Really, I’m not sure that your garden really exists unless you’ve got at least a couple of sweet peas chucking their hefty scent around the plot. And now’s the time to start work on growing the biggest and most beautiful plants for next year.
Sweet peas tend to be stronger and produce more flowers if you sow them now for next summer. Soak the seeds overnight in a cup of water, and sow half an inch down in a toilet-roll tube.
When the seedlings appear, protect them in a greenhouse or a coldframe. If you have neither a greenhouse nor a coldframe, use the sunniest windowsill in your house.
They’ll need pinching out once they grow to about eight inches tall. Here’s why and how. Keep pinching as the plant grows to encourage a good bushy growth.
In the spring, feed the plants with weak comfrey tea to perk them up, and plant out in rich, deep soil after the frosts have retreated.
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Easton Walled Gardens
This is great advice but take it slowly. It is still very mild and you want to grow sweet peas tough to get the best flowers. Grow them in a cool environment to reduce top growth and encourage a good root ball ready for next spring. We grow 60 varieties every year and have not sown ours yet but we are keeping a close eye on temperatures.
isabel
Good advice ursula – thanks so much!