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Thirty Days in the Garden: Sweet Peas

The first of the sweet peas came up this week. The soft petals and gentle scent fill me with a sense of nostalgia.

Sweet peas are easy to grow. This vine is growing on top of weed cloth and pea gravel

My friend Kelly got me hooked on sweet peas (the flowering vine variety) a few years ago after a chat on our blogs. Up until then, I had grown the vegetable sweet peas, but not the flowering vine. I didn’t know what I was missing?

The petals remind me of butterfly wings

I planted the seeds late that first year, with a so-so crop. The seeds need to go into the ground early. The following year they came up on their own, and I’ve had a beautiful, self-seeded crop ever since.

The white flowers are a soft yellow before they emerge

The vines grow close to the sidewalk on both sides, ensuring a sweetly scented stroll past my house.

Sweet peas emerging on both sides of the sidewalk

I enjoy making small bouquets, mixing in some lush fern cuttings, and whatever else is in bloom at the time. I save empty jars throughout the year so that I have plenty to give away.

It will be a few more weeks before they take off, but we planted several stakes over the weekend so they can happily climb skyward.

Sweet peas and California poppies growing near the curb

I can’t wait.

17 thoughts on “Thirty Days in the Garden: Sweet Peas”

  1. Awww, thanks for the mention lovely. I’m always blown away by how they take over your front sidewalk. I would guess your house must stand out on the block 😀 Dreamy colours and perfume wafting through the air. It’s exciting when I find a perfume, air freshener or bath product labeled ‘Sweet Pea’, but I’ve yet to find one that actually smells like sweetpea’s. No one gets it right like mother nature. They’re just that special. xK

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  6. Beautiful! I imagine those little jars are gratefully received.
    We have seeds germinating in the greenhouse at the moment but they used to grow wild in our garden in France, covering the hillside in pink and purple.

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  10. I love them too! They grow up the fence of a house a street over from me, and I always stop to smell them. Somehow I never get the seeds in on time (Apparently St Patrick’s Day is the day for us), so I have to enjoy other people’s.

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  13. I love sweet peas. My grandmother always had them in Sonoma and our 5 years in Lompoc was one of my favorite assignments. Sweet peas everywhere. Wild of course but also part of the Lompoc flower fields.

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