THE GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 18051, 19 August 1922, Page 14

THE GARDEN

■+* ' Work for the Week.

Our contributor, a well-known gardener, will be glad to answer questions, which must be received not later than Tuesday of each week. VEGETABLES. A little beetroot should bo sown for early use. Sow also a little silver beet. Well pulverised ground* free from fresh manure is best for it. A small sowing of broccoli for early autumn use should be made now on a warm border. Tin's crop takes a long time to mature, and to have it the biggest part of the year an early start must be made. Some varieties take nine or ten months to mature from seed. Early short bom carrots may now be sown. The long horn, or intermediate kinds, should) be sown later. Plant out cauliflowers from the late autumn-sown seeds. Make a fresh sowing to follow those planted now or to come in during the autumn. Turnip-rooted celery, a very useful and highly-prized vegetable, should be sown now on a slight hot-bed. The ground! should bo riojt and moist, but no trenches are required. If not already in, a little celery seed should be sown for early use. Sow in boxes on a hot-bed' or on gentle bottom heat. Garlic and shallots should be planted, plant the single cloves in shallow drills 6in apart and 12in from row to row. They are assisted greatly by the application of a light dressing of salt and soot. Anyone can grow onions, but it is quite another 1 thing to secure fine, hard, well* developed) tubers. To obtain these it is necessary to have the ground well prepared ae early before seed cowing as possible. If stable manure is applied it must be well rotted and deeply dug in; otherwise it is best to use artificial manure. Freshly-dug-in manure is almost sure to give long necky tubers. Make the ground very firm by ’frequent treading and raking, this to "be repeated until the surface is firm and smooth. Sow the seed in very shallow drills 12in apart. Have the seed only just a little more than covered. After making the drill with a pointed •tick or anything convenient, cover the teed with the back of the rake, and the ■work is complete. Feeding can bo done later. Plant potatoes of the early kinds, such u Jersey Bennes, .Snowdrops, Early Puritan, and others of that type. In stiff soilb it is well to draw the drills and dust along them with rotted'vegetable mould, light manure, or anything of a similar nature. The growth comes away quicker and much stronger than if the tubers were placed on the cold) and) stiff soil. A watchful) eye should) be kept upon earlyplanted) tubers for the tops coming through, so as to earth them well up to protect them against late frost. It is also well to keep a supply of fresh •table litter on hand in case of severe weather settjjig in, so that some may be placed over the tops along the drills. This protects the tops from frost, and acts as ft stimulant to the roots. FRUIT. Finish pruning, dealing in the first place with those trees that are showing the most forward growth, if such are still unpruned, such as peach, plum, apricot, cherry, and nectarine. Apples and others may bo done later, but even these ihould be pruned as early as possible. Planting must be got off hand as early •8 convenient, when the ground is not wet. The grafting of cherries, plums, pears, and apples may bo done soon, particularly the former, the apples last. Strawberries should be planted as soon as possible If they are not already in. Loganberries and raspberries may still be planted," but the earlier the better. The loganberry is a very fine fruit, and •uitable for planting along and training op fences. A good warm sunny -.veilprepared border will grow them to perfection. All the pruning they require is to. clip out the old fruiting and dead wood and tie in the new, clipping off the I poust*.... 1

FLOWERS. Complete the pruning and planting of flowering shrubs. . Seedling polyanthus and primroses should be planted out as soon as they are sufficiently strong. . . Plant pansies and violas, giving them rich free loam and a cool situation. It is hardly possible to bo too liberal with pansies. • , , Plant carnations In well-prepared borders or beds. Those planted earlier should be gone over and the soil pressed down firmly about them, in case of the late frosts lifting the , soil. Many plants have been spoilt or destroyed from this cause. This is the proper month for planting gladiolas. If they were taken up in Way they will be starting into growth now, and in that condition tho sooner they are planted tho better. Give them rich deeplydug ground, and plant the bulbs about 4in deep. It is well when planting good sorts to push in stakes near the bulbs for the support of tho flowering spike later on. All the hardy annuals may now- bo sown in tho open border, but care should be taken to have the surface soil free and xncllow before sowing. Another point to bo considered is tho depth to sow. Many fail to get their seed to germinate through no other cause than covering the seed too deeply. For most seeds a mere covering is all that is required. Remember that the smaller the seed the lighter it should bo covered. Some seeds germinate freely when sown on tho su r f ace with no covering. Sow at once where the annuals are to flower. There are others which transplant readily; in fact, do better when planted out singly in clumps or lined out in wellprepared ground. For the majority of them transplanting is an advantage for the reason that a comparatively small bed needs be prepared for them. ' In any case sow thinly, whether the seedlings have to be transplanted or thinned out. to flower where they are sown, as they make healthier plants and give lees trouble to thin out. Most annuals should have deeply dug and well-manured ground, excepting such as nasturtiums and (ropteoiuni, which require a rather poor soil, or .there will ho more foliage than (lowers. The flowers are hidden by excessive leafage. The following arc a few of the things which do not transplant readily Alyssuni, gypsonhilla, larkspur, mignonette, poppy, and Virginian stock. ~ Others which transplant readily arc abronia. bartonia, candytuft, cornflower, coreopsis, godetia, sweet peas, and sweef Sultan. ' ANSWERS. “XX.”—Fowl manure may with advantage be used as a top-dressing both in the garden and upon the lawn; but it must ■be used with care, or harm will he. done. The best way to make use of fowl manure is to mix it with garden soil and spread a layer of it in some out-of-the-way corner. Then cover it with a layer of soil, and if yon have grass clipping-;, vegetable refuse, or such like, put layers of this, then repeat a layer of the manure sandwich fashion, and when you have a nice, large heap chop it down and mix it up. This makes excellent manure for garden purposes, either as a top-dressing or to bo dug in. H.C. For the Garden Club lecture "in the Lower Burns Hall on Tuesday evening next Mr M, Barnett has been chosen, and his subject will be ‘House and Greenhouse Plants.’ Mr Barnett is head gardener for the Dunedin Winter Gardens, and has recently returned from England, where he finished his course of training at the famous Kew Gardens. WINTER FLOWERING PANSIES. Flowers that bloom in winter are always particularly welcome, and amongst the most interesting flowers at tho recent Royal Horticultural Society's exhibition were some winter-flowering pansies. These are at present represented by some six varieties only. The plants are said to begin blossoming soon after midwinterday, and as the spring advances they increase in beauty. They can be raised from seed.

SCENTLESS MUSE. The disappearance of fragrance in the musk plant is one of the modem mysteries of plant life. I do not wish to be uncharitable (writes Herbert Cowley in ‘Popular Gardening’), but when readers offer to send seedlings of fragrant musk from their gardens I am frankly very sceptical about the fragrance. Many of ns from ouv youth up have grown so accustomed to the fragrance of musk that the very sight of the plant and its little yellow flowers immediately brings to mindoits odor, and we “smell'’ it, or at least wo imagine wo smell it by virtue of our confirmed faith in its odor. It is no exaggeration on my part to say that I have known many of such instances, and I have received packages of alleged fragrant musk from dozens of well-meaning people who had lifted musk from their gardens; but was there any fragrance? Not a trace of it! Tire last time I remember the sweet odor of musk was in 1904. This was at the Royal Gardens, Windsor, when selfsown seedlings grew under the grating in a vinery, and in the evening, after damping down and closing the ventilators, the house was filled with the delicious odor of musk. At that time musk also grew outside, spreading over the pathway in the Royal Children’s Garden at Frogmore. I recall passing through these gardens after a thunderstorm one summer evening, and the air was laden with the delicious fragrance of musk. The loss of fragrance is a subject that is occupying the thoughts of well-known botanists. No satisfactory solution has been put forward so. -far as 1 know. Ono botanist —stupid man —d'onbts if musk over had fragrance at all! Mr W. Watson, who has just retired from the curatorship of Kew, and to whom we all wish long life and happiness in his well-earned retirement, obtained musk, both seeds and plants, from many parts of the world, hutall proved scentless. An odd thing about it is the reported loss of fragrance in its native habitat in North America. For ten years have I and many others been looking for the fragrant musk. It was one of the charms of our mother’s and our grandmother’s gardens. The very whiff of its fragrance would put ore in a good temper for a week. The man who can and will restore it to our gardens is a public benefactor. A MORAINE GARDEN. FOR ALPINE FLOWERS. A moraine garden affords a capital means of cultivating a number of choice rock plants difficult in an- ordinary rock garden. A moraine garden is intended! to represent an alpine moraine, where the gravel, etc., carried* down to the lower levels by the streams constitute a happy home for many plants. There is no reason why the man or woman with a small garden need be without a moraine in which to cultivate many choice plants; it can be constructed at a low cost. An excellent moraine can bo formed by making a raised bed about 2ft above the soil level. It may be made cither of a few large boulders to form the supporting wall, or by building a dry stone wall the same height or a little more, and filling in the space with the material suggested later. Another good plan is to choose a gently sloping bank and to excavate the soil hero to a depth of about 2ft or even 18in. Still another plan is to excavate the soil between a senes of small rockeries and to convert this space into a set of small moraines. The first part of the work thus performed, a layer of about a foot of stones should be laid -at the bottom. These may bo of fair size, but this is of little importance, as their function is to provide the freest drainage, and if the soil close by is stiff and retentive a short drain should lead from the bottom of this layer. On this layer of, stones there should be placed about 6iu of stone chips, such as are employed* for Bmlaciog tar-sprayed

roads.' These may consist of whlnstons, granite, sandstone, or oven broken bricks. On this again are laid 6in of chips, some email stones, and loam, leaf soil, and- sand in about equal proportions, if it is intended to cultivate lime-loving plants, some old mortar rubbish or limestone chips ought to be mixed with this top layer. The whole should be well watered, and after that the plants should be put where they are to grow. They will establish themselves sooner if a little fine soil of loam, loaf-mould or peat, and sand are put about tho roots when planting is done. Water well, and they will establish themselves very quickly. An inch or two more or lees in any layer will not matter greatly. It is amazing how qnicklv many plants grow in tho moraine, some, indeed, spreading with much rapidity; and they require little attention for a. long time beyond keeping them in bounds. Where a- water supply is available a pipe may lie laid: on and the water run in now and then in summer; but for most folks this is not available, and a thorough drenching with a watering-can fitted with a fine “ rose ” every now and then iu summer will he. acceptable to tho flowers and most helpful in every way. One point is specially to bo noted. This is that weeds and seedlings of flowers spring up quickly and flourish in the moraine. In a garden, for example, where the perennial asters are largely cultivated and allowed to seed.it is amazin<* how many seedlings of these popular autumnal flowers will spring up in the moraine. All the seedlings of .such plants and of weeds should .be rigorously extirpated, or much trouble will ensue. As for- the plants to grow, their name is legion, and most alpincs will thrive and flower well iu such conditions. A list of these would be too lengthy for tho space at command, but it has been found that practically anything which will grow on an ordinary rockery will flourish in the moraine, and that many choice kinds which fail to give satisfaction in tho former will delight in the Leo compost and drainage of the small moraine. The latter is inexpensive to construct, and will be a source of lasting pleasure to its owner and of satisfaction to his plants.