CHAPTER IV 



The Beginner's Guide to Sweet Pea Growing The Chief 

 Points Concisely Explained and Illustrated 



Preparing the Gronnd. The Sweet Pea is naturally a deep- 

 rooting plant, and can be grown successfully only in soil which is 

 well broken up. Ground which has been trenched or deeply dug, 

 and consists largely of fine particles of soil, retains moisture better 

 than lumpy ground that has been dug on the surface only. In hot, 

 dry weather plants growing in the former have a great advantage 

 over those in the latter, for the hard ground is more or less im- 

 pervious to moisture in the shape of rain and applications of water, 

 and owing to the force of capillary attraction, it parts more readily 

 with what moisture it may retain. Thus the small fibrous roots of 

 the plant, which are its chief " feeders," die, and the life of the 

 Sweet Pea is shortened. In soil that has been disturbed and broken 

 up to the depth of two or three feet rain and applied water find an 

 easy passage, thus reaching and benefiting those fibrous roots, which, 

 though so small, are of the greatest importance. 



Autumn Work. The work of preparing the ground by deep 

 digging is best done in the autumn. The illustration shows how the 

 ground surface should be left throughout the winter. It is in ridges, 

 and the soil composing those ridges is not broken up at the time the 

 trenching and ridging are done ; this work is left to natural 

 elements to rain and frost for these will pulverise and sweeten the 

 rough ground far more satisfactorily than the gardener with his 

 spade and fork. To break up the ground really well one must open 

 a wide, deep trench at one end of the plot and wheel the soil to the 

 opposite end. The subsoil is thoroughly broken up, but left below. 

 To be able to grow the finest Sweet Peas one must dig two or three 

 feet deep ; if only two feet, then the subsoil below this needs to be 

 loosened with the fork. It is best to carry out the digging so that 

 the ridges of soil lie from north to south, then both sides will come 

 under the drying influence of the sun in spring, when it is necessary 

 to do the levelling and the sowing or planting. The ridges of soil are 



