Grow your own sweet peas

As we welcome winter, we also welcome the arrival of frost and snow. This means it can be difficult to get out in our gardens, but we have just the activity to do outside that you can also bring inside if the weather is too chilly. It’s sure to make you as hap-pea as can be this winter!

The ground might not be ready for planting just yet, but you can still give your plants a head-start by sowing seeds in January. Sweet peas are fabulous flower seeds to plant in the new year because they’re so easy to maintain. Here’s how:

To grow your sweet pea flowers, you’ll need:

Sweet pea seeds
Recycled cardboard tubes (toilet roll tubes)
Seed sowing compost

Step 1: Prepare for planting

Before planting your seeds, soak them overnight (they too need to have a bath before bed). This softens the seeds and helps to speed up the germination process

Fill your cardboard tubes with seed compost and shake gently to distribute the compost well. Gently pat it down ready for planting your seeds

Step 2: Planting your seeds

With your finger, make a small hole in the seed compost
Drop one seed in the hole and add a small amount of compost on top, like you’re tucking your seed into bed for a cosy sleep
Repeat this step with all your cardboard tubes/seeds
Water well and place on a sunny windowsill to grow

Step 3: Looking after your sweet peas

Water your seeds regularly throughout the winter
Keep an eye out for the first signs of little shoots poking
through. You might also see white roots appearing around the sides of the cardboard tubes
When your sweet peas have grown around 3 inches, pinch the top of them off. Don’t worry, this doesn’t hurt the plant. It encourages it to grow!

Planting in the garden

Once spring arrives, it’ll be time to transfer your seeds to the garden! Plant them in a sunny spot. Sweet peas also like to climb so plant them next to structures like wire, nets, or twine

Despite their name, sweet peas are NOT edible.
Please do not eat them

We’d love to see your Sweet Peas growing! turn out! Take a picture, tag us and share it by using #DobbiesLittleSeedlings

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