THE VEGETABLE PLOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 147, 24 June 1933, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE VEGETABLE PLOT.

NOV/ TIME TO PREPARE. According to reports the Unemployment Board lias sent out a reminder that it maintains tlio policy of last rear, tliat tlie unemployed who have facilities for growing vegetables for the use of their families must take advantage of these opportunities. This is the period of the year which may be said to mark tlie beginning of the gardening year. In the vegetable portion at the present time, the majority of the ground is empty with the exception of weeds, remains of spent crops, and other rubbish. There is probably a portion of a few root crops, cabbage, and oddments here and there, but most of it is idle, and now is the time to get to work and prepare for next spring. The first work is to give a good clean up, and to dig over the ground burying all rubbish and weeds at the bottom of a trench. Lots of people seem, adverse to burying clumps or sods of grass, yet there is nothing bettei\to put in the ground. Even large clumps of p.aspalum or Yorkshire fog if chopped up with the spade and buried eighteen inches deep will add to the store of plant food. Certainly a few pieces of grass may appear later on, but nothing to cause any great trouble. The only weeds that should not be buried are couch grass, docks, convolvulus, nut grass and such like. Dried leaves should be added to the soiL Sticks should be burnt, but the majority of hedge clippings can be buried. Manure is expensive to buy, especially where there is scarcely enough money coming in to buy the necessaries of life, but there is "a lot of grass that can be chipped off the side of the road and similar places, that makes splendid plant food. Wood ashes and fowl manure are also valuable. It must be remembered that these natural manures as tliey may be called are slow acting and it "is not until they have undergone the process of decay, that they become available as plant foods, hence the need for them to be dug in as early in the winter as possible, so that it is available when the growth becomes active in early spring. Trenching is not a popular pastime and anything that can be claimed as a plant food' substitute is sure of a good reception. Whether done by horse power or the "brawny arms and the sweat of the brow," it is still the most important part of vegetable growing, and it will be found that a piece of ground dug two feet deep will nive a better return than ground only worked a foot deep. Disease and pests play no small part in our gardens, and it is the excuse usually put forth for an unkempt garden. One control for disease and pests is to use a soil fumigant such as naphthalene. This should be sprinkled on after digging is completed, and worked into the top four inches of soil. However, this costs money and has to be cut out like many more things, and the alternative is deep trenching and cultivating. It is not lessening the value of manure or soil fumigants, w.lon one says that trenching or deep digging is ever so much mare important than v:anurc, and will largely replace manure and will certainly eliminate many pests and diseases. By good cultivation, the elimination of weeds and rubbish it is possible to grow good vegetables. Of late years we have come to place more value on the bag of chemicals than on the "brawny arm," probably because it is the easier, but the older generations grew quite as good crops as we do with less disease, CORDON GOOSEBERRIES. The method of training gooseberries •and currants as cordons is not very general, but to those who are interested' it is very useful for utilising wall space and even as a screen or dividing fence. The best trees to procure are young one-year-old bushes with a clean "leg" or "stem. The first pruning must consist of

tlie cutting of all laterals and growths but the ones that arc to form the future tree. In growing any fruit on the "cordon'' system all the energies of the tree are forced into the production and development of particular branches. SUBSEQUENT PRUNING. The aim of subsequent pruning should be the development of the trees along the same open lines; the removal of dead and weak shoots of all crossing boughs, or growth likely to crowd the centre of the tree and prevent the free passage of air and sun. If fairly big branches have to be removed, either to open the centre of an old tree, or to -Tet rid of a decaying branch, attention should be given to two points. The offending branch should be cut through as close° to the main stem as the saw will work, and to prevent the making of a nastv ragged wound, the bark on the lower side of the branch should be out awav before commencing to saw. bee that'the implements used, whether knife, saw or secateurs, are as eliarp as possible. Many a tree has been spoiled by the uso of" blunt instruments. After pruning, touch the ends of the cut branches and any wounds with a brush dipped in Stockholm tar, white lead paint or gas tar. All that is needed is to sterilise the cut surface and prevent the introduction of disease. It does no*; take long, and although there are plenty of fine trees that are doing well, look the picture of health, and were never fussed over or had their wounds treated, the operation takes such a little tinie, and costs to little, it is worth doiug.