Tried and true tips for sowing sweet peas

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Like Goldilocks, sweet peas demand everything be "just right." The seeds have to be moistened just enough; the soil can't be too warm or too cold; the weather can't be too hot or too chilly; they don't like to be disturbed by transplanting. Jeeze! Still, with a wonderful fragrance and gorgeous colors, it's easy to overlook their picky, picky nature.

Here' an old-fashioned technique for meeting the sweet pea's demands.

In late fall, choose a sunny spot for next year's sweet pea bed. Dig a two-foot-deep trench and then add 18 - 20 inches of fresh horse manure. Pack it down firmly to remove air pockets. (Yes, usually a garden recipe calls for well-rotted, composted manures. But those come into contact with the roots of young plants. This material stays well below them. And it needs to be fresh to undergo the biological activity that makes this process work.)

Well-rotted compost, mixed 50/50 with topsoil, is used to fill the rest of the trench. When the soil warms above 50 degrees in the spring, the bacteria in the horse manure will start to digest it, creating enough bottom heat to warm the seeds into germination while the outside air is still cool.

As soon as the soil can be worked, sow sweet pea seeds about two inches apart in a two-inch-deep trench. They'll sprout in about two weeks. Thin the seedlings to six inches apart when they're around five inches tall. Have floating row covers or cloches ready to cover the young plants in case there's a spring cold snap. They'll survive a light frost but protect them from hard freezes, especially at night.