TILLAGE WITH SCIENCE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 43, 14 November 1907, Page 2

TILLAGE WITH SCIENCE.

A SUBURBAN GARDEN, INTERESTING SPOT AT KAROfU. Mγ. George H. Davies, of Karori, is one of those few Wolington men wlin aro iuckv enough to. possess a gardon rr-an tho floor of an ordinary diningroom. He docs his gardening on tho biggest part of nn acre. Hight up among the blue ski-js—*s all the lvaron people livo—he is able -o look down pityingly upon the metropolitan world bulow whilo lie absorbs the precious sunlight, of winch ho and his neighbours pusposs more than their share. Mr. Davies is a thorough dovotee of tho spado and hoe. It is rumoured that tho Karori Bowling Club has cast its nots in vain to catch ur. Davw>? into its membership. Those who know what recreation a gardon can produce, and who a~o also aware of Mr. Da vies , attachment to tho garden cult, will fool quite safe in defying tho bowling club to do its worst. Mr Daviss' sparo moments are not "to lot." In hia gardening, as in other things, our friend is a scientist. He helps his plants to grow woll, because ho knows what they like bost, and how thoy can grow tho oasiest, and ho provides them with just those conditions. Those of us who have only just reached that stage in tho gardening scienco where wo havo learned the valuo of deep digging and loose surface soil would opon our c-yes very widely at some of the things Mr. Davies would toll us. On tho state of tho weather ho is 'quite a seer. He discovers tho weather prospects months ahead, and ho makes out his gardening diary accordingly. A sample of his intricate interesting method of chasing tho fickle goddess of weather to earth was given in'an article in Tim Dominion on Novomber 2, which- no doubt many of ouri readers have by now fully mastered. No longer will ono need to Durse un a rueful fana

when gardening directions tell us to "plant before a shower." Novelties find a welcome placo in this Karon garden. There is a species of broad bean there that would ornament any flower garden, it is growing as a shelter hedge around a potato patch—a purpose for which broad beans are remarkably well fitted with regard to many tender crops. But tho special beauty or tins plant is the colour of its flowers.- The uroad bean, as one generally knows it, posS °rf a m°"' er t,lilt is P racLr 'cally black and wluto. Ihe flowers under discussion, on the contrary, possess various striking reddish shades, winch, in the abundant green enviKfTro'i makcs tllc Plant uncommonly beautinil. lho ripe bean is said to possess this advantage over tho ordinary sort—that the pod _itsolf is edible. Potatoes intended for .seed aro selected egg-sized, loft to green in the sun, and later on started into growth by packing them (with the eye end upwards) m boxes. This causes all the growth to be concentrated in a few of the best eyes, and, when planted out, crops of big tubers result, hoods of other kinds of plants are not strewn recklessly, like trains of gunpowder in trenches—or by the handful as chickens are fed—as often done. They nro planted with an eye to the results desired. Such a simple thing as tho planting of a French bean seed mny be improved by a little scionco. Mr. Davies' method is to plant the seed with tho. indented spot undermost The hollow, or indent, on tho edge of a bnkn seed is tho'place whore growth begins. Tho first shoot is a root, and its proper direction is downwards. Hence that spot is placed undormost, in order that the root may not come out first on top of the seed, and have to spend several days in circumventing the seed and gotting a downward course. Mr. Davies doesn't waste his weeds. Ho is not one of those people who fret,', over a few weeds in a garden, although he likes them to K-eop to their proper places. By the medium oj a compost heap thoy aro turned into valuable plant food. A lingo brown polyanthus primrose that turns pink/ under gasliehtthat strango plant the .Chatham Islands lily, with its big loud loaf and-its little modest bluo flower; many beautiful specimens of tho popular modern flowers; beds of standard roses, trellises of roses and French a sufficient balance of fruit troos rarities m shrubs, and that natural grouping of things that makes a garden always so restful to tired nerves, all find true appreciation in this suburban garden. More people with spare ground might well try to become infected with tho gardening fever