Plant out young sweet pea plants in March for a scented display through the summer. Try a tip from professional growers and train plants as cordons or single stems. You can then grow them up canes to make a perfumed screen.
What to do
Choose a sunny spot and hammer two stakes into the ground to make a row.
Attach parallel wires between the posts, one at the bottom and one further up. Push canes into the soil every 22cm (9in) and secure to the wires.
Plant sweet peas in front of each cane.
Let plants grow to 30cm (12in) and then select the strongest shoot and remove the rest.
Tie shoot to cane and regularly pinch off side shoots and tendrils.
When plants have reached the top of canes, untie and lay stems on the ground.
Re-tie stems to a cane further along the row, so the tip of the plant reaches about 30cm (12in) up its new cane. This way you will create the criss-cross network of stems and build up your screen.
Tip: Sweet peas are easy to grow from seed, but you can buy ready-grown young plants.
Time needed
2 hours to make support and plant out
You will need
Two 2m (6ft) tree stakes
Heavy-duty 12-gauge wire
2.2m (7ft) canes
Sweet pea plants
Trowel
Secateurs
Garden twine
Watch Sarah Raven as she creates a scented sweet pea walk
