Sweet Peas

I love sweet peas and I needed something that would quickly scramble up the new trellis fence on our eastern boundary (that makes us sound grand doesn't it - like we have a huge garden!).

I sowed the seeds in a window propagator early in the spring in our spare room. They germinated really well. Before it was fit to plant them out they had got a bit leggy and I wasn't sure they would make it.

Once planted out they were a little slow getting going but they have survived torrential rain and strong gales and all of a sudden this week they had buds and then flowers. This is the first picking, along with some of the variegated lamium and some vetch which as just grown. I have picked about 10 stems each morning this week. I have subsequently added the poppy seed heads I have taken off the field poppies which have popped up everywhere.

This first vase is just about done after 6 days, but there are plenty more to come and if I don't pick them the plants will stop flowering - best of both worlds?

I planted up some window boxes for the front too - I bought plug plants at the supermarket, including upright and trailing fuschias; geraniums; lobelia and violas. I added a sweet pea and a nasturtium (sown by me) to each to give height at one side and drop at the other. The violas have been so prolific it looked like they were going to take over, but through careful dead heading and removing a few to some new hanging baskets I have got a balance. The lobelia is coming into its own, the fuschias are covered in bud and the nasturtium (one died) is in full flower. The sweet peas are just starting to flower too and the geraniums are growing so should get flower from them soon. The window boxes are brilliant - they were from Lidl and they have an inbuilt reservoir so drainage and watering are less of an issue. The window boxes are out at the front and I will have to pop across the road sometime and take photos.