Garden Notes LEVELLING IS IMPORTANT BEFORE SOWING NEW LAWNS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28541, 21 March 1958, Page 9

Garden Notes LEVELLING IS IMPORTANT BEFORE SOWING NEW LAWNS

[Specially written for "The Press"}

[By

T. D. LENNIE,

Friday, March 21, 1958. One of the most important jobs claiming attention at present should be the sowing of new lawns-

Lawn making is often done for the first time with only limited experience, so that some hints on. the procedure will no doubt be welcome.

The most important preliminary i? that of levelling the area. This should be done by the use of pegs, a spirit-level and a long 12-14 ft board. Using these will establish an essential level and tne ground should be raked until it is satisfactory. This raking serves two purposes. The continued treading finds soft patches and consolidates them, while the raking establishes a firm, true surface. Rolling can assist, but just before sowing the suriace should

A.H.R.I.H., N.Z.}

be raked, and then raked after seed sowing to cover the seed. Sowing the seed on a rolled smooth surfpee is unwise, as wind would blow it about and interfere with its distribution. One ounce of seed to the square yard is the minimum allowance. Up to double that amount would not be excessive. For a good front lawn : sow a .mixture of fescue, which, though more expensive, will entail the minimum of lawn cutting, and ipvqr. the years this A factor worth considering. Seed sown this month should be ready for its first - cutting by July. Then the roller can be used when conditions are fairly drv.. This cutting should be done without the grass-catcher, for it is better to return the grass pieces to the soil where it will help to check irost lifting. In most cases it is wise to give a good sprinkling of fertiliser over the surface before sowing the seed. Where birds are troublesome red-leading the seed is a wise precaution. FLOWER GARDEN This is bulb planting time, which means that all the spring and summer beauties can be dealt with. Most bulbs are cheap enough to be planted liberally, for it is a fact that mass planting is most effective. Take the low priced sorts for instance—anemones, ranunculus, sparaxis, free2ias, fritonia, grape hyacinths and babianas. What a great show these make when massed in beds or as edgings, and they have mostly finished before spring planting becomes urgent. Hyacinths, tulips and narcissus fill a different role, and being strictly perennial, can ,be added to each season to build up a fine collection of varieties. Tulips are specially suited to mass planting in beds associated with later planting of wallflowers, polyanthus or auriculas. There is now a wonderful variety of New Zealand grown tulip bulbs and colours are attractive. It can be said that it is not wise to leave tulip bulbs in the soil over summer as the tulip “fire” disease is serious where the bulbs are grown in hot soil. Like the narcissus, the tulip is a temporate country product and there should get what we may call an English climate. Get in any cuttings desired now. Althuogh not many may be required, it is a ready way of getting your plants of hydrangeas, geraniums, fuchsias, gazanias and arctotis to flower next summer. Short well-ripened pieces of this season’s growth, cut off just below a joint, will root freely enough if dipped in a hormone rooting powder and planted in a shaded warm corner. Polyanthus, auriculas, violas and pansies can be divided. Cut off the yellowed leaves of polyanthus and auriculas and straggling stems of violas and pansies. Plant in close rows in the back garden to winter. In hot positions, polyanthus will probably have lost their leaves to red spider, and will show only a few yellowed leaves. These should be cut off close and burned; afterwards spray the crowns with nicotine or kattakilla. Violets often suffer the same fate after a hot summer, and should be treated in just the same way.

Existing lawns should receive attention, especially with regard to maintenance and weed control. A top-dressing of good manure is necessary, as an annual dressing, and to clean up weeds in the lawn is certain by spraying 24 D or other hormone. Roses can be trimmed back considerably as the dry summer has caused plants to look very sickly. Dead growths should be cut out, with much of the top parts and flower shoots. This will take away much of the yellowed spotty leaves.

Where lilies are doing well, unnecessary disturbance is not wise, but if a shift is contemplated, the time for such action will depend on the variety. In general, it is wise to wait until the stalk and leaves show yellow, which will be about six weeks after flowering. Early flowering species such as umbellatum, elegans, candidum, longiflorum, and regale have now reached the lifting stage. The later sorts can safely be left for a few weeks. The prolonged display of the lily family is remarkable. Beginning with the elegans type in November, we find speciosums flowering in April, so that liliums have a six months’ flowering period. Not many other flowers can do that.

VEGETABLE GARDEN This is the time of the year for sowing onions, one of the most profitable crops for the South Island, for the growth made before winter ensures a splendid maturity for spring and summer.

Thus onions sown now will assure a good crop of wellripened onions for next season, and it will not be wise to miss the opportunity. Spring-sown onions, though capable of being grown to full size, cannot attain that keeping status so desirable. Types of Spanish, brown or straw-coloured, are the best for keeping. Those who prefer very large bulbs should sow either Ailsa Craig or Giant Rocca. The best sort for spring use as salad onions is that known as white Lisbon. It is mild and does not run To big bulbs. Harvesting of ripened onions and shallots can be done, for resowing the following crop. It will be necessary to apply superphosphate and bone manure to the drills at two ounces to the yard of row. Lime and soot can also be applied as a surface dressing after sowing. Sow early cabbage for planting and cutting in spring. One of the small quick hearting kinds is best. Flower of Spring, Greyhound, Wheeler’s Imperial, and Early Market are good. Other seeds worth sowing now would be lettuce —varieties suggested are Attractive, Imperial 615, Tom Thumb, Neopolitan, Great Lakes and Webb’s Wonderful. Tomatoes should have yellowing leaves, side shoots and top flower clusters removed. These latter will not be able to produce fruits, therefore can be removed to help earlier setting. If it is intended to plant an asparagus bed in August, begin now with preparing the site. A bed 6ft by 12ft will accommodate 24 plants. Open out the bed 3ft deep; put in a foundation of old rubble, tins and like rubbish and fill in with a mixture of soil manure or compost. The result should be good for years. Clear away spent crops. Empty spaces can very profitably be sown in mustard, lupin, cape barley, or oats for green manuring. This is for digging in with lime in July. Keep the soil hoed between growing crops and use the hose when watering the garden. Colonies of grey aphis on cabbage can best be controlled by spraying with nicotine or kattakilla. FRUIT GARDEN Fruit picking can proceed with varieties beginning to colour well, but later sorts such as delicious, Jonathan, sturmer. Lord Wolseley, stayman, winesap, ballarat, and golden delicious can safely be left on for another month. With pears winter cole, winter nelis, Napoleon, beurre diet and Easter beurre are not yet ready to pick. . * Clean up the raspberry patch by cutting out all the old canes at ground level. Many of them, may be coated with colonies of big red scales, and these should t burned. Leave four to eight of the best young canes for next year. Turn over the ground around the clumps,' and later on apply a good mulch of manure or sawdust. A minor pruning of stone fruit trees can be done, relieving them of surplus inner shoots and shortening others to distribute growths and build a shapely tree. A good-looking frame usually means a good-bearing tree. Where vines and tomatoes are grown under glass, two important things are ventilation and watering. Both must be liberally done during dry spells, and as both crops are now fast maturing some help by liquid manuring would 1 be wise. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS J.M.C. (Hawarden).—There is no need to worry about the grape vine. It has not yet reached ! fruiting stage probably influenced by your over-manuring the soil. 1 thereby encouraging that excess ; growth you mention. You can ; continue taking off some of the long shoots not wanted as a framework on the shed wall. In ■ winter this shortening must be ■ continued as the bunches are ’ carried on the older wood. Advice on this point will appear ’ in this column when the time ‘ comes.

N.A.A. (Timaru).—Your hydranga trouble is not a common one with these plants and can be controlled. It is a rust disease akin to that attacking hollyhock and celery. Cut out and burn all affected branches, then spray Bordeaux or Colloidal sulphur freely over all adjoining growths. All the plants should have a lime sulphur spray in winter time to I check dormant spores. It is not wise to propagate from plants affected.

T.J. (Hororata). —24D or Weedone would destroy weeds in your onion patch, but is not effective against grasses, which you could remove after by hand weeding. Both are effective against lawn weeds without harming the grass.