Gardeners’ Note-book

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31587, 26 January 1968, Page 6

Gardeners ’ Note-book

This is the first of a monthly selection of gardening snippets. Hints and tips sent in by readers will be included if deemed of sufficient interest. Asparagus produces both male and female flowers on separate plants. Skimmia, Aucuba, Chinese gooseberry, ornamental bamboo, Nandina species and hollies are but some individual subjects with similiar characteristics. Plant families as Podocarpaceae, Pannaceae Hauraceae, Sterculianceae etal contain such members. Such plants are said to be dioecious: with either pistillate or staminate flowers but not both, and it is necessary to provide both a male and a female plant if fruit or berries are desired. # # « Japanese and European plums have certain differences in growth habit and form. Japanese plums flower earlier and generally have a peachlike leaf; they fruit on one-year-old wood only. European plums have a rounder leaf and carry fruit on two-year (and older) shoots. The Japanese plums require less chilling over winter for satisfactory fruit bud development, and the need for cross pollination is much less amongst the varieties than for European plums. The most essential elements required in the soil to enable plants to make satisfactory growth are nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium but minor elements are also necessary, particularly to counteract deficiencies and either excess or insufficient availability of various minerals. The three essential elements are most usually supolied as organic fertilisers such as sulphate of ammonia (N). superphosphate (P) and sulphate of potash (K). Ratio references to complete fertilisers, e.g. 1:2:1 are always given in the order stated. s # Si

Carrots are high in vitamin A and contain vitamins C and B also. They are also rich in phosphorus and calcium and contain some iron. One large raw carrot has a carbohydrate gram rating of 5 coinoared with a small potato which has a 23-gram . content. During World War II the economies of vegetable growing were closely studied with a view to ascertaining not only which produced the greatest amount of food per unit area but also which could be produced with the greatest economy of labour. Results achieved at the University of California placed carrots second behind spinach but ahead of onions

and potatoes In yield per acre and fourth on yield per acre man hours. Certified seed refers to a product grown to stringent government regulations, which includes roguing during the growing season and inspections and approval by the Department of Agriculture. Such seed carries a certificate or tag of approbation. # # # Rerefences to months of the year are often perplexing when mentioned in publications from the Northern Hemisphere. While exact monthly relationships between Northern and Southern

Hemispheres are not possible because of such factors as climatic influences, as a rough guide January here corresponds with July in the i Northern Hemisphere. February with August and so on. # ® St Spades were once manufac- . tured with foot rests on the blade top. For some reason this is not done now and the result is that regular usage ( soon destroys the sole of the [ shoe. This problem can be • largely overcome by placing i a short piece of longitudint ally-split rubber hose over the - top, or even welding a bit of i pipe on.