GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR AUGUST.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 108, 31 July 1877, Page 3

GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR AUGUST.

WRITTEN ESPECIALLY FOR THE AKAROA MAIL.

This should be a busy month in the garden, for although, as the seasons move on we shall find in the well tended and cultivated garden that every day brings its work, yet we may safely consider this the busiest; for not only is there generally some of the winters work to finish, but we have seeds to sow, Hants to put in, and a general preparation of the ground, and as so much depends on this latter, a word or two on this subject specially may not be out of place. The preparation of the ground lies at the foundation of all the rest of our garden work ; indeed the success of the whole year mainly depends on this, and we would advise, were it not done before, to at once have every vacant piece of ground deeply dug, and, if possible, manured, and laid up rough to the action of sun and air; this not only applies to the present time but to all seasons. Whenever a crop is cleared off, have the ground turned over, you will thus save the production of weeds, your garden will look neat, and you will be able to take advantage of the first favourable weather for getting in future crops, an advantage especially valuable during the summer months, when rain is less abundant than in spring. Another important matter, and which applies to all seasons is the sowing of seeds ; generally these are buried too deeply, and the seeds, or perhaps the seedsman, gets the blame. We propose now to give a few general instructions, which, if remembered and acted upon, will tend to lessen disappointment, and reduce the chances of failure to a very small thing. The covering'bf all seeds should be regulated by their size; for cabbage, turnip, lettuce, and other small garden seeds a very slight covering will be necessary, from £ to a £ of an inch being sufficient, and from £ to-1_ inches for peas and beans, these may be taken as the extremes, and by bearing these in mind, it will be easy to determine the depth for the rest. The same may be said of flower seeds, excepting that it will seldom be necessary to cover the largest of these more than £th of an inch, and many of the smaller kinds, with only a slight sprinkling of sand or fine soil, but in these cases nieans must be taken to prevent the soil from getting dry before the seeds have germinated ; this, if in the open ground, can be done by laying a few light branches of evergreens over the spots we're the seeds are sown, and gradually removing them as the plants appear, or if sown in pots or boxes, by placing sheets of glass, and over these a piece of paper or canvass, removing them gradually as in the former case ; Ist, by taking off the shading night and morning, raisin g the glass slightly at the same time, till the young plants will bear full exposure. Kitchen garden.—The month of August is a good time to plant rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, and shallots ; asparagus beds may still'be made, and either planted with' one year old roots, or sown in drills, 1 foot apart, and afterwards thinned out to 1 foot from plant to plant,, which also would be the proper distance for putting in the roots; the beds for asparagus should be made 4£ feet wide, trenched and heavily manured to the depth of 2 feet. A few of the earliest kinds of potatoes may now be planted, the best sorts for the purpose we have here being the early Union, Myatt's Ashleaf and Silver skinned. Plant out autumn sown cabbage, cauliflower, and lettuce. Sow Brussels sprouts, Cauliflower, Early York and other cabbages, including the red for pickling, also Long pod and Windsor Beans, Early Horn Carrot, Parsnips, Leeks, Lettuce, Parsley,long and turnip Radish, Onion and another sowing of Carter's first crop, Daniel O'Rourk, or other early peas, and also a good breadth of some later kind, such as Veitch's Perfection, Yorkshire Hero, and G. F. Wilson. The distance to draw the. drills for peas is regulated by their height, for dwarf kinds two feet will be sufficient, but for the sorts named above three to four feet will be necessary. Fruit Garden.—-Finish at once the pruning of all kinds of fruit trees, and for trees that have been two or three years established, and have already been got into good shape very little will be necessary beyond'cutting out the weak and watery shoots, and thinning out the strong ones sufficient to avoid crowding, and at the same time maintaining a symmetrical form to the tree, but avoid what is called hard or close pruning. Flower Garden.—Many of the bulbs will now be appearing above the ground, which will give an opportunity for digging over the beds and borders, if not done before, without injuring them, but this should be done at once. Anemonies and Ranunculuses may still be planted. Roses should now be pruned without delay, cutting back those designated hybrid perpetuals to within two or three buds from the base of the previous seasons growth, at the same time cutting out entirely, all weak and crowded shoots, but for what are called Tea and Noisette roses, a different kind of procedure altogether must be taken: these require a thinning out of tlje shoots, and a slight shortening of those that are left, and if they are strong growers, sucih as Cloth of Gold, and Climbing Devoniensis, they must either be trained on a wall, or tied to strong stakes, and form what are called pillar roses. Towards the end of the month a few; hardy annuals may be sown in the borders, and a few half hardy and tender in pots, or boxes under glass to be planted out when the soil becomes warm, and the weather more genial.