GARDENING FOR THE WEEK.

Evening Star, Issue 13102, 7 November 1908, Page 10

GARDENING FOR THE WEEK.

■pr, [By H.C.] pC nfW® have completed arrangements with a ||r Well-known gardener to conduct a ga ■ . weekly letter. Our contributor will IV, bo glad to answer questions, which f'. must be received not later than Tuesday of each week.] —The Vegetable Garden.— | ; The most proofing work in this departnaent Tnll be in hoeing and thinning orach & , 888 carrots, turnips, onions, etc. At- *■ ♦?."« *° monldmg potaties. earth them up religlrtly by drawing a little soil with the draw hoe along each side. Peas should get a little moro soil drawn about them than ; cabbages. This moulding keeps their roots cool, and also makes it more convenient for watering or feeding with liquid manure. Sow braid beans for a late crop. The early crops of broad beans will soon be ready for topping. They should be topped just as they have set their crops. This yi topping assists the crop very considerably, r M it checks top growth and gives strength to the plant. Dwarf kidney beans of all kinds can be sown for succession, also peas and spinach. Transplant cabbage, cauliflower, an dlettuce as they get strong enough. The ground is in fine condition for transplanting after this rain. Attend t° rubbing out shoots of tomatoes and tying them up. Cucumber plants that have been planted a . week or two should have their points parched out to induce them to break and make ride shoots, but c.tro must be taken to avoid overcrowding. Give them room to expand their foliage, and you will bo rewarded by much finer fruit. —Fruit Garden.— The vinery wil Iwant a lot of looking altar by way of stopping ride shoots or laterals. Stop at the second eye beyond the bunch, and as they make growth stop at a fresh eye each time; eo by the end of the season they will have about four or five leaves or eyes past the bunch. But all laterals must bo kept back to one eye. Early peaches and apricots will want looking over by way of thinning whore they have set in bunches, so as to have an even and regular crop of good fruit. —The Flower Garden.The roses will want constant care, and disbudding and feeding must be attended to if blooms are wanted fit for the show to be held next month in Dunedin. This in a most anxious time. If they are neglected now it is next to impossible to get first-claas blooms. Feeding with liquid manure can with advantage be carried out now.

Chrysanthemums should he ready for their sin or 6in pot®. Soil suitable for this puotting consists of throe-parts chopped up turf loam, one and a-haJf part leaf mould, one part sharp sand, half-part l*oue dust, thoroughly mixed together and potted nice and firm. If potting’for specimens, stop each shoot when they hare made Ain growth each time. Begonias will soon bo ready for shifting on. They are particularly fond of leaf mould. Soil suitable for this consists of two parts turfy soil, two of leaf mould, and one of sharp sand. If you have no leaf mould, use very old cow manure. J

Give pelargoniums plenty of water and a watering with liquid manure one© or twice a week. Now that they are coming into bloom this treatment will 1» 0 f great assistance. Cyclamen are nearly over now, and care should bo taken in giving them a nice, sheltered place or a cold frame to rest them in, as the sun is too powerful to expose them long in the full light. "Withhold water gradually, and give a good long rest until they start naturally in the autumn. Sow hardy annuals such as mignonette and nemopbyilts. Sehizanthus makes a nice show outside if sown now; then some •A" he lifted arid potted up for inside use. 1 his is becoming a very popular flower, and well deserves to be so. It is very easily grown, and well repays one for any extra labor bestowed upon it. —ln Reply to “Mater.”—

As to tomato culture outside : Firstly, you say yon have planted your tomatoes outside, and auk if covering them with kerosene tins with both ends knocked out and covered with pieces of sacks at night would bo of any use. Decidedly not; it would do mors harm than good. By covering in that manner you exclude both air and light, two of the most necessary requirements of their culture. You say vou had planted yours before reading my directions in last week’s issue. Well, if your ground is in good condition and in a state similar to the directions given in my notes yon may lot them remain. If not, take them up carefully, prepare yonr ground, and replant as directed. But you may be in a place where the ground is of a rich, sandy, turfy nature. If so, it will not require so Much making as prescribed, but in any cate it ranst be made firm. If tomatoes are allowed to grow on a piece of soft ground they never ripen their frmt. If your plants were weak to start with, the half of a kerosene tin with a square of glass put over them would not barm them for a few days until they are a little stronger. Secondly, you say yon have some small seedling tomatoes in their second leal. They are much too small to be put into 6in pots. If your verandah has a glass front it may help yon, and in that case I should say do not pot in small flower pots, bnt prick them out in shallow boxes, 3m deep, with rough, lumpy stuff an inch deep, covered with good, sandv soil on top made firm. This will be safer for you with such conveniences. Cow manure is good on light, sandy soil, but on heavy ground good horse manure is best, as the latter tends to keep the soil open, and is not so likely to run together. Fowl manure is good to mix with the other, but plants must not have too much of it. A little spread on the surface of the ground is good and acts in a similar way to guano.

—ln reply to “ Abutilon ” as to raising by seed, and how old the following will be before flowering: Wisteria can bo raised from seed, but it is very rarely that they do seed. Under very favorable circumstances, with expert growers, they take about three years. The usual plan of increasing them is by root cuttings of strong young half-ripe shoots grown under a ball glass, and the more general way by layers of long, ripe shoots. Laburnum can be raised readily from seeds but it requires a considerable amonnt of patience, and takes four or five years to flower from seed. Pyrus japonica can be raised from seeds, but are very slow to flower. I have not seen them flowering from seed under four years. The quickest wav of increasing is by digging up suckers. They generally send up plenty o1 them. Abutilon can be raised from seed readily, and there is always an interest in raising them from seeds. If you get good seed there is always a chance of getting something new and good. They should be started in a warm house. The seed should be soaked in warm water, and if sown early can be flowered the first year. OJey can also be rooted by cuttings, but should have bottom heat to root them. Yes, the abutilon can be grown outside in a nice warm, sunny situation. Now comes the puzzler as to keeping slags off sweet peas, etc. I have tried a good many things. I have used what is called slug destroyer; I have trapped them with large cabbage leaves bran, and such-like, and y ° U more seem to come to their funeral. The best remedy I know ‘M y ,°Vr n be Ab r ut 01 Dl ? ht - ? et some good shel! lime and on a nice damp, still night, after dark, take a shovelful of the hot, fresh-slaked lime, put it in a piece of coarse fienm. gather up the ends and go round and shako the hot lime over the slugs. Go around twice in the one night Some skgs can throw off the find dose wl - . t ‘ le ,'. r l ! hme > bnt the- second will certainly kill them.

W hen Ada Crousley’s concert party made the journey to Hale Mr Percy Grainger, the pianist, walked the foity-sis miles between that town and Garram, resolutely refusing many offers at various points of a “lift.” H© completed the journey in hours, finishing over a sandy, loot*© road. 'l’he original of ‘Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch ’ is still living in the person of Mis Bass, of Louisville, Kentucky. This quaint old lady, now eighty years of age, has long been famous the countryside round for her original sayings and wonderful optimism. Mhs Ada Dwyer, who plays Mrs Wiggs, spent some time in Louisville and became very much attached to Mrs Bass, and it was during this visit that Miss Dwyer became possessed of the wonderful atmosphere of the place and manners that she -.ucceeds so cleverly in wafting over the footlights. Home Maxima of Mrs Wiggs.—“Don’t fool with widowers—grass or sod.” “ ’Pears, like every woman the Lord ever created wants to try getting married once any way.”