If you grow your own veg, try growing some sweet peas alongside your runner beans. Their fragrant, pastel flowers will attract bees and bumblebees, which will then go on to pollinate your vegetables. Sweet peas are also great for cutting and will add colour and fragrance to your home.
What does Sweet Pea attract?
Sweet pea varieties include mixes with exceptional fragrance. These are very attractive to hummingbirds. This mix provides large, two-inch blossoms in bright, clear colors of purple, pink, and white.
Are peas good for bees?
Garden Peas, P. sativum, have white to reddish purple flowers that are a good pollen source for honey bees, feeding man and honey bee alike – a lovely addition to your garden.
What plants do bumblebees like the most?
Top 30 plants for bumblebees
- Sage (salvia officianalis)
- Larkspur (delphinium)
- Snapdragon (antirrhinum)
- Thistles (cirsium)
- Toadflax (linaria vulgaris)
- Verbascum (verbascum)
- Viper’s bugloss (echium vulgare)
- Woundworts (stachys arvensis)
What eats sweet pea?
Answer: Young sweet peas are indeed a favourite of slugs and snails. The best approach to control them is to use a mixture of techniques. Among these are placing scooped out half orange, grapefruit or melon skins, cut side down onto the soil to attract slugs and snails; check each day and empty them.
What can you not plant with sweet peas?
Just as there are good companion plants to grow with peas, there are also plants that will inhibit your peas from growing properly. Alliums like onions, garlic, and chives stunt the growth of peas. Avoid planting peas and alliums in the same garden beds.
How toxic are sweet peas?
Sweet Pea Toxicity
The seeds of sweet peas are mildly poisonous, containing lathyrogens that, if ingested, in large quantities can cause a condition called Lathyrus. Symptoms of Lathyrus are paralysis, labored breathing, and convulsions.
Do sweet peas have nectar?
Sweet peas are rich in nectar and pollen and are ideal plants for every biodiverse garden.
Are sweet peas good for wildlife?
Perfect for allotments and wildlife gardens, they’re a favourite with pollinators too. Sweet pea seeds are easy to sow and provide a cost effective way to fill your garden.
Do bees forage on peas?
Bees do not forage nectar of pollen from peas. I have not seen them in beans either.
What is a bumblebee favorite flower?
The most abundant species of bumble bees found was Bombus vosnesenskii, or, the yellow-faced bumble bee. And the plant species used most by that species was large-leaved lupine. A. urticifolia, a flowering plant in the mint family, was the plant most strongly selected by three of five bumble bee species surveyed.
What keeps bumble bees away?
Bees also have a distaste for lavender oil, citronella oil, olive oil, vegetable oil, lemon, and lime. These are all topical defenses you can add to your skin to keep bees away. Unlike other flying insects, bees are not attracted to the scent of humans; they are just curious by nature.
Do bumble bees prefer certain flowers?
Bumblebees are generalists when it comes to choosing the flowers they pollinate while foraging for nectar and pollen. They typically prefer blue, purple, pink, and yellow flowers. They’re actually color-blind to red flowers (unless the red flowers have ultraviolet markers they can see).
Do sweet peas attract beneficial insects?
Sweetpeas can be a helpful companion in the vegetable garden attracting bees and other beneficial insects; they don’t mind sharing with green beans and other vegetable climbers. Plant them directly into soil in a sunny position with good drainage.
Do birds eat sweet peas?
Peas, beans and sweetcorn are eaten by jays. Leafy vegetables are attractive to wood pigeons and collared doves, especially in winter when their favourite foods such as clover are unavailable. In fact, growing clover between your winter brassicas may entice birds to eat this, rather than your precious crop.
Do slugs like sweet peas?
Slugs find soft, succulent, fleshy foliage and stems particularly delicious. Plants that require a little extra protection include: Sweet peas.
What to plant in front of sweet peas?
Small mound-forming annuals like sweet alyssum can be grown at the base of tall sweet peas.
How far apart should sweet peas be planted?
about 15cm apart
Put your support frame into position before you start planting. Turn each pot out and gently separate the plants. Place 2 or 3 seedlings in each hole for a nice, full display. Aim to plant each group about 15cm apart.
Can you plant peas in the same place every year?
Though peas and other members of the bean family are beneficial garden crops as they add nitrogen back to the soil at the end of every growing season, planting peas in the same location every year is still not recommended.
Do sweet peas come back every year?
Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) only live for a year, dying after setting seed. But don’t let this put you off as they are super easy to grow from seed. Perennial species such as Lathyrus latifolius come back year after year, but mostly lack fragrance and there are fewer to choose from.
Are sweet peas harmful to dogs?
Although the name “sweet pea” (Lathyrus latifolius and L. odoratus) sounds innocuous and lovely as can be, the family Fabaceae plants are actually toxic to various animals, including dogs.
Justin Shelton is a professional cook. He’s been in the industry for over 10 years, and he loves nothing more than creating delicious dishes for others to enjoy. Justin has worked in some of the best kitchens in the country, and he’s always looking for new challenges and ways to improve his craft. When he’s not cooking, Justin enjoys spending time with his wife and son. He loves exploring new restaurants and trying out different cuisines.