Sweetpea

Anyone that likes fragrant cut flowers in abundance cannot but like Sweetpea.They produce an abundance of flowers from June to September / October when planted in a sunny aspect of your garden. For those that prefer vegetable growing, Sweet pea provides a valuable attraction to bees and other insects that will aid pollination of all your plants.

Seed can be planted indoors from Jan-Mar, or outdoors from Mar-April depending on our weather. Either plant into seed trays or individually into plug trays. Sow about 4cm (1.5”) apart and 1cm (1/2”) deep. Water well and keep at 15-20 C (60-70F). Germination can be slow so don’t panic if they take several weeks to show. Keep the compost moist during this time and allow plenty of air circulation. Pinch out the top of the seedlings when they have produced three or four leaves, this entices them to produce new strong basal shoots. From late April you can plant out your young plants after gradually Harding them off. If planting in a row plant about 23cm (9”) apart or about 18cm (6”) apart of in a circle. They grow about 1.8m high (6’) at least so they will need support from either bamboo canes /twiggy sticks/trellis or you can plant them through something that already has support like clematis. Keep the flowers removed until the plant is at least 3’ high. Water well in dry spells.

As well as planting seed , I bought some sweet pea plants from the local garden centre just in case some of you don’t want the pleasure of waiting weeks so see if your seed will grow ! (But of course it will... be patient.) I’m also going to plant these in 40cm pots, supported by canes, so I can place them where I want in the garden. They  are great if a “hole” suddenly appears in the flower bed or to give a little height to the rear of a flower bed, but I will say most will probably end up around the patio where we can not only enjoy the colours but also their amazing scent.                       I’ve placed five canes around the pot and placed bunches of three plants in three locations in the pot. I know I’ve been more than generous but the plants split easily that way so …

As they grow I’ll train them up the canes and they will give a great show all summer. Most of what we plant in the garden will also grow on pots and containers so don’t be afraid to experiment – seed/plant companies rarely say this though on their planting instructions.

No matter where you intend planting them, please do so and as always happy gardening.  

Tomatoes, Strawberries & Herbs in Hanging-Basket

Well, we planted up our Summer Hanging-Baskets last time and this time round I thought I'd give you a few other ways to enjoy your hanging baskets - and be able to produce your own grown fruit & veg at the same time.

Tomatoes: the best tomatoes suitable for hanging baskets are the tumbler varieties such as "Tumbling Tom”. I couldn’t find any tumbling variety in young plant form to demonstrate basket making so I resorted to seed and we'll come back to the basket preparation later.

I decided also to try planting the tomatoes into fibre pots. These can then be planted directly into the hanging basket when big enough - pot and plant. This gives the plant a further head start because you’re not disturbing the roots as you transplant - and you do, no matter how careful you are, in the traditional pot method.
The roots grow through the fibre pots and they disintegrate eventually in the basket.

 I filled and laid out 22 pots in a seed tray (anything that will keep them upright), and gave them a good watering.
My packet of Sutton’s seeds gave me a generous 22 seeds per pack - and they suggest one plant per 12" basket .That’s a lot of tomatoes & baskets for your few euro! I'm going to use 14" baskets when they are ready so I thing I'll put two young plants in. The seed is small but easy enough to handle, and place one seed per pot and sieve about 6mm (1/4 in) of fine compost on top. Keep pots moist and keep at 18-21C (65-70F) on the windowsill or glasshouse. They will take about 7-12 days to germinate and we can transplant then when they are nice & strong, directly into the baskets. This way saves pricking out seedlings after they germinate into pots of around 3”.

Strawberry Baskets: I had a little more luck in finding strawberry plants. I picked up three different variety’s to try out - Honeoye (early - midseason) Elsanta (midseason) and an alpine variety (small, but easy to grow and said to have the best taste. We'll plant the lot and see what produces the best results - both quantity & taste.

Fill the 14" hanging baskets the same way as usual - multipurpose compost and slow release feed and water well, I'm putting three plants of the same variety into each - again I think they look better if the grow at the same rate, but if you’re not bothered or don’t want three baskets you could chose an early, mid and late variety and put them together to really prolong your cropping season.

I'm going to speed things up by leaving them in my glasshouse, but any sunny spot should produce results. Birds do like the fruit though so protect with netting if this becomes a problem. As with any hanging basket, don’t let them dry out - water daily in warm weather but do check daily anyway.





Herb baskets: Another handy way of using your baskets is to plant them with your favourite herbs. As well as looking good all year round - if you pick the perennial herbs, you can hang them beside your kitchen door for easy access to your own herb garden.
Herbs I’ve found to do well are Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Parcel (a herb that looks like parsley but tastes like celery!) Chives. Can’t really thing of one that won’t , but mint would be better in its own pot as it is inclined to need more room and takes over - either garden or pot.
Put in what you like to use, it’s always the best method, no point growing what you won’t use.



Hope you like what I've been trying out, have very positive comments on some herb baskets I've given out on trial - let’s hope I get the same positivity from the Strawberries & Tomatoes!

 As always happy gardening.