Planting Sweet Peas at My Farm
The weather is finally warm enough to start planting outdoors.
Yesterday, my gardeners planted the first of our flower seeds - sweet peas. The sweet pea, Lathyrus odoratus, is a garden classic producing beautiful blooms with the most amazing scent. Sweet pea seeds can be sown into small pots of compost in autumn and overwintered indoors, or planted directly into the ground come spring. We planted several sweet pea varieties from some of our favorite seed companies including Botanical Interests, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Sweet Pea Gardens, Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Renee's Garden, Roger Parsons Sweet Peas, and Owl's Acre Seed in Northern England. These flowers will give us lots of fragrant color this summer.
Here are some photos - enjoy. And be sure to follow my new Instagram page @MarthaStewartBlog.
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- The old-fashioned varieties of sweet pea are grown for their vibrant colors and intense fragrances. Most sweet peas will begin blooming in late spring or early summer.
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- The flowers feature one large, upright rounded petal, two narrow side petals, and two lower petals. Luckily, the stems are sturdy enough to hold up their profuse flowers.
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- This one is a bright salmon to peach color. Originating in the southwest of Italy and the islands of the Mediterranean, sweet pea has been cultivated for use in gardens since the 17th century.
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- Sweet peas offer one of the widest color ranges in the plant kingdom, including crimson reds, navy blues, pastel lavenders, pinks, and the purest whites. These colors are found as solid colors, bicolors, and streaked or flaked flowers.
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- The leaves are pinnate with two leaflets and a terminal tendril, which twines around supporting plants and structures, helping the sweet pea to climb.
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- Here are the tendrils they use to grasp anything that’s a quarter-inch or less.
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- This season, we’re planting many different varieties from a number of seed companies.
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- I always encourage my crew to bring “the right tools for the right job.” Here are the three tools Wendy is using for this planting project – a hoe, a cultivator, and a rake.
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- Once the area along the garden fence is cultivated, Wendy drops some good fertilizer. Sweet peas are heavy feeders, so it is important to ensure the soil is nutrient-rich.
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- We’re planting the sweet peas along one side and the back fence of my old vegetable garden down by my chicken yard. Wendy uses a hoe to create a shallow trench – just a couple inches deep.
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- These are some of the seeds – large enough to see when dropping them into the trench.
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- Wendy drops the seeds into the shallow furrow. Sweet peas are happiest in the sun with their roots in cool, moist soil.
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- These seeds are planted just a couple of inches apart. Look closely and you can see the seed.
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- Then the seed is pressed lightly into the soil.
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- As each section of seeds is planted, a marker identifying the variety is placed accordingly.
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- Wendy uses a small garden soft rake to cover the seeds with two inches of soil.
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- Using a rake also makes the area look neat and tidy.
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- And here is a lovely pink variety called ‘Angela Ann.’ This sweet pea has an attractive rose pink on a white background. It’s an excellent sweet pea for the garden or to use as cut flowers.
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- And here is a crisp white sweet pea. These flowers are rich in nectar and pollen and attract lots of bees and hummingbirds.
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- It takes about 50-days in cooler temperatures under 60-degrees Fahrenheit, for sweet peas to develop and bloom. I am looking forward to lots of colorful and fragrant flowers come May.
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