THE GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 19044, 12 September 1925, Page 11

THE GARDEN

WORLD’S TALLEST TREES

WORK FOR IRE SPRING THE VEGETABLE GARDEN Advantage should bo taken at every fino day when the ground is dry to ply the hoe and rake freely to keep down weeds. They are now coming away very quiokly, and if neglected will soon cause a lot of trouble. Late autumn-sown peas should be sufficiently well up to benefit by n little earth being drawn up about them. Make, successive, sowings, still using the dwarf marrow fat kinds. Sow French and scarlet runner beans in a warm situation. Unless such, a ’spot is available defer the sowing for ft week or two in case of lato frosts, which would certainly cripple them if they wero through the ground. Broad beans will also benefit by n. littlo soil being drawn np about them. Sow others to come in for succession. , Sow- spinach in drills 12in apart, and as soon as the seedlings come to a useful size thin them out, use the thinnings, and leave the rest din or so apart to eorno to full maturity, after which the strong outside leaves, as they develop, should he used. By this treatment the full benefit of the crop is derived. Sow carrots, parsnips, onions, beet (both silver and dark purple) ; also turnips, lettuce, radishes, cress, and leeks, the last named to bo sown on a rich bed to be drawn for transplantflake a sowing also of broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflowers, and plant out earlier-sown plants. Thoroughly clean from weeds and top-dress asparagus beds, as the young heads will soon bo pushing through the soil, after which weeding will bo a more difficult task. LAWNS FROM SEED The best and least-expensive method of laying down a lawn is irom seed. There are two seasons oi the year suitable tor this work—that is spring, after all the heavy trusts aro past, and in tiio autumn berore frost commences. In the latter case sow' sufficiently early lor the young grass to be up and wolf established betore severe frosts set in. The ideal sod for a lawn is a deep, rich, and friable loam, resting on a clay subsoil. This is not always available; consequently we must make the best of what wo have. Untortunatcly, in any people are under tiie impression 'that because it is grass any soil Kvill (do; but let it be understood that this is a grave mistake, if a good lawn is to be secured the ground must be made sufficiently rich in plant food lor the grass to thrive; otherwise the grass becomes sickly and patchy, and a continuous source of trouble. Again, a suitable mixture of seed must be used, and it must also be properly laid. Drainage in of the utmost importance. Stagnant water soon causes mosses and daisies to appear. Six inches to 9in of properly-prepared soil will grow good grass, providing that the subsoil is not solid clay, undisturbed clay, or hard substance, such as rotten rock, etc. In such cases this should be loosened up and firmed again to prevent the suriaco soil from sinking or settling unevenly. Where no important changes aro necessary, Keen digging is to be avoided, but where possible have the whole dug to an even depth all over. As grass is a fixed crop, deriving its food from about fiin of the top soil, it is easily, seen that fehis should ho sufficiently rich to maintain vigor of growth. In sandy > nr gravellv soils, which aro generally ' deficient in Immns, it is much bettor j to apply well-rotted manure. In most i soils artificial manures aro more convenient-, and should ho used in the proportion of 2cwt of superphosphate. 2cwh of bone, meal, and 2c\vt of guano, per acre, which should he np- ! plied after levelling and during the ! surface preparation previous to sowing j the seed. _ , j Surface Preparation.—ln tins most important operation there must be. a | diligent use of the rake and roller, in- | eluding that of treading. . This is of i the utmost importance: indeed, no lawn can he properly laid without it, for tbo heel will find out soft spots which a roller would pass over. Having raked, rolled, and prepared the surface, which should bo as smooth as a table whether it be on a level .surface or on sloping ground, the surface preparation should proceed. Seed lor a nice lawn should be free from coarse varieties*, and should consist of at least j four varieties — five i.s better. Clovers j may or may not bo used in the mix- j tnre. For playing greens, such as | croquet, tennis, or bowling, clovers ol . any kind should bo avoided for a fine | lawn. The poas arc. indispensable. There aro Poa pratensis, P. trivialis, and P. nemoralis. The seeds are very fine and more expensive, and should bo used more or loss in a mixture with such grasses as line rye, hard fescue, fino-leaved sheep fescue, and crested clogstail. Five varieties of any of these, including two of the poas, would prove a good mixture for most lawns. The amount of seed sown should-he at tlie rate of 801 b to 100!b. per- aero, or 101 b per 22yds square. When all. is ready and the surface prepared, divide the seed into two parts and sow one half all over the one way out, the other half at right angles. In. this way the amateur is much more likely to. have an even sward than by attempting to sow the seed all at one sowing and the one way. Sow on a windless day, and when the sowing is complete rake the seed in lightly, and not ton deep, or many of the fine grasses will not eorno away. Then run the roller over, it lightly to bed the seed. For bowling greens or tennis courts, where an accurate levelling is required, tbo amateur would be hotter to employ an experienced man for the job. Established lawns will now require rnnro attention, as growth is becoming active: consequently lawns which arc becoming weak and require attention by way of topdressing either with fine soils or manures, should be attended to without delay. Finely-sifted soils with some artificial manure added will soon put new life into weak or exhausted lawns. This should be strewn over the surface evenly, raked or swept in well with a hard broom, left for a • week or two, then rolled well in. Daisies and other objectionable weeds should bo removed from lawns. An ordinary* daisy lifter is best for this work. After lifting and sweeping these tip fill up the holes with soil and drop a pinch of lawn grass seed to fill up the blank spaces. Grasses that have been ' allowed to grow long should be first mown with the scythe, and, then raked flr swept with a broom and well rolled. From this onward the machine work , •will be much easier and bettor. i “Sweet Pea.”—Yes; the glass should be removed from your box of sweet peas at once. They will be quite safe and better outside from now onward. ; Transplant them when they are 4in to 6in high.

ANSWERS “Geranium.”—You say your geraniums have become very straggly, and have lost most of their leaves. This is quite natural after a severe, wot .winter in an exposed situation. In another week or two, after this cold snap is past and the danger of severe frost is over, 1 should cut them fairly hard hack. They will then break out from below, and' make a good show later. “ Grape Vino.” —There, is no question as to whether a vino would grow outside, particularly if the soil bo good, but the question of ripening fruit outside in this district is another matter. The vines certainly grow well, and make fine covering and leafage on arches or snch-liko places. In order to fruit them outside they .must have a warm, sunny wall and rich ground in which to grow, and ho properly attended to. ' There are many places in Central Otago where I am. convinced grapes could be grown and ripened successfully. T have seen them myself. In this ease they wore planted and loft to grow as they liked. They wero fairly good thou, so I am sure they would bo very much belter under good cultivation. lI.C. ROSES AND THE HAIR Hoses form the chief ingredient in what is probably the earliest recipe for a hair restorer on record. According to Pliny “ wild rose loaves reduced into a liniment with bear’s grease make the hair grow again in most marvellous fashion.” Pliny also recommends “ashes of roses as serving to trim the hairs of the eyebrows.” Hoses figured prominently in certain old-time strong drinks, sncli as rosa solis, which consisted of rose water mixed with aqua vitro and flavored with cinnamon. The favorite morning draught among Elizabethan roysterers was “ rosa solis, to wash the molligrubs out of a moody brain.” HARDY PERENNIALS Air Brunn, of the Ormond Plant Farm, read a paper on 'Hardy Perennials ’ at a recent meeting of the Hoyal Horticultural Society in Melbourne. By comparison with England and Scotland, Mr Brunn said, our range of varieties in this class of plants was very limited. In a recent catalogue from a Scottish nursery linn over 2,000 kinds were listed. Yet with the comparatively few varieties obtainable hero a good collection could be formed. The lecturer’s ideal was a border lift wide and as long as circumstances would permit, planted solely with these hardy perennials. It was possible to have plants in bloom every month in the year. No special treatment of the ground was required. Some care is needed in planting so that the dwarfer kinds will show up in front of the tailor, and that this color will bo placed with advantage for contrast-. Mr Brunn recommended the following:—Holianthns, the sunflower in double and single; these aro very hardy and froe-flmvering. Hcloninm, also tall, the best of which aro lliverton Beauty and Divert on Gem. Budbeclcia, Golden Glow, is also la!!. The perennial lupines or the pnlyphyilns typo are a fine hardy rare of plants with long spikes of flowers of various colors, magnificent for culling. It i.s important with lupines that they should bo prevented from seeding. Tritoma, t lie poker plant, can be had in a num- j her of varieties, the best of which are | Goldclso, pale yellow, Nohilis, red; F.usifolia, yellow and winter (lowering; Beacon, yellow and rod. Homncya triehocalyx is a great improvement on the old variety, and is an excellent ent flower. Agapanthus is one of the- very best plants for the, herbaceous border—both blue and white varieties. Gannas of lato years have been wonderfully improved, and are recommended for border display. Some of the best aro Wyoming, Fling Humbert, Florence Vaughan, Triumph, Alice Gniifoylc, La Franco. Delphinium is the queen ol all blue flowers, no other herbaceous subject can surpass a good bed of ilieso.Jlcdychium corouaruim should ho grown for its perfume, the flower being of lit tie use for cutting. Michaelmas daisies are to ho had in large variety, and should always ho freely planted. C.vnoglossum, on account of its beautiful i blue, must not be omitted: it grows to a medium height. The lasting qualities j of gaillardiu are well known; the do- j corativo value of the flowers places them in the front rani;. GypsophyUa, j in shades of pink and while, aro a ffnc j addition to onr decorative, flowers. The i Heloborus, or Christmas rose, should j find a place in every garden. The j {lowers embrace purple and green, with .- all intermediate shades between When Other (lowers aro scarce Lychnis cha.l- - domVn, with its bright scarlet bouvar-dia-!ikc flowers, makes a good show. jLTm herbaceous peony should not bo | overlooked. Tlialictnini dipterocarpuin is one of the finest introductions oi recent years. Huimcmnunia is a splendid ; flower for cutting. It does not transplant successfully, so seed should ho ; sown in permanent positions. The best; of live scabious family is Cancasica, a very large blue flower witip long, clean ! stems, a fine bloom for cutting. A can- j thus mollis is useful in places where j little else will thrive. Pentslcraons | and phloxes have been much improved i in recent years. The value of a new | violet, Lloyd George, and the improved Viola, cornuta was mentioned.

Although the forests of South Africa contain an unusual variety of valuable kinds of timber, our tallest tree, the yellow-wood, is a more pigmy beside the giants parts of the world (stares the Johannesburg ‘ Sunday Times’). For greatness in height combined with girth, the famous Sequoia gigante.n of California has always hold pride of place. For height alone, however, the eucalyptus of Australia i.s easily first. Tins is not quite as it should be, the tallest things as a rule coming from America.

The Sequoia, which belongs to the pine family, in some instances attains a height or 300 ft and a diameter of more "than 30ft. It is found only in a few groves in the Sierras of the South-eastern United States, and is closely related to the Sequoia sernpervirens, which is extensively used on tho Pacific coast, where it is known as rodwood.

S. gigantea is now protected, Tint not many years ago a fine Rpecimen_ tree was felled, and cross sections of it are now to bo seen in several museums in Europe. The section at the South Kensington Museum, London, _is about 10ft in diameter and contains about 1,300 rings, which can plainly bo seen on its polished surface. As each ring signifies a year’s growth, the tree began to grow about 600 a.d. The Douglas pine, or Oregon pine, of the Pacific Const of the United States and British Columbia, is also remarkable for both size and utility. This pine (Pseudotsnga Douglass!! grows to the height of from 200 ft to 300 ft, with ,a diameter of from Bft to 15ft. It has a thick, brown, deeply-fissured bark, and .gives a reddish, coarsegrained, strong, heavy wood. A few years ago a single length of Douglas pine, a section of one tree, measuring 210 ft in length* was brought oyer, to

WOUK FOR THE WEEK.

Ou? contributor, a well-known gardener, will bo glad t° answer questions, which must bo received not later than Tuesday of each week. Advertisements Jbr column must be handed in to the office before 2 p.m. on Friday.

England on the dock of a liner, and erected as a flagstaff in Kcw Gardens, fo erect a flagstaff of this size and webdit cost several hundred pounds. The pines of Now Caledonia and New Hebrides (Aracaria Cookii) and the A. Excclsa of Norfolk Island and Australia often reach from 200 ft to WQft in height, with a diameter of lOft. , . ... Gigantic trees are known to exist in the more or less unexplored parts of Brazil, and the hate President Roosevelt, when travelling on the Amazon, noticed trees there quit© as tall as the Sequoia Gigantea of California. T'ho well-known Karri timber of Australia. is the wood of Eucalyptus diversicolor, and the authority Julius speaks of it as one of the finest and most useful trees in Australia. It occasionally roaches 300 ft in height, with a straiVht run of 180 ft to the first branch, and from 20ft to 80ft in diameter at the base. Comparatively recently a grove of giant scarlet-flowering eucalyptus have been located near Lake. Alexander in the southern end of Western Australia. One of these trees had a straight run of 147 ft to the first branch, and the heiMit, to the topmost boughs was no less"’ than 537 ft, the diameter at the base being 16ft. When in full bloom they are " said to look like _ a scarlet tapestry spread below the hills. A tree of 500 ft would bo about three times the height of the Corner House, Johannesburg. WAR fit! WEEDS During recent years many attempts have been made “to find a means of ! destroying certain weeds that a,re iuI jurions to crops. Charlock, one of the commonest weeds in Great Britain, is I particularly troublesome to farmers, | for where It is rampant there is rarely ! a good crop of corn. Now, however, it can ho destroyed by moans of spraying. A spray made from finely-powdered kainitc lias been found satisfactory, although the Irish claim that the most successful as well as the cheapest means of destroying charlock is a solution of, copper sulphate, with 2Slb to 3olb of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia added to each barrel of the spraying mixture. DISEASES OF PLANTS j In its three years of study of the haci tom-land fungus diseases of plants, the I Natural History Survey of Illinois has Misted 115 serious and 50 less-virulent i diseases affecting the forty-four crops | investigated. From only sixteen > of the I more serious diseases it is estimated ! that the average annual reduction in ! the State crop for wheat, oats, corn, ! apples, peaches, and pears is 50,398,929 bushels, the average annual loss*being 4i,152,053d01. mOJiTBHETIAS Montbretias arc beautiful when they arc well grown, but they are so hardy that they aro generally left severely alone by “amateur gardeners, and then 1 they spread and become a tiresome weed. When treated well and kept under control, however, up-to-date varieties of monthretias are very effective in the borders or on the sunny edge of a stream. Tbo soil for them should bo deeply dug. During summer several good waicrings should be given. The bulbs increase so quickly that they should not bo left in the ground longer than two years without being lifted and . divided. | Among varieties the following are ; good;—iiereward, pale orange; King! Edmund, golden yellow; Lord Nelson, deep redf Koh-i-noor, large orange flowers; Vesuvius, blood red. A LABORATORY FOR THE STUDY OF PLANTS | “The. Boyce, Thompson Institute for ! Plant Research is a privately-endowed i laboratory at Yonkers, just north of New York City, especially equipped for the study of plant problems,” says the American ‘ Review of Reviews.* “ The problem has been simply stated by Dr Crocker: Our population is now increasing faster than agricultural production, Within twenty years there | will bo no surplus food; yet fifty years hcucc we shall require 75 per cent, more food than wo now produce. Greater production must be brought about, mainly by increasing yields on fertile lands aml "by malting poor lands more productive. As a foundation for such increases years of basic scientific research will be required cm propagation from seed cuttings, cultural methods, use of fertilisers, production of now and better breeds of plants, and control of plant diseases and insect pests. “ At the Boyce Thompson Institute there are facilities for controlling accurately and on a considerable scale the cni ire "life of plants—light, temperature, humidity, and soil. There are four specially designed greenhouses, each divided into four sections, making six (ecu separate rooms. There is apparatus for maintaining constant conditions of artificial light and darkness, and for supplementing daylight. “ There are five spectral-glass greenhouses, to determine tbo effect of various qualities of light. Refrigerating! and electric heating plants make possible the absolute control of temperatures,”