SWEET PEAS seventh page.
MANAGING AND HARVESTING THE PLANTS DURING AN EXTENDED FLOWERING SEASON. The newly-inserted sweet peas require to be helped to attain their potential during their April-to-October season. Do as head gardener R J Harris does and provide the required help in the following way
at the start of the June moon's fourth quarter, excavate a 5cm-deep by 5cm-wide drill at the foot of each of the four sides of the sweet-pea wigwam. Position each drill about 15cm away from the sweet-pea stems that are adjacent to it, on the inside of the wigam. Use a hoe
do so at the end of a day, when the soil is damp. If this is not possible, and the soil is dry, thoroughly water the drills. Use a can with a fine rose
TIP -- for the sake of the nitrogen that they put into the soil, cluster all of the climbing bean and pea family -- including sweet peas -- together in one place. It is good practice. It must be in accordance with the prevailing crop rotation programme, of course (see ROTATION in R J Harris's Moon Gardening).
wait for at least 15 minutes before taking further action, to give the drills time -- if they have been watered -- in which to become comprehensively moistened
place fish-blood-and-bone fertilizer into the drills at the rate of 60g to each of the four sides of the wigwam, which is rather less than one metre square. This is equivalent to 60g of fertiliser per metre length of drill)
gently re-water the charged drills. Take care not to wash the fertiliser out of them or onto the sweet-pea plants' stems
rake earth into the drills, to fill them. Rake the bed's surface smooth[Considerations: 1 -- the fertiliser becomes, in effect, a liquid fertiliser. Liquid fertiliser must be added to damp soil, never dry, if maximum and rapid penetration (a requirement in this instance) is to be achieved; 2 -- the fertiliser is far enough away from the sweet peas' stems not to burn the plants roots, and yet is close enough to be beneficial. "The sweet pea is very hungry at this stage," explains the head gardener, "and this extra feed helps it through the latter part of its life. It helps, too, with the colour of the flowers"; 3 -- "the specially-made bed into which the sweet peas have sunk their roots provides nutrients for only the first eight weeks of the plants' life," continues Mr Harris. "Of course, containing moisture-retaining humus as it does, it goes on trapping the rain that comes down to it from the surface and goes on stopping the plants from drying out -- which they must never do"; 4 -- at the start of the moon's fourth quarter the water table is descending, rendering the top soil at its most ready to draw added feeds into its depths]
add soft, green string 'rungs' to the canes of the wigwam as the season advances. Do so progressively as the plants' vines climb higher
begin to harvest the sweet-pea blooms the moment the first are fit to be removed. Continue until the season ends.[Consideration: . "The more you pick, the more you get and the longer the pollinators go on being attracted into the garden," counsels the head gardener, "so constant harvesting is essential. In any case, you need plenty, for the life of the plucked flower when it is used for decorative purposes is no more than three days"].
TIP -- turn your sweet-pea display into an unbroken ground-level-to-support-top wall of blossoms by inserting the seeds of a selected dwarf sweet pea at the same time as inserting the high-growing plantlets at the base of each cane. Without this, the support is bereft of flowers for almost a half of its height.
AFTER HARVESTING. In the Autumn, the end-of-season sweet-pea section of the Year One Area's first-year, deep-trench bed presents tired cane rigs bearing dead vines onto which cling a few dried seed pods. Emulating Mr Harris's example, proceed as follows
remove the remaining seed pods from the dead vegetation. Pocket them for disposal later on
sever the stick-like sweet-pea stems at ground level
leave the sweet peas' roots in the soil for the sake of the nitrogen and the vegetable matter that they add to the soil
strip the dead vegetation from the cane supports
pick up all fallen leaves and the debris of the cane-support stripping. Leave the surface of the now unemployed sweet-pea section and its adjacent area of the deep-trench bed devoid of all dead vegetable matter
add this material to the ex-sweet-pea vine material
then
-- permit the whole to dry thoroughly upon a convenient surface within the adjacent outlined Year Two Area, burn it, wait for the resultant ash to become cold, and turn the cold ash into the earth's surface.
[Consideration: the burning also destroys the pest and disease that is likely to be hoping to use the redundant material as an over-wintering habitat]
[Consideration: the burning also destroys the pest and disease that is likely to be hoping to use the redundant material as an over-wintering habitat]
or
-- remove the material from site and dispose of it securely off site
or
-- bag the material, and hold it in reserve for placing in the very bottom of the 1m x 1m x 3m trench that must be dug in the Year 2 Area in order to be formed into a deep-trench bed
dismantle the wigwam. Clean each cane of the earth that is attached to it. Stack it neatly with its fellows for easy removal to the garden's store shed
wash the canes in warm water (for comfort's sake). Dry them thoroughly
place the ends of the canes that have been in the ground in a proprietary wood preserver.[Consideration: "One thing I do not use for extending the life of the canes is creosote," says the Cornish head gardener. "That would be detrimental. Equally, I would not do as people did sometimes in years gone by, and that was dip the cane ends in tar. We know now what harm creosote and tar can do to the insects and the other wild life"]
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SWEET PEAS seventh page.
