HOME GARDENS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 91, 27 January 1950, Page 7

HOME GARDENS

(By J. S. Yeates, Massey Agricultural College) GREEN MANURE CROPS AND COMPOST In cases where the more common organic manures cannot be readily obtained, even greater importance than usual is attached to the production of organic materials in the garden for digginng in. Green manure crops and compost are the main sources of “home-made” manure. Compost can only be as good as the materials that go into it. You cannot expect to rot down the vegetation oil mineral-deficient land, and to make the land fully fertile by putting only this compost back into it. If we manure a garden only with the compost made from the garden itself we must gradually lose fertility, because there is always a loss of minerals from the action of rain and from the vegetables eaten. To make good compost therefore, we must rot down not only vegetable waste, but must add to it in the heap some in-brought minerals, either as animal waste or as “artificial” fertiliser supplying th« essential nitrogen, prosphate and potash. These can be supplied as blood and bone with a little potash salts added.

My own experience is that it is only a few gardeners who build compost bins in which to rot down their waste material. If you have only a small section, one or two bins are much more tidy than the “rubbish heap.” Each bin should be about four feet each way, built of concrete, brick, or stout boards, so that the wind will not dry out the material being composted. The front should have removable boards so that it is easy to put material in or take it out. A grating of fine wire netting about a foot square can be fitted in the earthen floor of each pit. Air can be let in to a cavity under the grating by a tunnel made of ordinary earthenware field drainage tiles. At least two bins are needed so that one can be left to rot down while the other is being filled. In a larger garden it is often simpler to have merely a “compost heap.” There is usually a corner where all garden waste and kitchen waste can be dumped. Each year or so I leave one heap to rot down, and start a new heap in another part of the garden. Using a heap like this, it is easy to barrow loads of weeds and rubbish right on to the heap. In my case there seems to be enough plant material, sos, aifd animal waste from the kitchen to make a good heap without adding anything else to it. When using compost bins, the usual advice is to put a layer of refuse a few inches deep, then a layer of soil, followed by more refuse. In the average small garden this is often not practical because it is rarely that a definite layer of refuse is added at any one time. The time is fast approaching when various spring flowering bulbs should be planted—especially daffodils and tulips. It is not a bit too soon to plant your daffodils now If you have not prepared the ground, it should be got ready as soon as possible—both for daffodils and for tulips. I was visiting this week a daffodil grower who took quite a number of prizes last spring, and asked her about her methods. Here they are: The bulbs are planted in raised beds (for good drainage) in which there is at least one foot of good, well-worked soil, in this case brought-in top soil. Blood and bone manure, or bone flour, is well worked in. Before planting, a wide flat drill is taken out about six inches deep and a layer of sand put down. The bulbs are set upright on this sand, and more sand is added until the bulbs are just covered. The soil is then put back. The top of the bulb should be about three to four inches below the soil surface. A layer of sawdust about two inches deep is put on the soil. Finally, one of the secrets of having good blooms for a show lies in having as many as possible of each variety to choose from. To grow good exhibition blooms the bulbs are lifted each year, but in the ordinary garden lifting about each two or three years is satisfactory. Plant the bulbs about five inches apart. If you have rows of them, put the rows at any convenient distance apart, from nine inches upwards, according to whether you want to walk or cultivate between the rows.

The ground should be prepared for any other bulbs such as tulips, hyacinths or freisias. I shall deal with these very shortly.

The population of the United States is expected to reach 18,500,000 by 1975. This would be a 26 per cent gain over the present number. XXX There are more than 1,000 drivein theatres in the United States. Patrons sit in their cars and view motion pictures shown on a huge screen that stands in front of the parking area.