The Moon descending until this Friday, 16. January and being New Moon on Sunday we will see a few more strong weather systems attempting to arrive from the west while high pressure and colder conditions attempt to exert some influence from the east. This will be accentuated with strong sun winds arriving around New Moon also.
While the eastern regions will become drier changeable conditions with showers or longer spells of rain will persist in western and northern regions. Temperatures overall likely be around average. Temperatures will decline throughout next week.
Bringing Colour, Scent and Charm into Your Garden and Your Home
Have you ever tried to plant Sweet Peas in your garden?
If not, I can’t recommend it highly enough to embellish your garden with a wall of one of the most delightful flowers, you will have ever planted in your garden.
I wished I could show you photos from the integrated rural development teaching garden in Emerson College from 1981, where we had in the centre of a 1 acre vegetable production garden a herbaceous border with a great variety of annual, biennial and perennial flowering plants flanked on either side with a Sweet Pea planting of 40 m long and 2 m high.
Whenever we would be working in the garden we would be bathing in the fragrance and beauty of these divine flowers thanks to our gardening teacher Chela Lightchild who was trained in the Biodynamic French Intensive Gardening Method by the late Alan Chatwick.
The Different Types of Sweet Peas
SPENCER SWEET PEAS
The classic sweet pea was named after Countess Spencer and has a wonderful colour range, long stems, varying degrees of perfume and are loved by exhibitors. They usually have four blooms per stem. Vines grow to 6-10 feet.
GRANDIFLORA
These varieties were developed in the nineteenth century. These are shorter in stem and only grow to 5-7 feet, but are the more fragrant than most modern varieties. Though with smaller flower heads.
ROYAL
The royal series blooms about the same time as the Spencers and come in about a dozen distinct colours. They grow to 6-8 feet.
Galaxy blooms about the same time as Spencers and carries up to 8 blooms per stem. Grows to 6-8 feet.
EARLY MULTIFLORA GIGANTEAS
This type flowers earlier than the Spencers and has large blooms with excellent form and long stems. The vines grow to 6-8 feet.
CUTHBERTSON
These varieties are hybridized between the Spencers and early flowering varieties. They produce between 4-6 flower per stem and are renowned for withstanding hot weather spells better than the Spencers. They grow to 6-8 feet.
DWARFS, SEMI-DWARFS OR INTERMEDIATES
Are most suited for patio pots and hanging baskets and grow between 6 inches and 4 feet.
They have short stems and are not suited for cutting.
THE LATHYRUS GENUS
It consists of 150 varieties. The favourites are the scented specie Lathyrus odoratus and the unscented specie Lathyrus latifolius.
Lathyrus sativus grow to 4 feet and can grow in partial shade. Flowers are gentian blue.
Lathyrus vernus or spring pea is a herbaceous perennial with mauve-purple blooms in early spring.
Sowing Sweet Peas
These attractive garden flowers are hardy to half-hardy and are best started off indoors:
– in an unheated, covered space in October
– in a heated, covered space in January (best dates: 21st, 22nd, 30th 31st January)
– in an unheated, covered space in end February (best dates: 16th, 22nd, 26th & 27th February)
Or direct sow outdoors about 4 weeks before the last frost
Sowing in Pots Indoors
Make a potting mix of 1/3 of your best garden soil or turf loam, 1/3 of leaf mould and 1/3 of kitchen compost with a couple of spades of sharp sand for the volume of a wheelbarrow.
Alternatively get an organic, ready-made sowing compost.
To encourage faster germination, you can either roughen up the seed husk with a fine sand-paper or/and soak them in a seed bath prepared with a pinch of Horn Manure Preparation mixed in for a couple of hours.
Fill pots to within ¾ inch of top, press down the mix and lay in seeds. Fill with another
½ inch of potting mix and press down well and put pots in a tray. Cover the pots with white paper and a pane of glass or plastic to keep in the moisture.
Once seeds have germinated, start slowly adding pre-warmed water to the tray.
To encourage bushier growth pinch back the centre tip to a pair of leaves when your sweet peas reach 4 to 8 inches high. This will promote branching and more blooms.
Soil Preparation
Preparing your bed for planting or sowing sweet peas is a labour of love.
Short of losing your plants to a drought, because the roots can’t grow deep or they are not well supported by strong posts, wires and netting, you might lose your gorgeous wall of flowers to adverse weather conditions.
In my experience sweet peas love well drained, humus rich, slightly acid but not too richly fertilized soils.
Double digging the soil in autumn or winter will help the soil to weather and become even more crumbly and welcoming for sweet peas.
Make sure you work in the top 4 inches (10 cm) about 1-2 kg/m2 (1-2 spades) of well-rotted biodynamic kitchen or manure compost.
Apply the Horn Manure Preparation (500) after cultivating and feeding the soil.
Remember they have their own nitrogen factory with the root nodules fixing nitrogen.
For that adding a handful per m2 of wood ash or garden lime will help these bacterial nodules to become more efficient.
The main nutrients we need to be concerned about are phosphorous for strong and deep roots and in turn lots of flowers.
Where Best to Plant Sweet Peas
Sweet Peas are rather like Clematis, they like their heads in the sun and roots deep in cool, moist soil. This is easily accomplished by planting low-growing annuals around them to provide that shade. Mulch well to keep the soil moist and cool. In hotter climates plant in an area that gets good morning sun but some afternoon shade. That way you will get a longer season from your Sweet Peas.
Transplanting Outdoors
Before planting preferably while digging, put in place sturdy, well secured posts, to suspend a netting from at least three wires. With your soil well prepared in the autumn or winter, transplant your seedlings when they are about a foot tall. Make sure though that before planting you harden them off for a week or two. When the last dangerous frost is over
(not less -2º C) plant them in a double rows 6 inches apart and 4 inches apart in the row.
Sowing Outdoors
Make sure you sow not earlier than 4 weeks before your last frost.
I usually sow in 2 rows 6 inches apart and sow a seed every 2 inches in each row on either side of the netting 1 inch deep.
Before or after sowing or transplanting you can help the root development and early growth of the transplants by applying the Horn Manure Preparation (500).
Make sure seeds and plants are protected from birds, rabbits or deer.
How to Care for Sweet Peas after Direct Sowing
Keep the soil moist before your seeds sprout and all during the growing season. Sweet peas prefer cooler temps, especially at night. That is why early planting is ideal, but they will grow through the summer for many if given the right conditions.
Pick or cut your Sweet Pea flowers frequently to promote more blooms.
To ensure continued growth and blooming, have a liquid manure of stinging nettle and/or comphrey available and feed the soil around plants them with a solution of 1:10 every
2 weeks. If flowering slows down, you can also mix 5 drops of valerian preparation into 2 litres of water, stir for 10 minutes and apply as a fine mis as foliar application or as droplets also on the soil.
All that’s left is to enjoy the magnificent site and fragrance in your garden after all the hard work of preparing the land with such dedication.
Happy gardening
Hans-Günther