The Joy of Growing Nostalgic Sweet Peas

The very mention of the name sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) summons romance and the memories made in your grandmother’s flower garden. Vintage in appearance and highly scented in smell, sweet peas are one of the easiest and most productive annual flowers to grow.

Preferring and conducive to cooler temperatures, this nostalgic favorite can be directly sown into soil as soon as ground can be worked. They prefer a deep, rich, preferably loamy sand soil (with ample amounts of compost), and good drainage. It will speed up germination if you soak your seeds in warm water for a few hours before planting at a depth of between ½” to 1”. Sweet peas need a bit of darkness to sprout. Expect germination within 10-21 days if soil temperatures remain 50-60° F. Sweet peas need roughly 50 days of cooler temps under 60 degrees to have a continual bloom. In the Intermountain West, these cooler days coupled with copious amounts of mulch will ensure prolific flowering all the way into the warmer season of summer. Heirloom Spencer and Grandiflora sweet peas are two highly prized varieties. Both are highly scented and will grow 3-5’ tall.

Sweet peas are a wistful and vigorous growing, climbing, and vining flower, using tendrils to wind around tall supports. Because of this, they need a trellis or other support system for climbing. Think lattice work, homemade twig obelisk, a tall woven arbor made from willow, a hand-hewn split rail fence, or any other vertical supports that your grandmother might have worked with in her garden. The more old-fashioned, creative, and clever, the better!  Also, once your plants are 6-8” tall, pinch off the top 1”, which will force the stems outward and stimulate growth, which will produce even more branches, tendrils, and flowers.

Sweet peas are very sentimental and have proven year after year to be a favorite for home gardeners, cut flower farms, and florists. Plant some in your early spring garden and they will soon be a favorite of yours. What a wonderful way to start making sweetly-scented, old-fashioned, and long-lasting, garden memories for your loved ones! 

Houseplants Outside

Houseplants make wonderful outdoor plants in pots, planters, and any other container. They are interestingly eye-catching and are a great addition to shaded areas. Houseplants have quite a variety of foliage with many different shapes and sizes. Some are spiky, some are mounding, and some are trailing. Some have leaf color and flowers which gives contrast to container arrangements.

Propagation
Many houseplants are easy to propagate by cuttings. Take a cutting and put it in a mix of perlite and peat moss. Supply bottom heat if possible and never let it dry out. You will know it is rooted when it doesn’t give when slightly tugged on. Then it can be transplanted into a small pot with regular potting mix. Once established in pots it can be transferred to a larger container.

Cactus can beused to make desert bowls and are easy to propagate as well. Using tongs, a piece can be broken off the mother plant. Set it in soil suitable for cacti. Most will thrive and root. Use good cactus mix soil and breathable containers like terracotta for your planters to provide good drainage. Creativity has no limits. Cacti can be in the sun and watered as needed. It’s a myth that cacti like to be dry all the time. They like water but they don’t want to sit in water. That’s where providing good drainage comes in. A terracotta bowl with a drain hole and a nice variety of cacti can create a miniature desert setting.

Moving Houseplants Outside
Be sure the temperature is warm enough before putting any houseplants outside. As with any other tender annual, they won’t thrive in cold weather. Expect them to die with the first frost in the fall unless they are moved back into the house to overwinter. They are houseplants after all. Below is an example of a large pot in a place that gets very little light. It is made up of Spider plants, Asparagus Fern, and Impatiens. It might be even more stunning by adding some Purple Leaf Wandering Jew.

Start your cuttings early to give them time to develop roots. Already established plants can also be purchased. A little creativity is all that is needed. Some houseplants that work well are as follows: Spider plant, Wandering Jew, Lipstick, Asparagus Fern, Philodendron, various cacti, Mezoo, and other succulents. 

Design it! Create it! With the right location and a bit of TLC, it’s easy to create and enjoy houseplants in an outdoor setting.

Gardening Tools for Gardeners with Limited Motion

Have you given up some of your gardening time due to arthritis, injury or mobility issues? There are adaptive tools that will allow you to continue your hobby with less pain and difficulty with grip strength and movement. Tools can be purchased or created that have longer handles, larger grips and supportive cuffs.

Long handles allow gardeners to reach further from a seated position or into a flower bed. Using a child-size rake in this case may be the better option due to lighter weight of the tool. Hand trowels can also be adapted to have long handles. Shovels can be adapted to have large, D-shape or round handles at the top to make pivoting while digging easier. 

Hand tool grips come in a variety of adaptation to help gardeners. If gripping the tool is difficult, the handle should be the same size as when you put your thumb on your fingertips creating a circle – about two inches. If current tool handles are too small, you can add tape or pipe insulation to the handle to create a larger and softer handle. Easy grip trowels and weeders are also available for purchase with a vertical handle rather than a horizontal handle. This keeps the wrist and forearm from twisting and causing pain. Ratcheting pruners allow the gardening to grip multiple times to cut through limbs rather than one hard grip to prune.

When wrist or forearms are injured or in pain, handles can be adapted or purchased with a special grip cuff. The cuff keeps the wrist in a neutral position and can also have an adapted handle on the side allowing for more strength coming from the upper arm to be used. Velcro arms straps can be added to other tools with similar results.

If the injury is temporary, tools can be adapted with options that can be removed. Permanent conditions may need to include remodeling the garden to include some structural changes such as raised beds and larger hardscape paths. Tools are available to make gardening a pleasurable hobby for all gardeners.

How to Water Your Garden

Signs of spring are all around and the patch of dirt you put to bed last fall is ready to plant! Many people assume that planting seeds are the most important part of gardening, but proper watering is a crucial element. Keeping your plants hydrated may not seem like a big hurdle in May, but without a good plan in place, you’ll be very frustrated by mid-July. It turns out, there are a few different ways you can effectively keep your garden watered. Let’s summarize 3 basic methods for watering and analyze the pros and cons for each.

Overhead Sprinkler

Probably the simplest and most straight forward way to water a garden is to strategically set up an overhead sprinkler. Of course, there are different styles of sprinklers that can provide water to a large garden area. Two advantages of using an overhead sprinkler system are the ease of installation and low cost. Another advantage for this method is the ease with which you can measure the amount of water being applied to your garden. You can see the water hitting your garden then place bowls or buckets throughout to catch and measure the amount emitted.

There are some disadvantages and cautions to keep in mind when using overhead sprinklers. First, with most overhead sprinklers it is estimated that only about 30% percent of water coming from the sprinkler is utilized by the plant due in part to evaporation. Also, along with providing water to your plants you are also refreshing the weeds that share the garden space allowing those to thrive as well. You will find that you have bigger, happier weeds alongside your plants. Finally, overhead watering provides water to the plant leaves which, especially if wet through the night, encourage mold and fungal disease.

Drip System

Another popular way to water a garden is to utilize the drip system. A drip system was invented to combat all the dangers of overhead watering by applying water directly to the base of the plants. A visit to your local hardware store will reveal the various types of tubing and attachments available to create a drip system. One type of tubing comes with holes 12-18 inches apart so that when attached to your hose and laid in rows, the water runs onto the plant’s base. Drip irrigation provides water near the base of the plant, leaving the upper foliage dry and less susceptible to fungi.

You can also utilize a type of thick black tubing that does not have pre-made holes. With this you purchase smaller “feeder tubes” then puncture them through the main tube. You can customize exactly which plants will receive water by placing the emitter tube at the base of the plant. This works especially well in flower beds or with the bigger plants in your garden such as tomato plants. Drip systems are great for weed prevention by watering the plant and not the entire garden area. They use less water because less is obstructed by leaves and lost to evaporation and/or wind.

As a disadvantage, installing a drip system can be costly, especially if you have a large

garden area. It can also be labor intensive at the start to purchase and install. Incorporating a drip system into your sprinkler timing zones adds another level of labor and requires some expertise. Also, a drip system will require that you dismantle and store the parts in your garage every Autumn. You will also need to keep an eye on your system to be sure the tubes remain unclogged and the parts in good working order, then replace or maintain parts as necessary. Because the holes that emit water in the tubing are small they can become clogged from sediments in the water. Installing a filter at the water’s outlet source or hose bib can help.

Soaker Hose

Finally, another watering method that replicates the drip system is the use of a soaker hose. A soaker hose attaches to your main hose and when the water is turned on it literally seeps out of the hose wetting the area around it. Like the drip tubes, a soaker hose is applied to the base of plants so its roots receive needed moisture and the leaves stay dry. It can also wrap around an area making it useful for a crop of small shoots like carrots.

A soaker hose will apply more water between plats than the drip tube so you may find a trail of weeds there. Soaker hoses are generally less expensive than drip tubes but because of their woven fabric and depending on your water type, soaker hoses don’t last through multiple seasons. This means you’ll have to expect the regular purchase of replacements.

You may find that you use more than one method for your garden area depending on each plant. Or, you may enjoy the ease of staying with one method. 

The task of developing an ideal system for watering that fits your needs and matches your time and budget will be a process. Don’t be afraid to explore different methods, get out there and enjoy what you create!