Kitchen Garden.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 4124, 22 September 1883, Page 4 (Supplement)

Kitchen Garden.

Continue sowing all the different seeds for the main crop of vegetables for midsummer use; keep thinning and earthing up those that arc advancing. Continue planting out the different crops which require transplanting. Prepare a bed for pricking out the early celery plants. Take and lay down six inches of well-rotted stable manure, put three inches of good soil on top, then prick out in lines about six inches apart. Water and protect from the sun till they get established. They will soon make nico plants for removing into the trenches. Give fre-

quent dustings of lime to keep the sluga away. Cucumber, melon, and tomato plants commence to harden ofif for plantingout. Pot off those still requiring it. Sow a little Cape gooseberry seed in a pan under glass. Still continue planting the intermediate potato ; earth up advancing: crops of the earlier planted varieties. Look after seeds coming through the ground : see that the slugs do not get the lion.* share. Seedsmen often get blamed for bad seed when it is the want of attention which loses the crop. Flower Garden. Continue sowing hardy annuals. Thin out advancing patches, leaving only a few plant? in each patch. Those "few will give more (lowers and do better than a great number of sickly plants closely grown together. Commence putting out the different bedding plants, arranging them accordingly to height, space of ground they will occupy, and colours of flower and foliage, keeping the smallest towards the front and the largest growing ones to the back of the bonier : if bed, the largest to the centre. All carnations, pinks, and picotecs ought to bo planted out now. It will soon be too Jate. They are pushing on for growth now. Azaleas and camellia?, attend" to last month's directions. Frequently hoe and stir tiie surface soil, so as to keep treeds down. Lawn —Frequently mow, keep the grass short, and apply the roller frequently whenever the ground is wet, so that it may take effect. Grconhouso. If last week's directions about cleaning the house liave boen attended to, repotting will be the order. All plants which require a change of put should receive it at once. Most plants Mill be beginning to grow now, and it is better to start their growth with new soil. All tuberous-rooted plants, such as gloxinias and tuberous-rooted begonias, shake out of their pots and repot into smaller-sized pots. Aehimenes —take seedpans, well drain, place tin; rough sittings over the drainage, till up the rest of the pot to within an inch of the rim with a good compost of sand, leaf-mould, and a little loam ; take the little tuber and place in this, cover up with half an inch of soil, and set the pans in a cool, shady part of the house; don't water much at first. Strike another batch of ceo'.ius cuttings. Apply liquid manure freely to liliums and amaryllis. Double gcriums and pelargoniums in pots keep near the glass, and give sufficient water and air.

Seasonable Hints. Parsley. —Of the different varieties in cultivation the preference is usually given to the curled leafed, and of these the Extra Moss Curled in one of the best. The cucumber is of tropical origin and a tender plant, and succeeds best in a warm, moist, rich, loamy ground. Plant in hills about Sve feet each way. AVhen planted too early, before the earth is warm, the .seeds nro liable to decay in the ground. The hills should be slightly raised, and from eight to ten seeds planted in each hill. When all danger from slugs is over, thin out, leaving live or six plants in each hill. There are seven noted varieties.

Pumpkin marrows are also of tropical origin. They are good feeders, likiny a rich soil. Manure is best applied in the hill. In planting, place about ten seeds in each hill, and when danger from the slugs is over pull up ail but three or four. A mellow, warm soil is the best. For bush sorts, make hills three or four feet apart, and for running kinds twice that distance. All winter keeping varieties should be ripened thoroughly, or they are watery, lacking sweetness and richness, al.so lacking keeping properties.

Kale i.-: a vegetable that is cultivated for its blanched .shoots, which are cooked like asparagus. The seeds may be sown at the same time and in the same manner as for Cabbages. Green Curled Scotch is considered the best, and it is very hardy.

Kohl Kubi resembles both cabbage and turnip ; the part used is the bulb, or swelling of the stem, which, when cooked while yjung, is tender and delicate. Sow about, t'.ie middle of spring, in drills fourteen inches apart, and thin to ten inches. Easily transplanted. Soil required the same as for cabbage. Celery seed should be sown early in the spring, and when five or six inches high transplant. Some growers only trench for the manure, leaving the plants even with the top of the ground ; others trench deep enough to leave the plants five or six inches below '.he. surface. Tho trenches should have at least six inches of line well-rotted manure, with a coveiing of three or four inches of good soil. Set the plants five or six inches apart in the trenches : keex> them well cultivated, and earth up from time to time, but only when the plants are dry, and bC cartful not to cover the centre shoots.

Brussels sprouts are cultivated for ,the small head?, or sprouts, that grow upon the »talk. Cooked, cultivated, and sown the sumo as cabbage. Aspahaous.—There are no distinct sorts of asparagus to be found in our markets, although nanics of different varieties appear in catalogues. "Colossal and "Giant" asparagus are produced by giant cultivation only. In almost every bod of asparagus of any extent, sprouts with white, purple, and green tips may be found, showing that the so-called different varieties are reproduced iv every lot of seedling plants, but seldom or never separated and cultivated as distinct ports.

j Protecting Socds From Birds. Seeds of every size and description are subject to the attacks of birds after being sown, and if nothing be done, sometimes they will not leave a single seed in the ground. The best remedy is to dress all seeds with red lead. The dressing, to be effectual, must bo done thoroughly. The best method is to place in a large saucer as much seed as it is the intention to sow, on which sprinkle a few drops of water, for if they be made too wet the seeds and the lead will stick together in a mass ; then take a teaspoonful of dry powdered red lead, and stir the whole thoroughly until all the seed is well coated with lead. Let it stand for a couple of hours to dry before sowing. This is necessary, or the lead will wash oft' with the rain ; whilst, if laid on with the right amount of moisture and^well dried, it will adhere to tke outer covering of the seed even when it appears above ground. With a little practice in the preparation of the various seeds that thus fall a prey to birds, the amateur will soon be able to judge when lie has hit upon the right degree of moisture required before applying the lead, and upon which dopendstheperfect preparation. Haif-a-pound of red lead will last a season, and the trouble is nothing compared with tho blank crops, l'aratlin oil is also recommended. An experiment lately made for tho purpose of testing its power to keep birds from eating the seeds when sown, proved so far successful that of a handful of radish seed soaked in the oil for iifteen minutes, and then sown, not a, seed appeared to have been taken, for all came up freely, and no protection was afforded, although birds were very abundant. Petroleum or benzoline would, of course, answer tho same purpose. (Woale's " Garden Receipts.'1) Hybridisation. (Continued.) With regard to strawberries, we have got two or three varieties which are good croppers, but as far as flavour is concerned they are only so as compared with the luscious varieties which succeed in Britain. The Trolleps Victoria, better known as the Duke of Edinburgh, and the Margaret are the best cropper varieties. Of these the Trolleps Victoria produces thebest- flavoured fruit ; but if this were crossed with the King's seedling. Black Prince, Edith, &c. (shy croppers here but very richly flavoured), you might produce a variety combining the cropping capabilities of the one with the added flavour of the other. Impregnate and protect as already described. When the fruit 13 rips, save tho seed, and in the early spring sow in good, rich compost in seed-pans, and place in a cool frame. When the seedlings are large enough to prick out, prick them into good, rich soil in an open border. Early next autumn plant out in open beds the usual distance foist raw berries, and they ought to fruit the season. Fruit two seasons before discarding. The first season of a seedling producing fruit, that fruit will not come to such perfection as it will do in the second season. Such fruit may be larger, but not so full or rich-flavoured a3 the second season, the plant not being able to thoroughly maturo all its juices in the first season. Therefore some peculiarities—whether favourable or not—are sure to come forth the second season. In this fruit, about the third season of the plant's growth it ought to be thoroughly tested. In growing these for fruiting, they ought to be grown on good, rich soil, highly manured, and trenched two spits deep.

I will now try and say a littlo about the grape-vine for wine-growing purposes in the Northern portion of the Province of Auckland. It is a well-known fact that in all wine-producing countries some varieties of the vine succeed better than others in the different countries. This is due to sols, aspect, and atmospheric differences, which exist, in some degree, oven in short-intervals of space. Now, our climate is a peculiar one, and vines do not succeed in all localities or soils as we would like to see. I have long ago set down the want of success to the humidity of the climate, which causes, during the period of the fruit's swelling, a fungoied, or what is termed mildew, to attack both foliage and fruit, then good-by to all prospoit of a good crop. (I intend' to deal with this subject at some future time.) The wholo vine seems paralysed after tlii.s attack. Now, to be successful, experiments ought to be tried so as to find out which varieties aro most proof against this influence. When such aro found out, then commence hybridising from these, and in time varieties may be produced which may in a great measure bo free from the above inlluencc. Even in wine-producing countries they are continually trying to raise and import new varieties so as to experiment upon them. For instance, the late appointment of a commission by the French Government to Japan with the view of testing whether the Japanese varieties of grape vine would suit the French climate. Tim New Zealand Government ought to move in the same direction, or, what would be better, let them import a number of varieties from .Japan and test them. Seedling vines should be treated in a somewhat similar manner as the fruit stock. Thes*' will also need to be tested for a year or two before a certain success can be pronounced. Time and patience are required. Grafting the seedlings to older stock will hasten the production of the perfect fruit. (To he continued.)