Alys Fowler: Sweet peas

I love a bunch of sweet peas. There is something satisfying about a vase of them. The flirty rippled Spencers, the old fashioned grandifloras or the cupani varieties with their velvety dark colourings. But boy, it's hard work to get there.

They may be easy to germinate, but to get long stems and lovely blooms takes dedication. You must create trenches of deep, rich soil, pinch and pluck away unnecessary appendages (the tendrils, for instance) to create perfect cordons, so that all the energy is concentrated into flowers. Then pick like mad to keep up production.

I start off well, sowing early (now's the time to do it) and raising healthy plants. I give them plenty of food, and then life gets distracting and I turn my back only to find that they've reverted to a wilder state. The stems are so short that I have to use egg cups for vases.

There is a solution, of course: grow the wilder sorts that do best when left on their own. My favourite is the lime-green-flowered Lathyrus chloranthus. It is found in free-draining scrub ground, along the banks of streams and often in wheat fields of Turkey, northern Iraq, Iran and Armenia. It scrambles, and can be made into a rather eccentric hedge. It will reach up to 2m in good conditions, less so if the soil is poor.

The flowers are wonderful: there's more than a hint of yellow to the lime green. The stems are prominently winged, a little hairy and long enough to put in a small vase. You can save the seed for next year. It flowers from June to July.

I am also fond of L. sativus (pictured) and L. sativus var. azureus (more vivid blue), both have blue petals tinged with pink with white veining. There is also a white-flowered form, var. albus. These are delicate, slender and wispy climbers that are happy scrambling about, but do surprisingly well in a deep, large pot with pea sticks for supports. This species has been cultivated since Neolithic times, when it was used as fodder.

Finally the more robust L. tingitanus, the Tangier pea, which has large, glowing purple flowers. It comes from the Azores, southern Europe and north Africa and grows in rough ground and scrambles through hedges. Hailing from such sunny spots means it needs to be kept warm to be happy, but is so easy to grow it makes a perfect plant to hide unsightly fences or walls.

L. chloranthus and L. tingitanus do best sown now in deep pots (15cm) – five to seven per pot, say – with some gentle heat and transferred to cool conditions the minute they are up. Sow L. sativus in March in pots or in the ground.

Alys on... spring-planting garlic

Autumn-planted garlic should be showing signs of life and may already have a decent bit of green growth to it, but if you forgot to plant or your previous plantings failed, you can still get in a spring batch. Make sure you order the right kind, because it must be suitable for planting in spring. Autumn-planting varieties won't fatten up and will be suitable only for wet or green garlic (when you eat the tender, immature bulb whole).

Fewer varieties are available in spring and, as the growing season is now shorter, you may end up with smaller cloves, but a spring sowing is still worthwhile, because you can never have too much garlic.

The best spring-planting variety is Cristo, which is strong-flavoured with a pure white bulb and stores particularly well; Solent and Lautrec Wight have also done well for me as spring plantings.

While you're at it, sow some broad beans, too: 'The Sutton' is the best dwarf and 'Stereo' is slightly taller; both do well in small or exposed places. Plant the beans 5cm deep and 25cm apart in staggered rows or blocks.