Kitchen Garden.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIII, Issue 4292, 23 February 1884, Page 8 (Supplement)

Kitchen Garden.

Greenhouse.

Plant out cabbage, cnuliflower, etc. Earth up those thivt are growing ; dust with lime, soot, or wood ashes, so as to keep down caterpillar or fly. Give heavy waterings to teep them growing rapidly; make fresh sowings for late autumn "planting. Sow Btnall rancewional drills of turnips; dust and water the .same as cabbage to keep fly down. Attend to the fortnightly sowings of mustard, cress, radishes, &c., for small salading3. Give plenty of water to make them grow lapidly, nndconseauently tender in growth. Celery : Plant out the late crop ■now as soon as possible, earthing up and ■watering the earlier planted crops a? they advance. Tomatoes : Attend to last week's instructions ; pick fruit as it ripens. Beans (French): Earth up running beans and atike : pick fruit when ready : don"t allow it to ripen : the more that is plucked while green will give a better opportunity for the later portion of the crops to mature. Continue the digging, trenching, and manuring of all vacant pieces of ground. Onion? and 3hallots : Lift as they ripen, dry in the sun for sometime, tie in bunches, a;id hang up in some dry airy place.

Flower Garden.

AU early-sown annuals, as they get past flowering,clearaway. Gladiolusthatare past flowering cut the flower stalks off, so that the bulb may ripen off better. Stake and water the late-planted ones. Lift those which have ripened off. Attend to the staking, tying, and pinching of all autumn flowering plants ; give plenty of water to the succu-lent-growing ones ; hoe, rake, and keep the border neat and clean. Bedding plants pe<* down, pinch back, regulate growth : give frequent heavy waterings. Pick off all dead blooms. Evergreen hedges clip. They will yet have plenty of time to grow sufficiently bofore winter, so as to take off all stitf, formal appe.-irance which late-clipped fences .sometimes assume. Grass : Cut, roll, and give frequent heavy waterings. Walk : Hoe, rake, and roll.

Continue giving plenty of air during the day, also leave a little on during the night. Ro-pot such plants as coleus, &c, whenever the pot.- have got filled with roots ; give shade during the day. Give plenty of water at night. When watering always give sufficient to thoroughly saturate the soil in the pots.

As- An'CIEKT Hr.KiiAPJUM.—Garlands of dried flowers have been found on the breasts of mummies at Deir el Bah are which must be 8,500 years old. The flowers were .so veil preserved that the colour.- of the petals and the green of the leaves were almost perfect, and every species could be easily identified. Chief among them were the Eg3'ptian willow, acacias, the hlue waterlily of the Kile, larkspurs, -water-melons, palm leaves, etc. Dr. Sohweinfurth preserved the leaves and flowers by moistening them in alcohol, and he afterward.-, drie3 their, in his herbarium. Two of the garlands were found on the breast of King Ames I Sdi-rux GoMip,

IV, ins Wnx Pay.—There is nothing better established than the fact that it pays to take pains in the preparation of all kind* of produce intended tor market. The neat, clean, tidy package attracts the eye and helps to sell the commodity. The care in putting up, as seen in the package, guarantees that pains have been taken in the preparation. In marketing apples, the small indifferent, affected ones should be rejected, as they are worth something for family use or for feed for atock. If left with good and sound apples they will diminish the price and render the whole less saleable, so that the producer loses in both directions. The same is true in regard to potatoes. Small ones that are not large enough to cook, mixed with deeirable ones, actually detract more in price from the lot than their weight increases the bulk. Surely the3e small potatoes, if separated from the good ones, are wortk to the grower as feed more than the trouble of selecting them. In digging potatoes, have a basket, into which throw all that are worthless to the consumer, for as city people hare no animals to feed, small potatoes are an absolute loss, and if not entirely lost only benefit the swill-gatherer. In the preparing of vegetables for sale from house to house, ticing them up in nice tidy bundles.and thoroughly washing them, giving them a nice clean appearance, will greatly enhance the sale of such vegetables. I have often heard the question discussed whether or not the China market gardeners beat the European gardeners in growing vegetables. I have always heard that the European is the best market gardener, but in the cleansing and preparing of vegetables fov sale the Chinamen far excel the European growers. Therein mostly lies the reison that housewives prefer the supply from John. Grow well, thoroughly clean, and nicely pluck the vegetables, fruit, etc., and a good market can always be found.

London Parks.—From the report of the London Metropolitan Board of Works we learn that the various Metropolitan parks and recreation grounds under the Board's

control comprise altogether an area of 1,C97 I acres, or a little over 2J square miles ; and when it is remembered that what is known as the Metropolitan Area, defined by the Metropolitan Local Management Act, 1555, and under the jurisdiction of the Board, extends over 122 square miles, and has within its limits a population of more than three millions and a-half, it will be acknowledged that the aggregate of these pleasure grounds is, after all, but small, and if it were not for the Boyal parks, which happily may be regarded as assured public possessions, and for a few commons in and near the outskirts of the metropolis, which are not under the control of the Board, London would, in proportion to its size and population, be hardly so well provided with places of open • air resort as some other cities or towns. The places of recreation maintained by the Board are: — Finsbury Park, 115 acres ; Southwark Park, 63 acres ; gardens on the Victoria, Albeit, and Chelsea Embankments, and in Leicester Square, 14 acres ; Blackheath, 167 acres ; Hampstead Heath, 240 acres ; Shepherd's Bush Common, S acres ; London Fields, 27 acres ; Hackney Downs, 5,0 . acres: Well-street Common, 5i acres; North Mill Field, 29 acres ; South Mill Field, 28 acres ; Clapton Common, 94, acres; Stoke Newingtown Common, 5A acres ; waste land at Dalston Lane and Grove-street (Hackney), 1 acre ; Tooting Beck Common, 144 acres ; Tooting Greveney Common, 63 acres; Clapham Common, 220 acres ; Bostall Heath, 55 acres; Plumstead Common, 110 acres; Shoulder of Mutton Green, 4 acres ; Wormwood Scrub, 194 acres ; Eel Brook Common, Parsons Common, 14 acres ; Brook Green, 7 acres. I Forming New Gardens. Continued.

When undertaking anything in the way of a new building, or almost any other work,the first operation is making a design so that the work can be carried out systematically. The same must be observed in laying o it a garden. A plan must be drawn out showing all the house levels, walks, Ac, considering each detail so as to give a harmonious effect to the whole. I will try and describe -what ought to be done. Take a rough sketch of the ground to be dealt with, and if the surface is slopey or irregular, have the levels accurately taken. Furnished thus with sketch and levels, work out at your leisure, whatever designs may appear desirable, always making the front of where the house will stand, or" stands, the base of your operations. The front of the house is the standpoint from which the most striking views of the grounds should be obtained, trying also to bring in the iinest prospects of the' surrounding district. After having the plan finished, peg off the ground accordingly, nx levels, &c. When the ground is pegged, the next question will be the thorough drainage of the whole place.. No garden can succeed unless it is properly drained (of course, light volcanic and sandy soil excepted). The most important of the drainage will be the house. This drain should, at the least, be done with a pipe six inches in diameter, hikins the nearest route to the output. Thil should be laid first, and, if possible, it should be constructed in such a manner as to act as tiie main pipe of the place. Next will come the draining of the garden and grounds. The tiles for this ought to be 2i or 3-inch tiles. The trench to receive these should be dug to the depth of three feet, running, if possible, diagonally across the proper fall of the ground—that U to say, if sucli ground will allow a good fall for the drains. The distance apart at which these drains ought to be placed will vary according to the nature of the soil. For free open soil, with a moderately porous bottom, twenty-four feet apart will be near enough. As the soil fets stiffer, the drains will need to be rought closer, and in very stiff retentive soils, with clay bottoms, they ought to be twelve feet apart. Where" rough scoria gravel can easily be obtained, a few inches of this placed on the top of the tiles would greatly assist the effectiveness of the drains. I may as well state here that to open drains during dry weather will slightly increase the cost of draining the ground", but the slight extra co.-t will be more than repaid by the extra efficiency of the drains. With drains opened in dry weather, and left fora short period, the sides of the trench will open in future, which will not afterwards entirely close, thus giving a more easy access of the water to the drains during very wet weather. After the drainage the laying-out of the place can be proceeded

(To he Continued.)