BODDINGTON'S '^A^iMtV SEEDS" 



51 



A Few Hints on the Successful Growing of Sweet Peas 



BY AN EXPERT 



Buy your seeds early and sow early. 



Never sow seed of Sweet Peas on the same land in successive years. If your garden is small and you find this necessary, 

 be removed and filled in afresh following the instructions given below. 



The soil for Sweet Peas should be rich and deep and prepared early (preferably in the fall of the year) if this can 

 slaked lime and wood ashes should be thoroughly dug into the ground. 



A good rich turfy loam is the ideal soil for growing Sweet Peas, thoroughly enriched with good rotted 

 manure or bone meal, and dug in as deeply as possible. 



If your soil is not of the above consistency, dig a trench two feet deep and two feet wide and fill with 

 good rich turfy loam that has been thoroughly mixed with rotted manure or bone meal, in proportion of three- 

 fourths soil to one-fourth fertilizer, according to the condition of the ^oil. 



Do not sow your Sweet Peas thickly or too thinly (one ounce of Sweet Peas to five feet is a fair 

 average). If the Peas should grow too thickly, thin out to about two inches apart, but not neces- 

 sarily in a single row, rather alternately, viz. 



Seed of the black-seeded varieties can be sown 

 as soon as the frost is out of the ground, provided 

 it is not too wet, the white-seeded varieties should 

 not be sown until the ground is warm and dry. 



Before sowing, pulverize your soil in the trench 

 about three inches deep. Sow seeds, in a double 

 row about ten inches apart, about two inches below 

 the surface and tread down firmly. 



For training the vines, use either "brush" 

 (that is branches of birch or other light material) 

 or large mesh wire netting held by posts, the brush 

 or the netting should run about five feet above the 

 ground. 



It is as well to stake, brush or erect 

 your wire netting before the seedlings get 

 too tall, better perhaps when seed is 

 sown. 



Dry and hot weather affect Sweet Peas 

 very quickly. They should be watered 

 very frequently and thoroughly, and the 

 application of liquid manure given once a 

 week. A good heavy mulch of long straw 

 manure covering the ground around the 

 Sweet Peas should be applied as soon as 

 warm weather sets in. This prevents the grou 

 from drying out and keeps the soil cool. 



The flowers should be cut as often as possible 

 and all seed pods removed as soon as they appear. 

 By attending to this properly, it greatly lengthens 

 the life of the vine and the flowering season. 



A partial shade during the hottest parts of the 

 day is very essential to secure the 

 best color in the blooms, it also 

 protects the vines from the strong 

 rays of the sun. If possible to 

 protect the lower growth of the 

 Peas, this should be done also. 



If Sweet Peas should be at- 

 tacked by the green, black or 

 white fly, they should be thor- 

 oughly sprayed .with one of tlie 

 several Nicotine preparations that 

 are offered on page 142. 



The greatest enemy of young 

 Sweet Peas is the cut-worm, and they 

 are so destructive as to prevent some 

 people from having a good stand of 

 Sweet Peas at any time. They usually 

 take the young shoots as soon as they 

 appear, and while some plants will send out 

 new shoots and grow again after being cut off, 

 most of them are cut too far down and are ruined. 

 A sprinkling of slaked lime over the row or watering 

 with lime water helps to keep out the cut-worms. 

 A handful of grass dipped in a solution of Paris 

 green will sometimes attract the worms, the poison 

 killing them. 



FARMOGERM, which we offer among the 

 fertilizers on page 142, is an excellent agent for the 

 successful growing of Sweet Peas, if the instruc- 

 tions for the use of this article are carefully fol 

 lowed. 



One of the most necessary things in the culti- 

 vation of Sweet Peas is the proper feeding of the 

 plants, when they are in full growth a change of 

 I'food" is particularly essential. When they start 

 into bloom a good application of Scotch soot, ap- 

 plied in liquid form, improves the color of flower 

 and foliage to a remarkable degree. Aurora Spencer. (For description see page 54^ 



the soil should 

 be done ; good 



