Garden Notes PRESENT ACTIVITIES

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 153, 25 March 1944, Page 8

Garden Notes PRESENT ACTIVITIES

Timely Topics CORRESPONDENTS’ QUERIES (By “The Hoe.") Though winter is approaching', you can still Dig for Victory and keep on growing healthful vegetables. In most districts a small sowing of dwarf peas can, still be made. Also sow carrots (an cariy variety), ouions, swedes, endive and prickly spinach. In districts not subject to heavy frosts, another sowing of lettuce can be made. Choose a warm situation and a rich, well-limed soil. Harvest maturing crops before frost, specially cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, marrows, potatoes and sweet corn. Earth up celery aud leeks as they develop. Roughly dig over aud lime vacant plots that were heavily manured. Sow green crops for digging under later in plots that were not previously manured. In the flower garden prepare plots for the planting of trees and shrubs. Complete planting of spring-flowering bulbs at the earliest opportunity. Overhaul the herbaceous border, divide overgrown clumps, discarding ‘the crowns. Topdress the border with composted matter or well decayed farmyard manure. Kovvhai Moth.— This destructive pest is with us again, and the number of its caterpillars which are at present defoliating kowhais is evidence of its industry. This hungry leaf-chewer works in threeyear cycles, and this appears to be one of his busy periods. His protective colouring—green, black and grey—blends rather well with the stems and leaves of tlie kowhai, and he is easily overlooked. The evidence of dying leaves generally indicates his presence. Some of our native birds, including the charming little waxeyes, usually do good work in keeping the pest in check, but this year they do not appear to be as plentiful as usual. AVhere a gardener has only oue or two small trees to contend with he can deal with them by squeezing the foliage and its parasite. For bigger trees the only remedy apifears to be an arsenate of lead spray. I always hesitate to recommend this dangerous substance, but in this case there appears’to be no satisfactory substitute readily available. Slugs Plentiful.—At this season there is a tendency to allow vegetables which have seeded to stand, to allow the weeds to grow a little higher, and to delay the removal of general garden refuse. If you will look beneath the leaves of a beheaded lettuce, or underneath any other succulent growths, you will be surprised at the number of fat and sleepy slugs which are taking life easy; if you look a little closer into the loose soil near the slugs you will note that the quantities of their semi-transparent eggs make 4 evident that they are planning a major offensive against your seedlings in the coming spripg. The first, and most important, step in pest control is to deprive them of shelter, specially during the winter months.. Remove all debris and vegetable remains and keep your garden as tree-.from weeds as possible. Slugs, iu particular, must have protection from the suns rays, moisture, and cover to hide from bird life. Deny them these facilities and their mortality rate must show a rapid rise. A mixture of equal parts of slaked. lime aud hortiedltural naphthalene, scattered round places frequented by slugs, is a useful deterrent Autumn Tints.— The foliage of many trees and shrubs is now assuming the colourful tints of autumn. AVhy leaves which are green throughout summer should turn to various attractive tints of yellow, orange and red is a query which gardeners often ask. The explanation is really quite simple: Everyone knows that there arc certain colour pigments in plants. Some of these, being soluble, are present in the sap in varying degrees throughout the year. Their formation is largely dependent on the presence of certain sugars. AVhen growth is active these sugars are rapidly used up by the plant, but in autumn, when growth slows down, the sugars accumulate in the cells of the plant. The more sugars in the leaves, the more colour. A contributing factor is the loss of the green colouring matter chlorophyll—during autumn. You have probably observed that shrubs noted for their autumn tints, such as Liquid Ambers, colour earlier if they are growing on poor, dry soil. The reason, of course, is that the supply of food and moisture becomes locked up earlier in a dry soil than in a rich, moist one, .and growth slows down earlier in consequence. As a result, the chlorophyll fades, the sugars accumulate and we have the colourful tints of autumn.

Answers To Correspondents Nitrate of Soda: “Curious,” Eitham, writes, “Although I have seen nitrate of soda described as a nitrogenous fertilizer, I have also read that it corrects several deficiency diseases. How do you explain that?”—Natural nitrate of soda has been found to contain 34 different elements, most of them in very small amounts, but sufficient, when.applied to some soils, to provide the trace elements. If the soil has been severely depleted of say, boron, manganese, zinc, copper, etc., the routine applications of natural sodium nitrate would be insufficient to make good the loss. Fruit-Bearing Native Trees; Miss K. 8., Wellington, wants a list of the best fruit-bearing native trees —I suggest karaka, miro, titoki, tawa, and puriri. There arc also several very attractive shrubs, including (h.e corokias, aud vines, specially the supplejack. Endive Query (M.8.A., Lower Hutt) : Endive is a coarser green than lettuce, and not quite so palatable. It has the virtue of beiug available during winter aud therefore fills an important niche in the growing programme. Many people prefer the blanched to the green leaves. Blanching can be easily done by covering plants a fortnight before cutting, or b.y merely drawing the tops of the leaves together and tying them. Endive seed is usually-sown in January or February, but you could try a sowing now in, your locality. Sow half-inch deep in drills 15 inches apart. Same conditions as lettuce. Strawberry Query (Mrs. L.A.AV., Waikanae) : Y’es, you can lime the soil now, and a little later incorporate ample quantities of organic matter, composted material or old farmyard manure. A few days before planting, prick in wood ashes at: the rate of 6oz. a sq. yard, or sulphate of potash al: the rate of 2oz. a sq. yard.' Freesiu Wanted (Mrs. P.AA’., Palmerston North), writes: “Last spring I saw a magnificent, white frecsia, it was twice the size of the common white one with the purple markings, and had a sweet perfume. Can you tell me its name and where to get it?” —You saw the variety known as Frecsia Burtoni, which is a great, improvement ou the well-known F. refracta alba. There appear to be two types of this variety, oue almost pure white, the other with a yellow throat, but they have not. as far as I know, been classified and offered separately. Either is well worth growing. On sale by all nurserymen and bulb dealers.