Sweet peas: in or out?

[eirish]

I'm wanting to grow some sweet peas with my runner beans. I bought some seeds today but I'm not sure whether I should start them indoors or wait until I've got the site ready and sow them directly. That may be a few weeks as I've taken over a garden that had been neglected for a few years and it's wall-to-wall ground elder!

[Nicos]

I'd get them started indoors now!

Oh- and welcome to the Vine!

[eirish]

Cheers, thanks!

[rustylady]

Hello Eirish, welcome to the Vine. I would start your sweet peas in small pots indoors and transplant to the allotment when you have the space.

[mothhawk]

Welcome eirish. I grew sweet peas with runner beans one year. Never again! I ended up with a tangled mass - I couldn't pick beans without pulling sweet pea stems away and a lot of the sweet peas had short flower stalks 'cos they just grew where they could among, through, over, and around the beans.

In future I shall grow them near to each other, but not together. I guess it would work if you didn't want to pick the flowers, plus you wanted to grow the beans for the dried beans and not to eat green.

[eirish]

Hmm, I see. Thanks for the cautionary tale. I was planning to grow them up a wigwam and have the runners and sweet peas on separate canes - would that help? Never grown either one before so I'm not sure how badly behaved they'll be.

[rustylady]

For sure they won't stick to their own canes. Runner beans will wind round canes, but sweet peas climb by hanging onto supports with tendrils, so they will probably grab onto the nearest runner bean for support.

[alldigging]

Are they happy in a morrisns bucket? I've put quite a few in root trainers and they're coming up nicely. Think I've it too many for my garden.

I might stick sme in the communal bed on the allotment actually.


Hadn't thought if mixing them n with runner bens. Suspect they'd do ok bu if they get in the way of picking then that's a big no!

[Alison]

I grow sweet peas up a single cane of a wigwam with all my beans and fine it works well. You have to tie them in now and again but it really isn't a problem. I don't tend to pick the flowers for decoration but do dead head while I'm picking the beans and the smell while I'm harvesting is to die for

[VirginVegGrower]

Mine were started ages ago and I do them inside always in Rootrainers. Some are planted. Others on my hardening off table and waiting to go in.

[Mato]

This is great information. I've grown sweet peas before, never with beans. I imagine them becoming a tangled mess once they've started growing, like mothhawk said. Sweet Peas are definitely worth start indoors now. Yummy!

[Two_Sheds]

Sweet Peas are definitely worth start indoors now. Yummy!

No, not yummy ~ they're poisonous !

[Alison]

This is great information. I've grown sweet peas before, never with beans. I imagine them becoming a tangled mess once they've started growing, like mothhawk said. Sweet Peas are definitely worth start indoors now. Yummy!

I grow them with the beans because the look nice and attract insects. They look totally different to the beans so I don't pick them to eat.

[Llamas]

I'm growing them with my peas this year, not something I planned but I got a little carried away with sowing mangetout and they got put in under what are supposed to be the sweet pea teepees. I agree with Alison though, if you plant two or three in with the beans the scent when you harvest is fantastic!

p.s. best of luck with the ground ivy. I've dug about five barrow loads out of our new garden and there is still a bed that I'm refusing to acknowledge due to it's luxuriant flush of healthy ground elder covering it from end to end

[eirish]

What a great forum this is! Thanks for all the opinions and advice. The sweet peas went and jumped into some loo roll tubes yesterday. Skylark Mixed, white and shades of blue. Anyone else growing them?

I got the suggestion of growing them with runner beans from one of Sarah Raven's books (aka evil garden porn ) - as Alison said, it supposedly attracts pollinators as well as looking and smelling nice. I think I'll give it a go. This whole growing-things-in-the-ground thing is an experiment for me anyway, have pretty much only done container gardening before, so why not?

Llamas, you have my condolences on the ground elder. Blech. Happily I've also inherited some nice herbs, a few spring bulbs and several as-yet-unidentified perennials along with the ground elder, rampant honeysuckle, unnamed-weed-with-lots-of-runners, self-sown poppies, aquilegia, forget-me-nots, comfrey, lemon balm, oregano, etc. etc. It's archaeological gardening. I'm going to call it 'cottage garden' and pretend that means I don't have to get every single weed out.