Practical Gardening.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 212, 4 September 1920, Page 20

Practical Gardening.

By DIANTHUS.

■| Correspondents icill greatly oblige by observing the foVtaunng rules in i tending questions for fruhlicatioit in tiiese columns: — i 1. letters should he addressed Garden Editor "Star" Office Auckland J 2. Wr-.te one one side of the paper, and make all communications a* r concise as jxjssiblc ;J J'louxrs, etc, sent for naming must be sent separately and, if possible, packed in a tin- or wooden box — cardboard boxes are very liable to be broken in transit and the contents damaged. '/. The full name and address of the tender mutt ahaayt be tent, but m , ttom dc plume or initial may be given for publication. " ******-x--x->:-**4r-x-*****^x-^ • * *

i I THE WEEK'S' , WORK rji * THE FLOWER GARDEN. * [ * Lift, divide, and roDlant Gerberas. % ' :j; Dig and manure vacant beds ready for Dahlias and Chrysanthomums. :!; Take Chpysanthomum cuttings. :j: s£ Cldan and maniirn Bopriop Carnations, 'fc I ; | : Plant Cinorarias in sheltered positions. : : : ; * manure Rosos. * Plant Beauty and Ten Week Stocks, Pentstemone, and Antirrhinums. * Ij£ Prune oarly flowering shrubs as soon as flowering is finished. * ! % THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. £ 1 * Sow Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussei Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Lettuce, Parsnips. * I T Sow Tomatoes and Vegetable Marrows under glass. ;•; !3; Weed and manure Asoaraous beds. Jj" ;j; Continue planting Potatoes. Spray and mould up any through the ground. X '£ Plant Cabbage, Cauliflowers, etc. X Plant autumn sown Onions. . jj. I :j ; Sow Celery seed under glass. I ;j; Hoc and thin any crops that require it. :|: Got all spare ground dug as soon as possible. %: * Plant Rhubarb and topdpess old beds. :i: J * Plant Jerusalem Artichokes: * I * *l

I HOW TO SOW SMALL SEEDS. .Small seeds require careful handling, for. betides the risk of many being lost if open where a draught can blow them away, they are apt to bo sown thickly in patches, and the seedlings are killed through overcrowding. Procure small boxes, about four inclirs deep, and having made a few holes in the bott.ini. cover these with broken crocks. Fill with finely sifted sandy soil, und make limi and smooth with a flat piece ot wood. Mix the seed with several times its bulk of silver sand, and place on a

TO CORRESPONDENTS. i Cran-ors (Mount Albert), aslcs if it is ' 'worth wlille. to (inovo a ten-year-01.1 lotnrrn tree which is in the way or n hmlillnjr? Would it hn advisable to cut tlip wood rig-In buck V—The Ji-mon is certainly worth moving, and if carefully done I frtiould Survive. "Do not rut .iU tho braneues book, but ixMnio them aluiiit two-thlnls. Tlie tr.r will require miter during the coming «';ison .--liould it be at all dry. A.U ■(Grer MTin) writes:—Woodllcc are eating some rattbngP plants 1 linve put out. How csin I destroy them?— It is not often wood! Ice :ire so destructive to callages. A spoonful of Paris green, well raided with a couple of Rood hand- i fnls of lime, anil tbe uiixuire ducted on . the phints, would keep tliem iiwny. Lime and soot mixed in pqunl quantities, ami the plants .lusted with it. wnnld also be effective, or soot itself wonld do. 1 K. rron-sonby) asks:—H) What is tUe best method of storing pniupUus? (2) Will beans be harmful to tTie crop? (3) Are runner beans sunject to l,ll s lit. (4) How old shoul.l a lernou tree be before IrMt.store pumpkins in a dry. cool room, or shed. If Dandled carefully and tuoroTißhly dry before storing no oetter method is possible. C) Unie is harmless to vegetables, and is rather beneficial than otherwise to runner J , , C?) Runner beans are subject to blighta. but if well grown in alt- open situation , are seldom attacked sufficiently bod to make it worth while spraying. (4) a Smon tree, if doing well -will crop when 1, ,„., o i(i nn d sometimes before that, : bn? Situation, soil, and other local Condi- , tions make It impossible to ffivc any definite time. FLORA (Remnera) asts: Ts the present time the beat to cut down bouvardias? , or moving them. | CXH.TTVATING THE GARDEN. ■Flante require from the soil, air, water and food. To* obtain these tlio soil must be cultivated, and manured. Thorough, deep and constant cultivation "ive to the roots access to supplies of air, moieture, and food. The addition , of artificial, stable and other manures , helps in this direction, but cultivation . is more important even than manuring, for garden soils, well cultivated, will give '. fair crops without manuring, but insufficiently cultivated soils will only , give poor crops even though they are manured.. i SEEDLINGS. Nowadays hundreds of seedling plants | of all descriptions are bought in spring. Undoubtedly it cannot be expected that i all those that arc bought will live and ■ come to maturity, but many die that should not, were proper care exercised. In many cases the nurserymen or seedsmen is blamed, but in the case of the majority it is the buyer is the ; chief culprit, for treating the young plants like old ones, instead of seedlings If the plants, when received, are in a dry condition, the best method of deal ing with them is to untie the plants and lay the roots in shallow water for an hour or so. Ii there are any decayed foliage, pick it off. Now dibble, or plant, the seedlings in a shady position in some nice sandy soil. Protect the. young plants from cold winds or heavy storms. In a few days it will be found that the young plants have started making new small' white roots and arc then ready for putting into their permanent positions. In the case of one or two plants pots or boxes can be used. The point is, give the seedlings a chance of making roots and getting hold of the soil as quickly ag possible. CHRYSANTHEMUMS. During this month is a good time for putting in chrysanthemum cuttings. The beat cuttings are those that come directly out of the soil around the old stem. Procure some nice soil; a little free turfy loam is the proper thing. Rub this through a sieve, add add about half as much leaf soil and the same quantity of sand. Boxes or pots can be ■used, or a bed in a sheltered, shaded spot can be made up. Dibble the cuttinge into the soil, after making it firm. As soon as rooted, the shading must be removed, and the plants put out into their permanent quarters as soon as possible. If pot cultivation is to be followed, the cuttings are best put into email pots; they can then be potted on successively without any damage to the roots. DIBBLERS ATTO HOLES. At A ie shown a useful dibbler made , from an old spade or fork handle. B ' shows a properly shaped hole, made 'by moving the dibbler round until it is large ( enough. C shows a long narrow hole (

which is of no use for planting. It is' too narrow <to get tue roots in properly, and the chance is that at the bottom below the roots will bo left an air epaee, and the plants will suffer. WORKING THE GARDEN. Working the soil in ancient times was repaired as manuring, and the aamo nzi-nuro is derivsd from the word manoeuvre, wflrich meant woTkanjj the soil by hand Jab-ror. I

piece of folded paper. By tapping tlie I paper lightly with a stick the seed can , be sown evenly on the surface. When all is sown, cover with a mere dusting of very line 6oil, again linn it with the piece of board, gently spray with water, ; cover with glass, and on the glass lay paper 60 ac to shade and prevent undue, evaporation. When germination cakes place the paper must be. removed, but not till the seed leaves have begun to develop, and not even then in the ca^ n of ferns, beponias. gloxinias and =uc!i like shade-loving plants. ROTATION OF CROPS. It is advisable to so distribute- the crops round the garden co that no one particular crop occupies the same ground two years in succession. Of course this ' does not apply to permanent crops such as rhubarb, asparagus, eta, which mu6t, as a matter of course, occupy the same position for several years. Some crop* such as cabbage, etc., are benefited by heavy manuring; others, such as parsrips and root crops generally, do not require any manure at the tinvs of sowing, but need land well manured the year previously. Beans and peas fix the free nitrogen of the air, and leave ttie ground richer in this valuable plant food. The cabbage tribe and onions are particularly greedy on nitrogen, and require the ground to be rich in it, and leave the soil almost depicted of it. If, therefore, rotation of crops is maintained it will be seen how one crop can be made to" follow another requiring some particular plant food which the other did not require. All plane of rotation can only be arbitrary because no two gardens are alike in every respect, and only guiding principles can bo given. Again some will grow so much more of' one crop than another that they must overlap at some period. Snch are exceptions and must be allowed for. The idea, however, is shown by the diagram. Here the garden is divided 'into four. One quarter is occupied by permanent crops, the other three by the principal vegetables. This is the first year's working, the nest year the crops which are occupying section 1 will be put into 2; those in 2 will be put into 3, and those in 3 will be put into 1. The following years continue the same rotation, 3 always moving up into 1, 1 into 2, and 2 down into 3. There are other crops, such as lettuce, epinach, which are not enumerated; but these can be oulv grown in small quantities and mature quickly, and therefore can be Town as catch crops between others and" in spare vacant places. Ce,er y Cabbag-d e * cs Cauliflowers Onions Broccoli Potatoes Brussels Sprouts Turnips Permanent Crops. 3. Rhubarb Bean* ■Asparagus Peas Seakale Beets Herbs Carrots Parsnips Kumarag COXTTVATTOir BY HOEING. Lose no opportunity of hoeing between growing crops. The advantages of hoeing are:—Weeds are kept down; water is retained in the Boil. The hoe is better than tdve watering , can for keeping the soil supplied with moisture, it prevents the loss of water, wheTeas the watering can only helps to make good that loss.

TRANSPLANTING — THINNING ONIONS. Many people sow onions -with the best of intentions to do all that is possible Jto produce good results. Ln the spring, however, when work is pressing and tiie onions are looking well in the seed rows they think is it worth while to transplant?—there are far more than is wanted, thin out a few and let the rest htnud- The result is a eecond-rate crop. Whether transplanted or thinned in the seed rowd the distance apart for each plant should be the 6imo. it appears

The Dltterenrp between Thinned and Untuinned Onions. .1 rustic nnil wasteful to pull out ten linn-s n s many as you leave, but it is ncc.'ss.-irv. Some often inquire if it i.s necessary to transplant autumn sown onions. Fur the best result, it is. 11 left in tho seed rows there will b<! a I large percentage nf thick n.-.-ks. ami a j lnrge nnmhrr will run to seed. The j i-licM-k giv.'ii by transplanting appears to prevent both of these failings. POTATO BLIGHT. Tn tlio way of prevention the follfrw-ing precaution? lOiiiuM bp ntxirvm]: -None ■but sound wed tii"bo.rs should be used. When" tivhcrs an> taken from a ilisciieed crop, even though these tub-is show nn Mjrn nf ditrftasc, the .]■<•> i-" in almost certain to 00-ur in tbi ro-iiltilisr crrp Hioose a soil that is suitable for tlr» crop. A dry locality w most important, an.! the land -.-houl.l' by well .rrained. S.i far as practicable avoi.l growing [>..t:itoort year after year in the. same ground. Spray the wholo of the foliapv of tho pnta-tnes every ten fir twHre days from the time the Miapro appea.s above fhc ground. Should rain oceiy within a few I hniiTs nf spraying the operation must be repealed. VEGETABLE SEEDS. The following table, shows the length of row that the quantity of seed mentioned should plant: —

loz of any of the cabbage tribe, onions, leek's, and l-3oz of lettuce should provide 1000 plants for transplanting. GHEEN MANXraiNG. Soiling crops, or preen manuring, as it is often known, is done by sowing a catch crop, lotting it grow till the ground is ready, and then digging it in. After oarly pens or potatoes, mustard or rupu may bo sown and dug in when a r foot or so high. Field pens, vetches j and clover may also'be used. In deciding what to sow, remember that the rains during the winter rob the soil of much of its nitrogen. Much of the nitrogen in the M\] is in the form of nitrates, which are easily dissolved in water. The chief value of the autumn OTn soiling crop is that it absorbs the nitrates from Vhn soil, an'l locks them up in the roots, stems and leaves, and prevents this irashinjr out by rnhi<. Teas, clover, and vetches actually increase the amount of nitrojHTi in tho soil, and so aro particularly valuaJble for a. soiling crop. THE MAITOBE HEAP. The value of stable and farmyard manure depends on- tho amount o-f care taken in making the manure heap. If the heap i≤ formed direct on ordinary ground, or if it ie left loose and uncovered, much of the goodness will 'be lost before the heap is used. The sul)stances valuable as iplant food are those which are easily waehed out T>y rain cr given off as vapour. Use for the bottom of tho heap a layer of old rotted manure, or failing that, a. layer of fine soil. When adding frost manure'prees it well down so that the heap is Srm. Cover the heap with fine soil. A ridge of fine soil banked round tho bottom of the heap wHI absorb any liquid which drains away, and this soil may be mixed with the manure and used. AN EASILY MADE DMIL Tho illustration shows how to turn a rake into a drill marker- Put cotton reels on the teeth of the rake at the

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Uroad brans, 1 pint 100 foot French bean*, 1 pint 200 feet Scarlet runners, 1 pint 100 feet Peas, 1 pint GO feet Beet seed, 1 oz „ 400 feet Carrot peed, 1 oz (>00 fr-et Onion seed, 1 oz 300 feet Parsley seed, 1 oz 350 feet Parsnip .-red, 1 oz .. 300 feet Spinacli seed, 1 oz 250 feot Turnip peed, 1 oz <tf>0 feet Potatoes 1-Jlb 100 feet