Sweet Peas 💐 - time to Autumn sow 🌿

 

Bearing in mind I am in the far South West of Cornwall and your ideal sowing time might be different to mine . For me , today is the day I'm sowing my Sweet Peas . 

I have sown them as late as the end of November and I prefer to sow mine in the Autumn rather than the Spring. I find that they grow much stronger when sown now .

I bought two lovely generous packets of seeds from Premier Seeds Direct . Sweet Pea "Royal Family" . A mixture of red ,white and blue .

I pulled out all of the Black Eye Suzies and replaced the canes with some taller ones .

Scattered the seeds over the surface .

The  surface is quite a bit lower than the top of the pot , which I do to give the young tender shoots a bit of shelter from the severe gales that we frequently get here .

This picture shows that more clearly and I have added a nice thick layer of multi-purpose compost over the top .... and watered them in really well . A whole watering-can full .

It's not so much the cold that would harm them so much as the risk of the young tender shoots snapping off in the wind . So I have tied on a sheet of garden fleece .

And I tie it on really good and strong .

I can't stand this string . I find it very slippery to tie . It'll have to do for now , couldn't find the good stuff . I will keep checking on this every now and then to make sure it doesn't start working it's way undone .

That's that job done .

 

From the upstairs window I notice the tarpaulin is blowing away ! Need to weight it down with something . The idea is it will catch all the leaves as they fall off the Acer , otherwise I find it  difficult to sweep them off of the gravel . Can't afford a leaf blower .

Now this was a nice little haul for a fiver , that I found in Tescos , including a huge bag of Hyacinths .

All sorts of beautiful bulbs ! Very happy me ! Something to look forward to in the Spring .

I decided to put them all into this barrel . I left the Dahlias in this year . 

Now then , the thing about buying bulbs in boxes from the supermarket , is that I am always thrilled to bits and excited when I first buy them  and then if I am not careful I forget about them  and they remain on the kitchen shelf , forgotten about and shrivelling until January . I think it is about this time we all start thinking about Christmas and so many other things to be doing and lots of other procrastinating excuses etc etc .

So I got to it ! Ripped open all the boxes and chucked them in ! I did bury them a bit deeper than this I promise .

I might add a layer of woodchips to keep them cosy  .

               The Roses above are still giving lots of cheerfulness .

I have the tap wrapped already . I still need to put away the hose . A job for another day .

   So when do you sow your Sweet Peas ? Autumn or Spring ? Or maybe both ? 

                                                               🌿💐🌿                                    🕷️