In The Vegetable Garden

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 3

In The Vegetable Garden

For use in general seed sowing, a blood and bone mixture is the most v valuable and can be used with safety when sowing most vegetable seeds. Where blood and bone is not available, superphosphate and fish manure mixed together will give equally good results. If small birds are pecking the tops of young peas as they appear through the ground, a few threads of black cotton along the row will prove a good deterrent. A light spraying with kerosene or lime sulphur—two tablespoons to a gallon of water—may also be given. Particular attention should be given to the sowing of the indispelfsables—carrots, onions, parsnips, globe beet and silver beet, lettuce, radish, cabbage, , leeks, parsley, turnips, summer spinach, mustard and cress. Provided you have planted early potatoes, main crop varieties can get attention, although any time in October will also be quite suitable. Good, heavy, croppers are Aucklander, Dakota, Ilam Hardy. King Edward, Constellation, Arran Banner or Glen Ilam. These are all certified varieties.

Keep up supplies by sowing plenty of peas. Croppers like Greenfeast, Onward, Blue Bantam, Stratagem and Aiderman are suitable for sowing now, but later will require staking. Lettuce and cabbage plants are scarce this season, hence the sowing of a pinch of seed of each is advised. Both will be ready for cutting in about three months. French beans and scarlet runner beans can be sown in sheltered places, but where any frosts are likely it would be wiser to defer sowing for the present. Other vegetables, of unusual character, but worth while for the sake of variety, can now be sown. These include salsify (or vegetable oyster) needing much the same treatment as parsnips; endive, green curled, for salads; New Zealand spinach (very prolific); kohlrabi and celeriac (the turnip rooted celery). These do not require any special attention, and all contribute to the season’s bill of fare.

Prepare sites for planting out tomatoes next month by digging in a forkful of compost for each plant. Make sure it is well mixed into the top spit, not just left in the mass. Where artificial manure is to be used, leave it until the time of setting out the plants and then mix it into the top spit as would be the case with the compost

When sowing beans, place the seed with the eye downwards. The best method of planting is to draw out V-shaped drills four inches deep and two feet apart and drop the seeds four to six inches apart in the drills.

$ * « Remember when planting fruit trees that good drainage is essential. The excavation of the hole often affords a good opportunity ifor burying unwanted bricky rubble and old tinware, thereby serving two purposes.