ABOUT EARLY SWEET PEAS. 247 



If you want to plant sweet peas in rows it is best to make double 

 rows about a foot apart and plant in a trench. The trench should be 

 dug a foot deep and good rich soil filled in at the bottom, mixing about 

 one part well rotted manure to two parts soil. On top of this put an 

 inch or two of good garden soil and plant the seeds. Cover about a 

 half inch deep. Your trench should lack five or six inches of being 

 full when the seeds are covered. 



Mulch During Hot Weather. 



When the small plants are tall enough so you can, fill in some 

 more soil, and keep dofng this as they grow until the trench is filled. 

 Keep thoroughly cultivated all the time so as to hold all the moisture 

 possible in the soil, and when the hot days come mulch deeply with 

 straw; grass clippings, or any loose material. It is the heat at the 

 roots that hurt the sweet peas and make them short stemmed and 

 small during the summer. 



Plant the seeds pretty thick in the row, and then thin to about 

 four inches apart. An evenly filled row adds so much to the beauty. 

 Save fairly strong plants, but do not try to save all the largest for 

 some varieties grow more strongly than others and you are apt to 

 have about all that kind. 



Plant Garden- Adapted Aarieties. 



Do not buy the seed of the early varieties, such as Mont Blanc, 

 Earliest of All, Christmas Pink, and any of these forcing sorts, for 

 they are hardly suited to garden culture, being so dwarf when grown 

 in the open, and the flowers so small you will be disappointed. They 

 are fine in greenhouses, and the larger sort do not succeed under 

 glass so well, but the flowers are nothing like as fine when grown in 

 the open ground. 



Grow On Trellis. 



If you want one of the prettiest displays of sweet peas you can 

 imagine, plant a row in a circle about three feet in diameter. Plant 

 thickly so as to have a perfect stand, thin to four inches and make a 

 trellis for them to climb over. A ring of four-feet chicken wire is 

 all right, if your soil is very rich, and three foot if it is not. This 

 should be a very mound of bloom all summer, especially if you mulch 

 them well, and have the center of the bed hollowed out a little and 

 keep throwing water into it when the dry spells strike you. Remem- 

 ber that you will have to use plenty of water if you use any, for plants 

 that are only partially watered are worse off than those not watered 

 at all. Nature gradually prepares plants for a dry spell as the dry 

 spell comes, and they survive much more drouth than we think possi- 

 ble, but if we water them a time or two this preparation of nature is 

 interfered with and the plants suffer greater than when dry. Make up 

 your mind to water well or not at all. This applies to all plants. 



