GARDEN NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 75, 21 December 1929, Page 34

GARDEN NOTES

(By

“Kowhai.”)

IPOMAEA MAURITANICUS (ROCK CONVOLVULUS). This charming little rock convolvulus is splendid for this time of year, for plants become simply a mass of dainty blue "flowers. The long growths spread over the ground in all directions, covering other rock plants that have finished their flowering season, and bringing colour into parts of the rock garden that would otherwise be uninteresting for the next few months. It has other uses, too. It is ideal tor growing in dry rock walls, or for planting at the top of a low retaining wall. It may be trained to cover low stumps. Plants flower throughout the summer months, and the sky-blue, small, convolvu-lus-like flowers are very attractive and freely produced. At the end of autumn plants should be cut hard back. This keeps them to young wood and also keeps them within bounds. SCABIOSA COLUMBARIA HYBRIDS. This rather new scabious is a welcome addition, for the flowers resemble those of the popular scabiosa caucasica. The one drawback to scabiosa caucasica is that in many gardens it is difficult fo grow, and is always uncertain. Scabiosa calumbaria, however, is a very hardy perennial. Its flowers are as beautiful as those of caucasica, but it is free from weaknesses. The flowers, which often measure two and a half inches across, are delightful for cutting. They may be had in shades of mauve, rosy mauve, buff pink, and lavender. Any well-dug soil suits the plants. They are easily propagated from seeds and from cuttings of young shoots. MANUKA. Cultivated manukas have been wonderful this year, even tiny plants bearing a load of crimson flowers. Leptospermum ascoparium nlcholil Imp. Is the glorious crimson manuka of New Zealand. The flowers are rich crimson, and at flowering time shrubs are so covered that they are ablaze with wonderful colour. As the leaves and stems are dark, shrubs are attractive at all times, their colour making them conspicuous in a mixed shrubbery. Leptospermum S. Yar. sandersii flowers in winter, and has large single pink flowers Leptospermum 8. rosea 11. pl. has double rose flowers, and is very beautiful. Manukas are very hardy, and grow quickly. They like deeply-worked, welldrained, rather heavy, soil, and au open sunny position. . Where the garden is exposed to wind they like the shelter of other shrubs on the exposed side. THE SOIL MULCH.

So far this summer amateur gardeners have had plenty of rain for their gardens, but there has been such persistent, and often boisterous, wind that, during dry spells, the ground dried very quickly, and piants began to look so unhappy that hoses had quickly to be brought into use. "But this is the windy season,” you hear one keen gardener say consolingly to another, "After Christmas we’ll have calmer weather.” And dry weather, too, probably; and how about water for the gardens then? In. all gardens where the soil has been deeply dug, and where there is a heavy subsoil, the soil reservoir is so well Ailed that there should be enough moisture to keep the plants going for many weeks. But how about the city reservoir? is the anxious thought of gardeners who have a light porous soil, and possibly a gravel sub-soil. Is there sufficient/water this season to allow of necessary hosing during the dry hot weather of late summer and early autumn? For, alas, just when It'is most needed, the use of the hose is forbidden. In this city of many rains and many hills capable of trapping water, it needs only a short dry spell to put an end to a water supply for gardens. This is indeed sad, for it is the hundreds of gay little amateur gardens —gardens big and gardens tiny—that help to make the city attractive, and in Wellington steep slopes and drying winds make garden displays difficult without water.

There remains, then, only the soil mulch, not so much to keep gardens beautiful as to keep plants alive. A soil mulch is a layer, two or three inches deep, of loose, dry, powdery soil ou the surface. In a garden where the soil has been deeply worked, rain or water having entered the surface soil is drawn by gravity to a good depth until the subsoil is thoroughly saturated, and it is from this that the moisture so necessary to plant growth is drawn during a dry spell. Uuforl unately this precious moisture does not stay quietly in the subsoil until it is needed. It escapes in many ways unless we guard it carefully. Directly rain ceases and the surface soil dries again, the moisture begins to be drawn by capillarity to the surface. There it is used up in .various ways. It may be taken up byweeds, and every weed can be looked upon as a pump that is drawing moisture from the soil and transpiring it into the air. Hence weeds must be kept down from the start. It may be taken up by plants and crops and that is what we wish. But having reached their roots, it must not be permitted to rise much further in the soil. That is to say it must not reach the surface, for there It would be quickly evaporated by sun and wind, and it is only by destroying capillarity that we van check the rising of the soil moisture. Tills is where the soil mulch comes In, for moisture cannot rise through a loose, powdery surface. . , . .. Every shower of rain destroys the soil mulch by caking the surface, and hoeing must at once take place to prevent evaporation. Constant hoeing or forking over is our best hope during a dry spell. VEGETABLES. Where early potatoes have been lifted, such winter vegetables as Brussels sprouts, savoys and leeKs may be planted out. Brussels sprouts, like deepiy-rug, rich ground, but this does not necessarily mean heavily manured ground. It seedlings are planted out on heavily manured ground, there is. a tendency to rank growth in plants, and soft instead of firm buttons. Soil that was well dug and enriched for potatoes is quite suitable. It need only be forked over, after the potatoes are lifted, and made firm. The seedlings should be well wate.ed in, and when the water has drained away, should have a little dry- soil drawn firmly about them. They seldom wilt after being planted in such a way. During summer the hoe should be kept at work between the rows, so that a fine, powdery surface may be kept about the plants, and occasionally a thorough' watering should be given. If there is any trace of aphis or red spider on the plants, they should be thoroughly and rather forcibly- washed with the hose. Leeks, too, may be planted out on ground where potatoes have just been lifted. They, too, should not be grown on heavily manured ground, for most people like a medium-sized, tender leek in preference to the huge coarse one that is so tv pic.'ll of shows. If leeks are kept growing steadily on ground that was manured for a previous crop of potatoes, feeding by means of liquid manure can be given when the plants are ready for it. Where seeds of carrots, onions, or peas are to lie sown during the next few weeks, germination will be much better and surer if water is poured into the drill before sowing. After sowing, dry soil is drawn over the seeds, and this has the effect of keeping the moisture down with the seeds, thus causing them to germinate quickly. Peas or beans should be soaked before being sown. Pinch out laterals from tomato plants. Keep the plants well staked, and the soil about them well hoed. Tomato plants do not like to be dry. and yet they do not like too much watering. If an occasional thorough watering is given, and then the hoe used frequently, the plants are much more likely to be satisfactory. Feeding should not start until the first bunch of flowers has set. T wish all mv readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the coming year bring oven greater joy in the garden than anv previous one has done. "Kowhat.”