I never had very much success direct sowing them. I had the best success by planting 3-4 seeds in 16 oz recycled Styrofoam cups (soil nearly to the top) with an inverted plastic cocktail glass taped onto the top. If you plant too early the seeds will rot. When the plants are just a couple of inches tall, I plant the plugs close together to get the mass effect. Sweet peas do not like to have their roots disturbed so jugs do not work very well. They grow long roots before the leaves start to emerge, so deep cups are best. Unfortunately it has become a rare thing that Virginia has the cool, wet springs which allow the sweet peas to thrive. Kathy, who is trying her best not to look at the hyperlink Sue posted

Hi Becky, Like Nancy I wick water most of my plants. At one point in time I had all my plants on capillary matting which I purchased from Cape Cod Violetry. The matting works well, however, if you have one diseased plant in the tray with the rest, eventually they all will have the same problem. I just want to warn you to be very careful and to make sure your plants are disease free. I lost two collections using matting before I switched to wicking. Fred in NJ

Well my DH wins the prize. He hasn't divorced me or threatened to take away my spade, yet. I don't know if all of you saw the photos that Jim (Idiothe) posted of Sheila and I with our kayaks and bikes and the car completely loaded with hostas? Well in order to do that we loaded all our gear in our boats. It is my hubby's car. (both our names are on it, but it is his vehicle 98% of the time.) I drive the used Mommy van that gets used as a truck for hauling mulch and whatever. But the kayak rack is mine, and I can't load boats on my van due to a bad shoulder. So..... he is very particular about his car. He hates me putting the rack on, he will not drive on gravel, etc. So with my bad shoulder, and the heavy boats, I couldn't lift my end of Sheil's up very well. So the J cradles kept twisting and falling down. I finally found a man to help us. We finally got it loaded, made it home... and there are dents all over the top of the car. Bad dents, like really big hail. :( Like will never come out. I feel awful, I do. Whats done is done, and he isn't holding it against me. But he is so sad. And I am too. But I did get all my hostas home! So he wins the hosta hubby of the year award. I need to get those trophies made, don't I? Anyone want to nominate their Wife for the Hosta Wife of the year award?

The cat would not go in my traps, and now I don't know where she is. I haven't seen her in months. Probably eaten by an owl,along with her babies. I did catch a fox and a raccoon. Neither were pleased... There are no free spay/neuter programs here and none that are reduced rate that are not obnoxious. But i did try to trap her. I can't be in a car with cats because my eyes swell shut but my sister would have driven her to the vet for me. It's easier just to pay for it myself. Trapped this one at work the other night for a truck driver. He said he would have it fixed and he and his wife wanted to attempt to make it into a housecat. It's a mean little thing. I think it will probably make a better barn cat. As long as there aren't any owls lurking.....