THE GARDEN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 258, 6 November 1897, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE GARDEN.

(BY HORTTJS.)

THortus is willing t-- " ■<?.■<* any queries Correspondents roy give their real names and addrcsc: ■• . ...ough not for publication.]

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Cnoressus Lawsoniana (F.W.) — The Cupressus Lawsoniana stand cutting back very well if a little care is taken, you can shorten the branches near tho • window by neatly cutting back the extremities of the leading ones in such manner as to leave minor ones upon the mains, and cutting slanting so as not to unduly show tho wounds. The plant will not be materially injured. Twich in Garden Paths (H.T.).— This pest, better known as couch grass, is not easily destroyed, except by digging up and burning every portion of it. I have known it come through paths which had been tarred and sanded. Heavy dressing of salt applied during dry weather and afterwards thoroughly soaked with water to dissolve the salt is also a good remedy. The following is also said to be effective: Take three gallons of water and dissolve 1 lb of powdered arsenic, boil, and keep stirring, and add 2 lbs of soda. Mix the above with six gallons of cold water, and saturate the walk during dry weather.

HINTS

Sow a little seed of cabbage, cauliflower, mustard and cress, radish, endive, leek, lettuce, parsley, spinach, and turnip. Soav seed largely of carrot, capsicum, tomato, cucumber, melons, squash, vegetable marrows, pumpkins, parsnip, peas, Freuch beans, and sweet maize. Seedling Cyclamens should now be all picked off into a nice fine free soft soil. Fix the little bulblets firmly in position by pressing the soil gently over the roots and around them.

Weeds upon walks are very prevalent this season. A thin sprinkling

of coarse salt scattered over them during dry weather, damped with water, will destroy them and make the gravel quite clean and bright. Those who wish to make edgings or beddings of tender plants, such as alternantheras or coleus, can plant them out now, for it is unlikely that any frosts will occur to nip them off, except in the coolest parts of the colony.

Do not forget to planta few of the best of the cannas if you can obtain them, but protect the young plants from the ravages of snails, for these pests sometimes do a vast amount of damage to the young tender foliage just as it is about to unfold Leeks require attention in the matter of thinning out the seedlings and transplanting them into nursery beds where too thick, or transplanting the very strongest permanently into rows lo grow them well they should not receive a check by undue crowding and remaining too long in seed beds JNewly-planted fruit trees that have succeeded in making good growth thus far. thanks; to favourable cool, damp weather, do not omit to well mulch with old decayed manure. It may well be imagined they have during such weather made more superficial roots than is customary. Should, therefore, a hot dry period set in these are likely to suffer greatly, unless the surface ground is kept moist and cool by the means suggested. Meantime, "should hot dry weather cause any to flag at the leaves, assist them as much as possible with overhead syringings and root waterings. Lettuces resulting from seeds sown early in the spring, with the object of permitting them to grow and heart in without transplanting, being now of goodly size, must be finally thinned out to the necessary distances apart, which should not be less than three or four inches, as large plants of appreciable merit cannot be grown if they are too crowded. When finally ' thinned, stir the soil well between them. Ridge cucumbers, where planted out and exposed to the changeable and often low temperatures experienced, have made little progress, and those growers are best off who have deferred planting them out, or kept handglasses shut down over them. It should now be safe to plant all, or expose such as are under glasses, to direct outer air. Where possible, mulch them around with fine old manure; stir it into the soil, and draw both up ridge-like towards the plants. Though these plants appear delicate and tender when they have been nursed up in warm structures, they succeed well in ordinarily good seasons sown, germinated, and grown in sheltered fields about the country.

Many of the annuals, or so-called annuals, are flowering well, especially the pansies. These flowers are always most welcome. Many of the new strains are wonderfully beautiful and varied. Do not allow the plants to suffer the want of water. Anemones and ranunculi were most brilliant where planted in masses, and produced a splendid effect. As soon as the. flowers and leaves die away the bulbs can be lifted, and many of them will be found perfectly good and sound, and should be stored away in a dry place for next season's planting. It would be worth while to save some anemone seed and gradually raise a stock of tubers of your own.

If the tender young leaves of your roses are infested with the rose aphis or green fly, spray with the soda and resin mixture, and give your plants each a gallon or two of liquid manure. This pest generally attacks weakgrowing plants and seldom does any damage to healthy vigorous plants. Keep hedges and edgings trimmed into shape as they grow, and mow ornamental grass frequently, and do not neglect the rolling of it. Those who wish to plant buffalo grass will find the present time, and for the next month or so, about the best Lv the year in which it will root well.

Mulching vegetable crops, preparatory to hot, dry summer weather, so frequently referred to in the past, has a great bearing on successful culture. Daring cool, showery weather this fact is not so patent or apparent, but the excessively hot sunshine recently showed how quickly ground moisture can be sucked up, and how soon crops not so mulched suffer. Efficient mouldings tend somewhat to counteract this, but they are of little effect when sun heat reaches 80 degrees or more, with dry winds. What we are anxious to draw attention to now is that any form of mulch or surface dressing for the ground beside crops is better than none at all. Short grass derived from machining lawns is excellent, as also is cocoanut fibre, as well as all forms of manure. By its use rows of peas are not hurried into podding prematurely all together, lettuce do not run to seed so quickly, nor cauliflowers heart in before they are sufficiently grown to give large 'white heads.'

One of the most useful vegetables for the summer is the silver beet which, if well cultivated and well manured, will produce large succulent leaves and tender leaf stalks, these leaves and stalks, if well boiled and treated properly, make an excellent and palatable vegetable. The produce from a few plants which are careiully grown will be very considerable. A leaf or two from each plant (and the outside leaves only should betaken) will be enough each tune, then other leaves will grow. Some liquid manure now and then will soon cause strong Uowth. When the ground is being prepared a heavy dressing of rich Sable manure should be well mixed with the soil. One great mistake that amateurs frequently make is in not thinning out their young Ph™ts sufheientlv- The thinning out should be done by degrees, for if thinned out to the proper distance when the plants are very young and tender, those allowed Vreniain may suffer from loss of shade and support. Boot crops as a rule, are those most o-ener'ally neglected, especially where the 'are sown broadcast, But seeds should always be sown in rows. It is really less trouble in the end, and the plants will develop ever so much better. This is a busy time, or should be, in the vegetable garden, for there are many vegetables to sow or plant out All the melon tribe, the pumpkins, squashes, marrows, etc., can be planted if raised in pots or pans under protection, or seed may be sown in the open. It will need a good deal of space for even a few of these chmgs, and may be more than most amateurs who do their own gardening can afford to give. Fiowever, space should be made fora few bush marrows and some cucumbers at. least, for they will not take up very much space, and not so much as the other curcubites. Plant tomatoes, capsicums, cabbage, celery, leek, egg plant, endive, a tew cauliflowers, silver beet, lettuce, and spinach.