Peas should be in flower. If you want your plants to last in flower all the summer and well into the autumn, you must not let them form a single seed-pod. Every day you should cut both your fresh flowers and any withered ones you see. In dry, hot weather they should be well watered at the roots from a can without a rose. Give each plant a soak of water at the roots, and do not trouble about the leaves. We emphasize this advice because Sweet-peas after they are six inches high suffer easily from drought, and we know that many children think they have given a plant a drink if they spray its upper leaves with a fine rose. You might as well give a thirsty baby a drink by splashing its face.

To grow Sweet-peas in a clump, take out the earth from a circular patch that you can mark with a garden sieve or a big flower-pot. Sow from eight to a dozen seeds, and thin to four plants when you feel safe from slugs and sparrows. Treat them just as you do those grown in a hedge, but when you put in your tall stakes make them all slant a little towards the centre, so that they meet at the top. The Hazel branches that you get easily in many neighbourhoods are best for Sweet-peas. Where these are scarce, you must use what you can find. The wire hurdles recommended for garden Peas where stakes are scarce would answer, but they are expensive and ugly. If your garden is not airy and sunny, it is a waste of time and money to try Sweet-peas. They are impatient of shade, of starved soil, or of a crowded garden. If they come up at all in such conditions, they will never do well, and will most probably be devoured by green fly.

Mignonette.

You are sure to want some Mignonette in your garden, because it is so fragrant; but in choosing a place for it you must remember that it will not make a splash of gay colour in the border. It grows from ten to twelve inches high; but, as you do not tie it up, it should be sown in front of plants whose stalks are not really longer, but which require a stake. It likes a good loam, but it will grow in almost any soil if it gets enough sun. Do not give it fresh manure, or it will run to leaf. It is one of the few annuals that should be sown in firm, hard ground. We do not mean ground that is hard because it is poor and neglected, but well dug soil that you tread or press down to make it ready for your seed. When you have done this, you sprinkle the seed thinly, cover it with half an inch of fine earth, and pat that down firmly with your hands or your trowel. You should choose a fine April day for your first sowing, and you should reserve a little seed for a second sowing in case the first is a failure. This sometimes happens even when your seed comes from a good firm and you sow it properly. It is a great mistake to buy poor Mignonette seed, as often none of it comes up. In ten days or a fortnight a soft spring rain will bring up the little plants, and then, if you have sown too thickly, you will find out how troublesome it is to thin them; but you will not have fine Mignonette unless you do this ruthlessly. Crowded plants will give you stunted flowers. The best way is to fix your eye on a seedling that is outgrowing its brothers, and remove all that are near it, taking great care not to disturb or loosen the one you wish to keep. You should watch your Mignonette and thin it out several times, so that each plant has room to breathe and grow. Six inches at least should in the end be left between the plants, and then you will only have left half the distance recommended by many good gardeners. So you see what a tiny pinch of seed would give you all the plants you need. Mignonette must be sown where it is to bloom, as it has a tap-root, and will not stand transplanting.