How to Protect Sweet Peas from Mice
Do mice eat sweet peas? Well yes - chances are if you have ever wondered "whats eating my sweet pea seedlings?" then the answer is probably mice. Mice LOVE sweet peas and peas for that matter!
My sweet peas are now out in the greenhouse keeping cool to promote root rather than stem growth (Top TIp!) But being in the greenhouse makes them vulnerable to mouse attack so here are the three ways to prevent sweet pea seedlings from becoming a rodent salad.
Protecting Sweet Peas from Mice - 3 Easy Steps to Stop your Sweet Peas being eaten by Mice
1) Use Chilli Powder to deter garden pests
The first thing to do to deter the ravenous rodents is put a light sprinkling of chilli powder over the seeds and then on the soil taround the emerging seedlings. This will not harm the mice but should deter them. Chili powder and cayenne pepper powder are both effective deterrents for many pests, large and small. Aphids and other insects don't like it and neither do foxes and deer.
2) Create an Overhang
Apparently mice, like horses and elephants, do not like hanging upside down so raise your plants up in their Rootrainers for example on an upturned flower pot. This way rodents have to negotiate an overhang to reach the sweet peas. See how Pippa Greenwood does this over on our YouTube Channel - How to deter mice in the greenhouse
3) Use naturally spikey plants like Holly
Just in case a mouse might consider a Bear Grylls style ascent to the Sweet Pea summit, surround all access points with holly bush trimmings to prick their little pink paws.
This three pronged approach will cover all bases and pests like keep mice from eating your plants!
To find out more about growing Sweet Peas check out this blog How to Grow Sweet Peas or to see Rootrainers in action (100% the way to avoid the root disturbance that sweet peas hate!) check out this video Rootrainers