TKe Best Way to Gro^w S'weet Peas 



THE sweet pea, Lathyrus Odoratus, 

 is the most valuable annual flower 

 of the present day. Its delicious 

 perfume, its diversity of lovely colors, 

 its lengthened period of bloom, and its 

 value for cutting entitle it to a prominent 

 place in every garden. By sowing the 

 seed at once it may be had in bloom 

 continuously from the first week in 

 July until cut down by severe frost 

 (generally late in October) . Care must 

 be taken to pick every flower as soon as 

 it is fully developed and not to let any 

 seed pods form. If seed pods are 

 allowed to form, the plant will expend 

 all its energy upon them and rapidly 

 cease flowering. By August the seeds 

 will be ripe and there will not be any 

 more flowers. 



The best way to grow sweet peas is by 

 the trench system, because it makes one 

 practically independent of the soil 

 the trench is in. The garden may be 

 heavy clay or pure sand, but by digging 

 a trench and filling it with a good com- 

 post, one can be almost certain of satis- 

 factory results. If the garden is a good 

 loam all you need is some old manure. 

 If it is light sand you will need some 

 good loam and some old manure. I 

 have tried many ways of growing these 

 beautiful flowers, but the following has 

 always proved the most successful. 



Dig a trench 12 inches wide and from 

 12 to 15 inches deep, put a layer of old, 

 well-rotted manure two or three inches 

 deep in the bottom, then a layer of 

 loam three inches, then old manure 

 two inches. Mix the last two layers 

 well with a garden fork and level with 

 a rake. Fill the trench to within two 

 or three inches of the top with soil, 

 ■without any manure. Level nicely and 

 sow your seeds. Cover to the top of the 

 trench with loam ; press down by walk- 

 ing back and forth on it two or three 

 times. Your seeds will then be about 

 three inches below the surface of the 

 trench, and the surface slightly below 

 the rest of the ground. I have sown 

 sweet pea seed in the same trench three 

 years following, just adding a small 

 quantity of old manure each year, and 

 forking it in, and the flowers the third 

 year were better than those of the first. 



Secure the best seeds that you can 

 obtain. It is false economy buying 

 cheap seeds. Sow the seeds in rows or 

 broadcast in the trench an inch or two 

 between each seed and when they grow 

 above the surface (which they will do in 

 about two weeks) pull enough to leave 

 the vines not less than three inches 

 apart. Each plant, if properly grown, 

 will fill up a foot of space. As soon as 

 they commence to grow put up some- 

 thing for them to cling to. There are 



Eld-win Utley, Toronto, Ontario 



many ways to do this. Brush is the 

 most natural and effective, but in a city 

 it is not easily procured. Poultry net- 

 ting is probably the simplest support, 

 and it answers the purpose well. Let it 

 come within two inches of the soil, be- 

 cause if the stems have not support early 

 they become bent and the flower stalks 

 will then also be crooked. Do not 

 adopt the fooHsh fashion of putting 

 strings vertically for the peas to chng 

 to. They do not twine like a morning 

 glory but send their tendrils in all direc- 

 tions, feeling for something to cHng to. 



If you have plenty of room let your 

 sweet peas be sown away from the fences 

 in a sunny position, the row running 

 north and south, so that they can get all 

 the sun and air possible. Before the 

 weather gets very hot spread two or three 

 inches of old manure or the cHppings 

 from your lawn over the roots of the 

 vines. This is called mulching, and 

 not only helps to retain the moisture 

 but keeps the roots cool, an important 

 thing with sweet peas. If you cannot 

 do this keep the soil open by an occa- 

 sional raking not more than an inch 

 deep or scatter seed of the sweet alyssum 

 along the trench. This plant does not 

 send its roots down fa'r enough to 

 interfere with the sweet peas, and will 

 help to keep the ground cool, at the same 

 time giving you some nice sweet-scented 

 flowers. 



If the plants lose their bright green 

 color, it is either because the manure is 

 too strong or you have not enough of 

 it. If the former there is no cure for 

 it, but drenching the ground thoroughly 

 with water will help. If the latter, an 

 application of nitrate of soda will do 

 much good. Dissolve a dessertspoonful 

 in a pail of water and pour into the 

 trench once a week. If the household 

 washing is done at home, there is no 

 better application for sweet peas than 

 the suds which are thrown away; run 

 them into the trench when cold and not 

 too strong. Be sure that any manure 

 you use is old and thoroughly well 

 rotted. Cabbages, cannas, and so on, 

 will stand strong manure, but sweet 

 peas will be destroyed by it. The 

 manure I used last year was four vears 

 old. 



Sweet peas need plenty of water but 

 the ground must not be kept sodden. 

 They are liable in hot weather, unless 

 the vines are kept moist, to be attacked 

 by the red spider and then good-bye to 

 your flowers. Keep the vine sprinkled 

 with water (not drenched) once or twice 

 a day in hot weather. If the ground is 

 kept too damp the buds will turn 

 yellow and drop off without opening. 

 Avoid lime in any form. 



90 



There is not a plant grown in Canada 

 that will give more flowers or for such a 

 long period as the sweet pea. I have 

 seen a record of one vine giving 1,200 

 flowers in a season. One year, I made 

 my first cutting on July 1, and my last 

 on November 7. I have a note in my 

 diary under date of October 24, 1874: 

 "Cut 20 dozen very fine sweet peas 

 to-day." What flower can beat this? 



Perennial LarKspur 



Wm. Hunt 



Some of the newer hybrids of these 

 lovely, showy, hardy, border plants are a 

 great improvement on the older types. 

 Their long, erect spikes of flowers in all 

 shades of blue, from the palest lavender 

 to the deepest violet blue, make them 

 a conspicuous object in the mixed 

 border about the end of June and early 

 in July. 



The dwarf types promise to become 

 popular, as one of the objections to the 

 older types has been to keep them erect 

 during the heavy rainstorms of summer. 

 Seed sown in spring or early summer 

 will produce good flowering plants the 

 following summer. They can be sown 

 in the border or in boxes and trans- 

 planted. 



Fertilizing' Kitchen Garden 



My kitchen garden, 20 x 48 feet, was well 

 manured for three years until last fall, when I 

 neglected the application. It was well spaded, 

 however, and left rough. A\'in it do to use 

 chemical feriilizers this spring instead of barn- 

 yard manure; if so, what kind? Each year two 

 or three succession crops have been grown by 

 the liberal use of bone ash and nitrate of 

 soda — J. M., Toronto. 



It is quite possible to grow the crops 

 this coming season without the applica- 

 tion of any more farmyard manure. As 

 you have applied bone ash, which is 

 rich in phosphoric acid, and as the farm- 

 yard manure is comparatively rich in 

 nitrogen, I would particularly advise 

 the use of a considerable quantity of 

 potash in the muriate or sulphate of 

 potash form; or, if you can procure 

 them, in the form of wood ashes. I 

 think that along with that it would be 

 well to use a little nitrate of soda for 

 such crops as lettuce or radish to force 

 rapid growth. — Answered by R. Har- 

 court, O.A.C., Guelph. 



Gro-win^ Cos Lettuce 



How should Cos lettuce be grown? — Mrs. P. 

 C, Kentville, N.S. 



Sow the seed and grow as you would 

 other kinds of lettuce. When the leaves 

 are 'arge enough, they should be 

 blanched by gathering them up and 

 tying at the top. In a week or 10 

 days they will be fit for use. 



