GARDENING NOTES. (By "Experience.") THE VEGETABLE GARDEN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 57, 4 September 1909, Page 12

GARDENING NOTES. (By "Experience.") THE VEGETABLE GARDEN.

Asparagus is now beginning to grow; if it has not had its complement of salt it should given at once. Eight ounces to the square yard will not be too much to give, and will be sufficient to kill slug 3 and all weeds except those having perennial roots. These mußt be forked out. If the ground is not weedy, nitrate of soda, 4oz per square yard will destroy slugs, and be highly beneficial to the asparagus. A good layer of sand over tho bed is a fine thing. It keeps down weeds, and ensures a free medium for the heads to push through, keeping tho stioka straight throughout — a very great consideration. Th£ ashes from rubbish fires are also excellent for tho purpose. Sea-weed ib well-known as a good manure for asparagus ; but so few can get it at reasonable cpst that it hardly worUi considering, and I have never seen as good asparagus produced with seaweed as 1 have seen grown without it. Now is the time to plant new bedß. Planting now is sure to sucoeed with the exeicise of ordinary care. I have planted as late as tho middle of October with complete suocess. It is necessary, as young roots aro forming, that they be exposed to the air as little as possible. They require no particular oare. Put them in a bag or anything to keep sun and wind off them, and if they ha-ve to travel far, some damp moss or grass should bo packed with them to keep them moist. There is a wide divergence of opinion as to the arrangements of. the plants in ground; but very few people now adopt the system of planting in beds. The distance apart is the debated point. I believe the plants to be best and most profitable in the long run when planted about a yard apart each way. No doubt first-class stuft can bo grown with closer planting, say, rows 3ft apart, and the plants 18in asunder in the rows ; but bo planted the vigour of the bed will be sooner exhausted, and tho bed should be planted to last. There is only one right way to put in the plants. The roots must be spread out horizontally and evenly all round the crown, and be ooyered about oin deep with fine friable soil. The handiest way to do it is to open up a trench with spade or shovel the entire length of the bed and nearly 6in deep, then with a rake draw up a ridge along the centre. The plants will set on this as on a saddle, which will cause tho -roots to point downwards. Seakalo that has been forced should have the manure cleared away, so as to expose the crowns to full light. From the old stems, below where the crowns were cut, there usually breaks a considerable number of shoots. These should bo reduced to two to each stem at most as soon as is practicable. The handiest way to increase the stock is by means of cuttings off the roots — whips they aro termed. Pieces of root about as thick as the small finger of one's hand, and about 6in long, are dibbled into light soil ; tho top of tho cutting should bo level with or just above the surface of tho soil. They make shoots quite freely. Reduce them to one or two, according to whether they are promising to be strong or not. Many of them will be fit for forcing next season. Onionß. — In most places the spring-sown plants are up ; it is of great importance to keep the soil open by frequent stirring. It is quite likely that there may bo gome difficulty in getting a good start; there has been bo much rain in many places that the soil may be sour. Frequent moving of j the surface is the best way to sweeten it, and if the young plants seem loth to grow, give them a little nitrate of soda. Just sow it along near the lines, aB though it were grass soed. Either do ifc during ram or immediately hoe it in. Transplanting onions may now bo proceeded with". This is the only way to grow very large bulbs. Seed will have been sown in autumn for this purpose. The extra large varieties are usually chosen, such as Ailsa Craig, Cranston's Excelsior, and Giant Kocca, though it is a very wise thing in many placs to sow the smaller and longer-keeping kinds in autumn also, for in some districts the spring crop is not too certain. But one fact Bhould be always remembered — namely, that autumn-sown onions will not keep so long as the same kind sown in spring will keep. It is thereforo advisable to sow some in spring. All autumn-sown onions should bo transplanted ; if that is not do.no many of them are liable to bolt to seed, and oven if that danger is avoided, and they ripen off all right,, they will not keep so long as those transplanted. Transplanting is usually done with a dibber, but it is hardly a good plan, and certainly not the best or quickest. It is important that tho plants mu*3t not be put in deeply. If they are, they generally go bull-necked, and aro worthless. It is hard to make ! them stand up if they are any size and only inserted to the proper depth. The best wav is not to try to make them stand. Draw shallow drills as though for seed, lay the plants with their roots in the drill, all heads pointing one way, draw enough soil over tho roots to cover them, and press firm by treading; in a short time 'the plants will stand aa straight up as though planted that way, and the roots will be at tho proper depth. It is time that rhubarb should be planted, but still not too late. It is a very accommodp ting plant, and though growth has started clumps may still be divided for transplanting. It is no iiso to leave it too long without dividing, for when the clumps get very broad it quickly deterirates. Every third year j{ should be taken up, the clumps be chopped .up with » spade, and the best crowns, with one, two, or throe buds on, replanted. The large masses of root stems are not required, and may be discarded. New foots spring .from j the crown of the plants. Plant so as to | barely cover Iho crowns, treading them in firmly. Rows may be three feet apart and thirty inches between tho plants in tho rows. Rhubarb should not be used the first season after planting for that reason, and beoause of tho necessity for tranaplanti ing every third year there should be beds .of different age in every garden. Cabbage plants put out now should be in out in , December, cauliflowers in the autumn.* Giant type— and no others should b« put out now — will begin to come in a month later. Tho early typos j of cauliflower seldom do any good during hot weather. They button while too [ small, and are only satisfactory when planted so that they head in November end December. The plants that do so arp those from seed sown last March, and in places where there is much frost or wot ground during- winter, they are usually a failure. Sow cabbage and cauliflower seed to provide heads after midsummer. Sow ! lettuce and radish, carrot, turnip, and spinach, according to requirements, and successional peas as a matter of course. Put out a good bed of lettuce plants now : this is tho planting that produces the belt heads of the season. They also come in at a time when they arc", most appreciated— just as the hot weather sets m. Th.aGreenhouse.~Tp prolong the life of primulas and cinerarias, both of which are in full flower, great care is necessary in watering. The demands for water increase with the increasing warmth of the S ays - ,N,, N ,° ye / F ive water indiscriminately. Sue that it is wanted. Comparatively large plants in small pots may sometimes want it twice m one day. Always do the main watering early in the moruing; then the air is drier at night than it would be if much watering wero done at. the latter P^rt of the day. , All decaying leaves should be remold, as the fungoid growths on them spread to other leaves. Greenfly should be kept under. Dusting with tobacco powder is effectual if used in V m .S* n a planfc on ' ite Eide < and dredge it on the under side of leaves and flowers. A slight shake later on will dear most of it, with the insects, from tho flowers. Pelargoniums should now be in their flowering pots. After this time very little stopping of the {.hoots should be done ; none, in fact, except to restrain extra strong shoots, which misrht otherwise spoil the Bhape of a plant. If thoy are in good compost, the plants will grow well till flowers begin to come without feeding, which should never be done till the pots are packed with roots. Give them plenty of air in such a way that it will pass right through the plants, and not merely by top ventilation. A general overhaul of permanent plants should be made now. Repotting or top-dressing as I may be wanted. i