Organic Sweet Pea “Tamar Mix” For the Win!

Sweet pea planted in early June in the Garlic bed.

Hi there! I had to write this post for one main reason: To note which Sweet Pea to buy for next year. 🙂 I’ve grown sweet pea before, and I know that some years are good for certain plants and some aren’t, but these ladies were spectacular!

A hand held bouquet of Sweet pea (beginning of August)

The garden in early June.

I try to buy organic when I can, and The Organic Centre in County Leitrim supplied me with these organic Sweet Pea “Tamar Mix” seeds. I started them in pots in the house (we have a very sunny hallway which I use for starting plants). We planted them out in the garden in early June, on either side of a chicken-wire fence. Chicken-wire fencing is perfect for the plants to ‘grab’ onto – and truth be told, it was what we had in the shed. Sometimes that’s just how it works. 🙂 The fence is 9 feet long (3 meters) and about mid-season we added on to the fence to increase the height to 5 feet (1.5 meters).

The height of the fence is higher here, with the first flowers blooming mid July.

We planted the sweet pea in our ‘winter garlic’ bed about a month before we harvested the garlic. I wasn’t sure how the plants would do together, but I needn’t have worried because the garlic did great and the sweet pea did great!

Some of the first blooms (July 22nd)

I staggered 12 plants on either side of the fence, and over the course of the summer it completely covered the fence and filled with heavily scented flowers.

Sweet pea growing up the fence with flowers in bloom (end of July)

I cut several bouquets during the summer, which helped to keep the plants flowering. The scent in the garden was amazing, too! I also liked how it was a wall of flowers for most of the summer.

The sweet pea and sunflowers were ‘my favorites’ this summer!

Sweet pea are easy to grow, with very little maintenance, other than cutting yourself bouquets of flowers! Once you have something for them to grow up, the rest is ‘cake’ (I had a swim coach in college who loved to use that expression!).