GARDEN NOTES CLOSE ATTENTION NOW WILL BE WELL REPAID

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28133, 23 November 1956, Page 10

GARDEN NOTES CLOSE ATTENTION NOW WILL BE WELL REPAID

[Specially written for "The Press"}

[By

T. D. LENNIE. A.H.R.I.H., N.Z.]

Friday, November 23, 1956. - Close attention paid now to all parts of the garden will be well repaid later for young seedlings are now coming away and grown plants call for some control.

The home gardener can move around his garden with a great deal of selfsatisfaction because prospects are good. Although the general impression is of a very dry season, appearances show that this is not so; the rain that has fallen has been sufficient to put everything well on the way to an assured display. «

That being so. how can they be helped? Apart from pest control, all plants should be considered as individuals and given sufficient room to expand. We realise this with vegetables. but seldom with flowers, so that sowing thinly, transplanting when young and also thinning out is often overlooked. We do this with carrots and onions, but peas and sweet corn are often too thickly planted and the crop suffers.

The bad effects of 'trying to get too much from the available ground is well illustrated with roses. It is nice to see a rosebush well covered with clusters of blooms, so that if you want to pick a bloom, there is only a three or four inch stem without also cutting the buds lower down on the same stem. To' get really choice blooms, remove early all the buds on each main shoot leaving the top one only. You will then have .a dozen or more stems 18 to 20 inches long, carrying a vigorous show bloom on each. This is the form of disbudding practised by both chrysanthemum, carnation and dahlia growers who want to get the best from their plants, for after all, the food supply for all may be limited. FLOWER GARDEN Roses will repay attention just now for aphis and mildew will be appearing fast. For the former spray an insecticide and make sure the undersides of leaves are reached, for there many of the obnoxious insects live and breed fast. Look out for them also on antirrhinums, carnations, and other border plants. The sticky, shining appearance of leaves is a sure sign of aphis on’the plant. Honey dew is another name for this excretion given off by them# Mildew shows as a greyish dusting on the young leaves especially in a hot sheltered position and can be unsightly and harmful. If wise you will spray now with Bordeaux or cosan as a preventive.

Chrysanthemums can be planted and old clumps thinned out. Fewer stems and better blooms will be the result. New plantings of violets can be made. Propagation can be by division of existing clumps or through young rooted plants, many of which will be found round the old stools.

It is also dahlia planting time., and when we realise what a tremendous' asset they are to garden display, it is no wonder their popularity is so universal. Tremendous strides have been made in recent years by‘raisers giving unusual beauty, charm, and loveliness in the newer sorts, so that it would be wise to add some of these to your collection. I think greater strideshave been made with the medium-sized

charms and decoratives than with the monster show class.

Fragile growths of delphinium, oaeony, liliums. hollyhock, and lupins should be staked. With these and other spreading nlants, a trio of stakes round the clumps will be most effective. These stakes will not long be unsightly, as growth will soon hide them.

If you wish to influence the colouring of hydrangeas, those in dry positions may be helped to intensify pink colourings by freely sprinkling lime round them, while those in a damp, shaded position will give blue or mauve shadings through the use of sulphate of iron in the same way. Apply these at fortnightly intervals throughout the flowering season. Sweet peas will well repay regular attention to staking or supports. Young nlants should be given bushy twigs, later taller sticks, or tying to trellis. Do not let them flower much until four or five feet high, as formation of seed pods is fatal to good flowering. Provided good growth is established and the ground was adequately manured or composted, things will be all right until flowering commences. From that time on a weekly watering with sulphate of ammonia at one full dessertspoonful to the gallon will prolong the display.

It will be in order to carry on with any planting out contemplated. The rain has freshened newly-plant-ed things and work can continue wherever space on the borders is available. Asters, zinnias, stocks, dianthus, antirrhinums, Phlox drummondii, verbena, French and African marigolds, and salvia are very suitable. Flower seeds of all kinds can be sown, especially those of the perennial class that will be useful for filling up the borders in the early winter. VEGETABLE GARDEN It should be obvious that the winter supply of greens is important, and it is not always wise to rely on buying plants later. Sow a few seeds now of savoy, broccoli, sprouts, leeks, and curled kale for planting out in January. Also the celery trench should be prepared. Dig out a 2ft trench, refilling with a good mixture of manure

or compost, added to the soil dug out. and leave it to consolidate for a month or so. All should then be in good condition for the plants. Tomato planting should also be.continued. Earlier planted ones should have side shoots nipped out in favour of the leader, which should be tied to the stake early. Spraying with bordeaux or cosan would be wise should dark patches on the leaves appear or these start to shrivel.

The thinning of seedling carrots, parsnips, and beet' should be done early. It also gives a chance to remove weeds in the row. Plants* to put out to help the domestic supply would include onion, cabbage, lettuce. cauliflower, and silver beet.

French beans and scarlet runners may be sown. With the f ormer, make a second sowing when the first sown are about three inches high. Peas are important, too. because a succession should be maintained. The best sorts for present sowing are the main crop varieties —Strategem. Greenfeast, Onward, and Aiderman—the biggest of them all. Sow when the previous lot are three or four inches high. Other vegetables to sow would include cucumber, veg. marrow, pumpkin. silver beet, and spinach, parsley, salsify, mustard, and cress, turnip and swedes. Keep a close watch on carrots for little white aphis, which can be forestalled by laying a trail of hortnap alongside the rows. Make a point of staking all peas. Even the early dwarfs in good soil will give a better crop if kept upright. It will pay to foster the. potato crop this season. Keep the rows free of weeds, and before earthing up spread a good fertiliser along both sides of the row so that it will be covered by the earth: Allow a dessert spoonful to each plant, and put the hose sprinkler through the patch in dry weather. If your lawn is free of weed seeds, scatter the clippings between the rows to a half-inch depth. They will then soon wilt and keep the soil moist. FRUIT GARDEN There is much uncertainty about the treatment of fruiting trees so far as protecting the crop is concerned. With good crop prospects ahead any necessary spraying is imperative. The most effective control of codlin moth on apple and pear is arsenate of lead at the strength of two dessertspoonfuls to a gallon of water. This should be repeated in a month’s time. An application to the raspberry patch and black currants would also catch the early brood of borer on the canes. If apple leaves show silvery and lose vigour suspect mildew and spray bordeaux. Wolseley, Jonathan, Sturmer, and Cox’s Orange are specially liable to infection.

With stone fruits, lime sulphur, or bordeaux should be used. Peach and nectarine leaves will be affected with leaf curl. This shows as reddish blisters on early leaves, and the worst of these should be picked off and burned.

Spread clean straw between rows of strawberries to keep the berries clean and conserve moisture. This is another crop that will benefit from weekly waterings with liquid manure or dry fish meal can be dusted over and watered in.

It is important to maintain maximum ventilation in the greenhouse, as where vines, tomatoes, or pot plants are grown a dry atmosphere should be avoided. On hot mornings leave the vents and door open and induce a moist, warm condition by well watering the floorway.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “Grateful,” Beckenham.—(l) I think the main trouble with both the vine and rose is more want of plant food than disease. The spray to use with both is bordeaux. but there does not seem much evidence of disease on either of your sprigs. If you were to feed up the roots with blood and bone manure, they should show more vigour in the leaves. Spraying the rose with Black Leaf 40 would control greenfly and was quite right, but I doubt if the plant is as healthy as it should be. Therefore try manuring and watering in dry weather. (2) Do not disturb the spring bulbs for another month at least, otherwise next year’s flowering will be seriously affected. Every third or fourth year is often enough to lift these bulbs and this is best done in. January. D.A.8., Inangahua.—lnstead of a sundail I would suggest a bird-bath. This would require a concrete solid base carrying a three feet round column say four inches in diameter to carry the bath. This would be 12 to 15 inches in diameter and hold 3 or 4 inches of water. You would have to fashion some sort of mould to make this circular bath and ensure that it was ornamental, but this would not be beyond a handy man. An alternative, of course, is to plant an ornamental tree which would not interfere with the lawn or cause much extra labour.