GARDEN NOTES.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13231, 26 September 1908, Page 7

GARDEN NOTES.

(Bt Hob.-s.)

'. Weather co-ditao__ continue favourablo for gardening. The fine days alternated at intervals, withi." copious downpours of rain have insureds all newly planted trees and shrubs, arid tho peroontag© of deaths this year should bo tlw> lowest known. SoptenV ber is often a very dry montii, aud ia especially noted for its drying nor--: [westers. This season, however,; t_» ; : rainfall has been liberallyN bestowed, , jaTid at nicely arranged -vtervals, and : I there has been almcst an absence of continuous drying winds, which is so damaging to newly planted trees.and to spring growth generally. Tho cJos- ; ing days of September or the opening ones in Ootober are bc-fc remembered/; by horticulturists, by tho fact that a violent nor'-wester followed by a souwester, acid afterwards a sti-ging: frost, is tho almost, annual experrionoo - which they havo to anduro. This annual blast bas boon noted for century. The late-Mr Geo. Mattnews, Mornington, Dunedis, ; ; used to predict this annual storm, and warn planters and seed sow_rs of its assured arrival about -the Ist.of-October. : : So regularly did. ho predict it, Mid al- . most as regularly did it arrive to date, '. that it was eventually dubbed tho;"Matthews gale," which name it is still known by among tiro older h orra-; culturists of Dunedip. ■ i In view of the unsettkd nature ol tho weather at this seasain. of tho yctar, and tbe almost oortainty of a sev_ro '■'{. frost after any change, it will be wiso; to giva closo attention to tiro shelter-- .■; ; ng a~d protecting of all tender plants. Setting out of t<mder bedding and > tomato plants must not.be undortakea ,; for three or four week- at t-jftearHest.; Fine days have a most enticing effect: om some onthusia-tio a__tteurs ' -wSp, because of thorn, basten. to set out evesri _ the lniost tender of nlants with :.-; disastrous results. . Competent garcbß? ■ era who understand our sea-ana..'.jnll: not begin to ~la_.t oat till tho 20th; %f> October at the earliest, the"grouad ing too/ cold, and tho sudden, appear-;: auoe of frosts a certainty to:tftftti date., ■'■"■' v ••. ■'■,:•