55 and sunny here.
I'll plant again, in about two weeks, so I can see if there's an advantage to planting this early. I hope we don't get hit like Europe, after all this warm weather.
Gotta go! Hope this helps.
jane