GARDEN NOTES

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24570, 19 May 1945, Page 5

GARDEN NOTES

(Specially Written lor “The Press.") [By T. D. LENNIE. FJ.H., N.Z.]

Answer* to Correspondents “Apple’’ (Spreydon) writes that he has a Stumer tree eight years old and very stunted, and asks If hard cutting baric would improve it, or should it be cut out. Such a tree would take several year* to rejuvenate, and best results, in the long run, would be obtained by replacing it with a healthy young tree. "Apple” also asks for a good general fertiliser for apples, the amount to use, and when to apply it. A mulching of sheep or cow manure dug into the soil round the tree in the winter will be beneficial. Artificial fertilisers are applied in early spring or summer, as it is wasteful spreading these when the roots are inactive. Four to five hundred-weight an acre would be a suitable dressing made up of 3cwt superphosphate, and lewt each of sulphate of ammonia and potash. FLOWER GARDEN Manure and dig herbaceous borders. Box edging can be lifted, broken up and replanted. Gladioli should all be lifted and stored. Clear away dead growths from border plants. Top growths of roses should be shortened. Prepare for planting flowering shrubs. Gainer fallen leaves and add them to the compost heap. VEGETABLE GARDEN Tidy up asparagus bed and mulch with manure. Plant cabbage, lettuce, and cauliflower. Sow lettuce, parsley, cabbage, and silver beet. Earth up growing cabbage to keep them crept. Root crops can be dug and stored. FRUIT GARDEN All apples and pears should be in store. Make and plant new strawberry beds. The pruning of loganberries and small fruits can continue. Fruit trees can be planted next month. Gather up walnut leaves and bum. ' In the glasshouse a certain amount of obvious tidying up will be required. Vine leaves will be littering the ground, and, with the remains of tomato plants, should be gathered up. Both of these may be carrying spores of fungoid diseases. Next month spraying and winter attention to the vines may be started. Lilies are always popular. Their particular needs add to the difficulty of getting some kinds established, but sufficient are of such easy culture as to make their success possible. While some few, .Ilk? Martagon, Candidum Chalcidonicum, and Hansoni like some lime in the soil, most of the others, particularly Auratum,. Henryii, the Speclosums, and Regale,.love plenty of well-made compost at their roots. Lilium Longifolium, the stately St. Joseph’s lily Pardatlnum, the Panther lily from, the United States of America, and the old tiger lily are other favourites that will grow anywhere, but a hot: or dry position for all of them should be avoided. ... . In every vegetable garden there'are'at this time of year plots of ground idle from a summer crop of tomatoes Or potatoes. These plots can best be rested by assisting the soil bacteria. The digging in of some form of rich animal manure or compost is obviously the best means, but, as this is not easily procured, do the next best thing by applying carbonate of lime at the rate of four to eight ounces tojthe square yard, lightly digging it in. This can be followed by an application- of superphosphate or bone, dust In the spring Berrying shrubs are now at their best, possibly because of contrast with their autumn leaves. It is perhaps natures way of ensuring a good winter, food sup* ply for the birds. They have cleared the Rowan and spindlcberries, but there are still good displays of cotoneaster and crataegus. Cotoneaster serotlna is one of our best berrying shrubs. Other worthwhile members of this shrub family . are Watered, which has slightly darker foliage, and Frigida, which is more Upright. Cotoneasters could be used with excellent effect as hedge plants. At this season the rockery garden may not be very attractive, as in most cases it Is designed more for summer display and too often attention is not given to make it worth while all the year round. Dry, hot conditions cause many plants to fail and leave gaps, so that in time there is a preponderance of the more hardy plants in the rockery. This can only be prevented by using discretion and Ailing the gaps. Aubrietia, saxifrage, arid campanulas will continue to-grow, hut the charm of the rockery Is In Its variety, and that variety can he based on numerous very hardy little plants- planted according to the peculiar requirements of each. For Instance, most of our hardy bulbs can be used, particularly me dwarf narcissus, some of the tulip species like Clusiana and Kauffmanlana, snowdrops, Iris reticulata, Chionodocea, r and autumn flowering crocus. Then the spider biles (nerines). Primulas Wanda, Obconlca, and Malacoides. anemone nemprosa, and other woodland beauties should be included. There is really no limit to ttie.Uft that can be effectively used. Iris Prifnila makes a good splash in yellow and blue shades, the dianthu# in red; and the various gentians in blue. . . Grass grubs, the larvae of the bronze beetle, are well-known enemies of the lawn, but they are also very destructive to many other surface rooting _ plants. Newly plahted'lceland popples, dlanthus, and strawberries can he ruined by these vermin eating the i roots. They can . he controlled by applying a poison water or grass grub exterminator. Where their presence is suspected no time should he lost In thoroughly wetting the soil to a depth of six inches.

COMPOST NOTES

[By HUMUS.] Surely it is the part of wisdom to give the most earnest attention to everything pertaining to the restoration of a healthy race. One of the first things to realise Is that our physical existence is maintained and nourished by the soil, and that we in turn must see to it that me soil is fed and nourished by those elements that are natural and essential to it. So much depends upon our attitude 4o both the vegetable garden, and the farm. If we keep exploiting our soil Instead -of husbanding it, then are breaking what must be soil law, i.e., the law of return to, the soil. . This law of return underlies one of the great principles of life and sooner or later we pay for breaking it. This great principle has for years been ignored and violated and perhaps much of /the result is in our huge hospitals and mental institutions. _ . Sir Albert Howard, world-renowned agriculturist, has truly said that “health is married to agriculture.” Only with food produced from vital, health-giving soil can we expect to build a vital, healthy nation. _ .. In her splendid book “The living Soli,” Lady Eve Balfour, herself a farmer, has said: “If mankind cannot devise and enforce ways of dealing with the earth which will preserve the source of life, we pmst look forward to a time, remote it may be, yet clearly dlscernable—when our kind, having wasted its great inheritance, will fade from the earth because of the ruin it has accomplished; for out of the soil are we fashioned, and by the products of the soil is our earthly existence maintained.” ,