Bloomin' marvellous

Well, it’s finally the end of the most difficult school year so far in my teaching experience, and sadly, my garden is telling the tale of my very long working hours right to the bitter end. My vegetable garden is filled – not just with vegetables but also weeds, and some very pretty poppies! My new
flower beds are a little overgrown, with limited weeding done as I walk past. To be fair, the house has suffered a similar fate, so there’s no favouritism in my neglect!
However, some earlier planting has yielded some results: my sweet peas. Up until now, I have mostly been growing vegetables from seed, and buying any larger flowers for hanging baskets and what not, but I was given a packet of sweet peas as a gift so thought I would give it a go. I also work in the self -proclaimed ‘Sweet Pea Capital’ of Wem, so it seemed fitting that I would grow them this year, considering how much time I have actually been spending at work!
I love them. I have always liked sweet peas, not just because of their pretty colours, but also their beautiful fragrance. If I ever have cut flowers in the house, they seem fairly pointless unless they include at least a few with fragrance. The scent of the sweet peas fills up the kitchen and wafts as you walk past. It is a lovely thing to have, and something I have actually taken the time to do each day – cut my sweet pea flowers. Apparently it is one of things that you need to keep doing if you want the plant to keep flowering – keep cutting!
I would say it is a full success- apart from my underestimation of how high they grow up and out. Let’s just say it’s a good thing we have a wide drive where they are planted! Oh well – the frame will be bigger and better next time. I might also investigate snap dragons – another childhood favourite.
My fingers are crossed that life settles enough next year that I can investigate growing two different flowers. I feel like we might still need a bit of colour and perfume to lift our spirits in the year to come.