THE GARDEN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 122, 5 March 1942, Page 3

THE GARDEN

GENERAL ROUTINE WORK. (Written for the “ Guardian ” by W. B. Bhockie, N.D.H., N.Z.) PLANTS UNDER GLASS. Cinerarias in cold frames will require to be given more space as growth develops. During bright sunshine they will need to he shaded but over-shading should be avoided as this causes the leaves to become soft and the leaf stalks grow leggy and weak. On clear nights remove the overhead covering so that the foliage will benefit from the night dews. Maintain a moist atmosphere around the plants by damping the floor of the frame in the morning and also at midday. The early sown hatch should now be far enough advanced to be transferred to the flowering pots. A good soil for them is made up of three parts fibrous loam which has been passed through a half-inch sieve, two parts finely sieved leafmould and one part sharp river sand. Good drainage should he provided. Pot moderately firm. When cooler weather approaches about the beginning of April remove the plants to the shelter of the greenhouse.

Primula malacoides should be kept growing steadily in the coolest part of the house. This popular winterflowering primula prefers a dry atmosphere at all times and there should be no tendency to waterlogging at the roots. As with all greenhouse plants that flower in winter special attention should he paid to drainage. Bulbs of hyacinths, tulips and narcissus may now be started in pots for forcing. As an indication of the number of bulbs which will be required for each pot, in the case of hyacinths a four-inch pot will hold one, a, five-inch pot three and a six-incli pot five. A five-inch pot would hold about a dozen crocus bulbs. Use a compost made up of three parts pasture loam and one part each of leafmould, dried covt manure and coarse sand. The tops of the bulbs should he just beneath the,surface. Stand the pots close together in a cool place outside but open to the sky and cover them with sieved clinker ash to a depth of about four inches. When the roots have made good growth into the drainage material bring the pots into a warm house for forcing. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Where space is available plant polyanthus, canterbury bells, sweet william, iceland poppies and stocks. Except for the polyanthus all of these do best in a position fully exposed to the sun.

Spring-flowering bulbs may be planted in spaces vacated by summerflowering annuals in the mixed flower border. Useful kinds for this purpose include crocuses, tulips, hyacinths and narcissus.

In the herbaceous border remove stakes from delphiniums, lupins and other plants which flowered Gariy in the year, and cut back all withered stems and seeding heads so that the whole border will present a fresh and tidy appearance. Weeds such as* l’athen, groundsel and shepherds purse, which mature their seeds rapidly at this time should be eradicated by hand or hoe according to the weather and the state of the ground. Statice may now be tied in bunches and hung to dry in a warm airy room to provide decorative material for vases in winter.

Take cuttings of pansies, pentstemons, lavender, pinks, antirrhinums, zonal and ivy leaf pelargoniums and hydrangeas. Except for the lavender and pelargoniums which require plenty of light these are easiest to strike in a lightly shaded frame. Use very sandy soil. English, Dutch and Spanish irises flower in early summer. They are ideal for cut flowers having large heads' in a great variety of colour and slender stems with grass-like foliage. Bulbs should he planted now setting them four inches deep in clumps of three- to a dozen. They succeed well in ordinary garden loam but good drainage is essential. It is not necessary to lift the bulbs each year though this> will do them no harm so long as they arereplanted in early autumn. Plant bulbs of the crown imperial lily (Fritillaria imperialist. They should he planted nine inches deep in rich soil. This is one of the earliest flowering lilies. A nice setting for it is among low growing shrubs such as heaths and dwarf evergreen rhododendrons-.

In the rock garden plant bulbs of chionotloxa (glory of the snow), crocuses, snowdrops and alpine narcissi. Among the latter the six-inch high narcissus cyclamineus from Portugal is one of the most charming. Cut back rampant growers that are encroaching on the space allotted to other plants. After cutting- back and removing all weeds give t|ie soil a light forking. Some of the mossy saxifrages may require to have some gritty soil work in around the rosettes. Autumn-flow-ering crocuses which will soon be pushing through the soil include C. medium, C. salzmannii, C. zonatus and C. speciosus. Another alpine which is warmly welcomed after most of the late-summer flowering occupants are past is the diminutive cyclamen neapolitanum and its white variety. After a few years of growth one corm will produce over a hundred blooms. THE KITCHEN GARDEN. Pear slug on fruit trees should be sprayed with arsenate of lead. Prepare ground for planting strawberries about the end of the month. The ground for them should be

trenched at least two feet deep and richly manured. Strawberries' like well drained soil. Space the young plants two feet apart in the rows which should be two and a-half feet apart. Fork the ground between the rows of brussels sprouts and water them occasionally with fairly strong liquid manure. Decayed leaves should be removed and if grubs are causing damage spray with derm dust or arsenate of lead. Onions should be harvested as soon as their growth is ripened. Before storing them in in airy shed leave them to dry on a hard sui face until the'tops have completely withered. Any thick-necked bulbs among them should be put aside foi immediate use as -these are not good keepers. A last batch of savoy cabbage may be planted. Prickly-seeded spinach may be sown in a sunny border to supply greens next spring. The seedlings must be thinned at an early stage.