Autumn Days In Auckland Gardens

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 64, 16 March 1944, Page 3

Autumn Days In Auckland Gardens

1 MAINTENANCE of gardens is of considerable importance at the present period. A close watch should be kept on cabbages VEGETABLE for caterpillars and GARDEN aphis. Arsenate of lead will control the former and nicotine compounds the latter. Later, derris compounds, which are non-poisonous, will replace the arsenate of lead. All growing crops should be kept weeded, particularly celery, cabbages and tomatoes. A torpedo hoe will be found the most useful implement for scooping off the weeds and keeping the top soil loose. Although tomatoes are bearing freely, it is still necessary to keep laterals cut. also to spray with arsenate of lead and bordeaux mixture to ward off caterpillars and blight. In establishing new crops it should be a general rule to sow sparingly, but when thinning is necessary a wet day should be chosen, and the thinnings transplanted. Most root crops and saladings can be successfully transplanted, but should be kept well watered for at least a week. Sowings should not be on a large scale, for they will not take the place of the main crops. However, there is room for garden swedes, spinach, silver beet, carrots and also cabbages and cauliflowers for later transplanting. If late peas are stunted through slow growth in the dry spell, water with nitrate of soda at the. rate of one teaspoonful to the gallon. No time should be lost now in the harvesting of onions. The necks should be turned over to hasten ripening. Plant as many cabbages and cauliflowers as there is room available, allowing 2ft 6in between each plant. Beans for winter use, such as the prolific Boston Bountiful, are now ready for havesting. Don't pick the pods until they are dry or nearly dry; give them a day or two out in the sun, and then put them in a sugar bag. Slam the bag on a patch of ground and the beans will pod themselves. * * * * "\yOOLLY aphis or American blight, is prevalent in many home orchards. This trouble is one of long standing, but DANGER TO is checked in comAPPLE TREES mercial orchards by adopting the correct spraying schedule. If the undersides of the apple tree branches and shoots are patched with clusters of white cottonwool like blight, here is warning that woolly aphis is threatening serious damage to the tree. Apart from the damage these aphides do by sucking the sap, the swellings and wounds that follow cripple the shoots and make excellent entry points for canker fungus and other diseases. Many an apple tree has been crippled for life owing to an early infestation of this blight haying been passed over as something of no serious consequences. During the summer months the best spray to use is black-leaf 40, throe tablespoonfuls to four gallons of water, to which is added 2oz of paste arsenate of lead. During the dormant season the tree should be sprayed, at considerable pressure with red oil at a strength of three four gallons of water. CONTINUE throughout this month the planting of winter and spring flowering bulbs. A good general t.i mroD fertiliser to mix with the nI J k Oll before PJamirig is GARDEIS bonemeal. When bearded , ~ , . fla S irises require transplanting this is a suitable time for the work. They may be separated into numerous rooted pieces replanting just beneath the soil. Those having limited garden space can secure a fine spring display by planting daffodils, hyacinths and freesias in pots. Sow seed of all hardy annuals for the spring. Cut back all straggling plants. Asters showing signs of wilt should be immediately pulled out and burned. A main sowing of winter-flowering sweet peas should be put in now. Rock garden plants can be raised easily by sowinc the seeds in well-drained' flower pots in March, and placing them out of doors, leaving them there during the winter and transplanting in the spring. Hydrangeas can be pruned after the flowers have faded. Thin out all weak shoots from the base and keep the centre of the bush fairly open. Cut back to about half the length of each stem, just above a strong pair of buds. Old, leggy bushes will benefit by a severe pruning, reducing the growth to as much as two feet or less from the ground. It is unlikely that they will flower very freely the first year after this drastic treatment. Plants should be renewed every five or six years at least if they are to give of their best constantly. This will not be hard to do, as they are easy to propagate. Cuttings of ripened wood are easiest to strike in the autumn or early winter. Take • the strongest-looking shoots with the buds set fairly close on the stem, about four buds to the stem. They should be planted in rich soil in a moist part of the garden, trimming off any leaves surrounding the lower pair of buds, which should be buried. The plants should not be allowed to flower in the first season, but by the following year they will have formed sturdy bushes.