THE GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 21079, 16 April 1932, Page 20

THE GARDEN

SEASONABLE WORK MANURES AND HOW TO USE THEM A few words upon the above subject jwill not be out of place, particularly as so many of ray readers do_ not quite Understand the use of artificial manures, and they may do more barm than good when improperly applied. Most people Joiow how to use animal manures indeed, one can hardly go wrong by digging in plenty of this at the right time, but i. is quite another matter when Using fertilisers. , Nitrogen.—The three mam elements of plant food are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. There are other subsidiary foods, but the main interest circles around these. Nitrogen is one of the most important as well as the most expensive of plant foods. Its sources and quantities to use are therefore of paramount importance. The organic form is derived from animal and vegetable sources, the former from blood which in its dried state contains about 13 per.cent., from Hesh and tissues, and in greenbone as much as 4| per cent. The vegetable sources are peas, beans, lupins, clovers, and others, as well as decay'd vegetable matter. The richest supply is derived from these mentioned, so that a heavy crop of these (kg in just before coming into flower will give a good supply of nitrogen for present use. This is my principal reason for so often advocating digging in all such surplus vegetable matter. But it is not to bo taken that artificial manures can bo done without entirely. Far from it, for thenuse is necessary to force rapid growth if we are to expect crisp and wellgrown vegetables, especially such as lettuce, radish, and other quick-grow-ing crops. c Inorganic Nitrogen.—There are several forms of inorganic nitrogen, such as sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, calcium cyanide, and others. Sulphate of ammonia is the richest of these in nitrogen, as it contains 20 per cen t,—the equivalent to 25 per cent, ammonia. Whilst not so quick in action as nitrate of soda, it is quicker than that derived from animal and vegetable matt:: - . Where it is used there should be a sufficiency of lime in the soil not only to counteract its acidity, but as it is a great solvent of lime it soon depletes the soil of its contents of the latter. Indeed, the sulphate of ammonia to give the best results must be associated with lime, but it must not be, mixed with it. If the two are mixed the nitrogen is driven off in the form of volatile ammonia. So this valuable constituent is lost. It is therefore necessary thoroughly to incorporate the lime in the soil two or three weeks before using the sulphate of ammonia. An excess of nitrogen will do great injury to crops, and makes them more liable to the attacks,of fungoid diseases. One hundredweight to one and a-half hundredweight per acre is a fairly good dressing, but for small areas where the quantities -arc not measured by a machine the following table will be a good guide to gardeners. One ounce per square yard and 31 oz _ for every 17ft drill for potatoes will give the desired amount. Sulphate of ammonia will readily mix with superphosphate, as both are acid manures, but it will not mix with basic slag. Wherever sulphate of ammonia is used with superphosphate due allowances should be made for the addition, but where slag is used it must bo used as with lime.

These manures should only bo used when the plants are in full growth or in an active state of growth, otherwise the nitrate would be lost before the plants could absorb it. The first in order of solubility is nitrate of soda, which is immediately available for plant food. Two or throe applications at intervals of, say, two or throe weeks are better and more economical than one heavy dressing. On the other hand sulphate of ammonia may ho used at the time of planting or sawing, as it has to undergo a chemical change before it becomes available to plants, but in the case of potatoes it is best applied just before earthing up, as it has plenty of time for it to act before the crop matures. For the application to such crops as lettuce and radishes the simplest way would ho to give these fertilisers in liquid form. One ounce to the gallon of water is about the correct amount, applied at intervals of ten days. Three such doses will be sufficient. Caro should always be taken when watering with liquid manures, if the ground he dry, to give a thorough watering with water to moisten the soil, or the liquid manure would run off the dry surface and perhaps be wasted. Blood and bone (including fish manures) are all excellent manures, and are best used mixed rather than separately. In using superphosphate or ammonated superphosphate care should be taken not to apply it too freely at one time. Two or three light dressings give much finer returns than by one strong application _ THE VEGETABLE GARDEN In cases where ground is very limited in space or where vacant ground is not available, and where root crops, such as carrots, parsnips, beetroot, and potatoes occupy spaces, I should strongly advise lifting and putting the three former and bagging or storing the lastnamed, so that the ground may be dug, manured, or worked up for future crops or planted with early autumn sown cabbage and cauliflowers to come in early next season. Ply the hoe freely among growing crops to keep down weeds. Earth up celery and leeks. Remove spent crops, and dig vacant ground. A sowing_ of broad beans may still be made, with prospects of early picking next season, and those who are favoured with a warm, sunny situation should make a sowing of dwarf early peas for early picking next season, but I should not advise risking a sowing now unless under favourable conditions. such as the Peninsula of other mild or warm situations. ANSWERS “ W.J.” Names of apples: (1) Golden Spire—a largo early cooker. It is badly affected with mouldy core. Large, soft, hollow-core apples are often troubled this way. Bad drainage, with the roots down to a watery clay bottom, is, I think, mostly responsible. (2) Sharp’s Late Red—good keeper and fine dessert apple when well finished. (3) 1 do not know it—soft, poor quality. (4) L cannot name it—a late wellcoloured apple. (5) Adams’s Pearmain —rather poor quality. A good late apple when well grown. 1 feel sure the roots of your trees are in cold clay. “ Beginner.”—(l) Is poultry manure good for gardens? Yes. There are two ways, I think best to use it—in a dry state like powder, when it is easily dusted on the surface to good effect to growing crops. The other is to spread a layer in some out-of-the-way part of the garden. Cover with a layer of soil at next cleaning. Spread another layer on sandwich fashion, and cover again with soil, and so on. When digging the ground cut it down in a face, and dig it in as with manure. (2) You wish to know if you could grow mushrooms in a glasshouse all the year round, and would like as much information on them as possible. A glasshouse is not a suitable place to grow mushrooms. Nor is it possible for you to grow them all the year round, unless you had a properly" constructed mushroom house heated with hot-water pipes. I could not give a description of how to grow them in answer to question. “ Cecil,” Oamaru. —You have a bag of about Icwt of potash salts, and wish to know to what use you could put thorn. Burn them, and use the ash. That is the best advice I can give you on them. “ C.”—You have some, walnut trees, and wish to know how to make them bear fruit or bring them to maturity. You ask if the nuts are pulled when green if they would come to maturity. Walnuts require to be of a good age to mature their fruits. The position and. situation, too. have a great deal to do with their fruiting. They will not mature if picked green._ They make a very fine pickle when picked before shell formation. H.C. TRIALS OF FRUIT AT WISLEY Some seven years ago there were commenced at Wisley, under the joint auspices of the Royal Horticultural Society and the Ministry of Agriculture, a series of trials the purpose of which was to determine the value of new fruits of promise, and of a few old but little known sorts, as varieties for commercial culture. Each year many now varieties of fruits are submitted to the R.H.S., and, although many of these are either worthless or no improvement on existing varieties, some possess sufficient merit to justify inclusion in the trials, with the result that up to date some three hundred varieties of all kinds of hardy fruits are undergoing trial. The value of these trials cannot be gainsaid, and the results combined with those obtained in the supplementary trials now being conducted at ten sub-stations in various parts of the country, should prove of great benefit to nurserymen and commercial fruitgrowers. Although a fruit may fail to qualify as a fruit to be recommended for market culture, it may prove of first-class garden merit. The conduct of the trials is on modern commercial lines, and fruitgrowers cannot fail to bo impressed by the results achieved. All the fruit trees, bushes, and plants under trial at Wisley and at the substations have been propagated in the special nursery attached to the trials, so that uniformity of material is assured. So far no official report of the trials has been published, and the first will be awaited with interest.

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

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HARDY FERNS Shade and moisture are two of the principal requisites lor tho successful culture of tho hardy ferns outdoors. The nature of the soil does not very much matter, provided it can bo kept sufficiently moist during tho summer months. Aids to this effect arc secured by selecting the situation, by using soils of a moisture-retaining nature, by employing a liberal quantity ol leal mould before planting, and by giving annual top-dressings of leaf mould in spring, after the old fronds have been cut away and tho ferns are about to commence new growth. The fading fronds should not be cut away in the autumn, as they afford a natural protection to the crowns. The effect of a hardy fernery is greatly heightened if it is built up in the form of a rockery, with more or less bold elevations and rocky, projecting angles according to size. A stream, either natural or artificial, furnishes variety, and its banks may be clothed with the stronger growing sorts. Care should be taken in planting tho smaller ferns that they do not become ovekhung and smothered by their taller neighbours. Shrubs of fair height, or trees, may be planted on purpose to furnish shade, but care should be taken to prevent the roots from encroaching on the fern ground. WING A SMALL GARDEN LOOK LARGER I purchased a book recently on designing small gardens, and in the first paragraph the writer referred to a quarter of an acre (writes G. E. 0. Mullins, in ‘Popular Gardening’). Most townsmen call that a largo garden, and the land adjoining the re-cently-built modern villas in towns averages IGOl'fc by 60ft. In iact, most of the houses costing, say, between £BOO and £I,OOO have far less land than the cottages they displace, because tho building syndicates endeavour to place as many houses as they can on estates bought for that purpose. It is now fairly usual to see new roads with their gardens separated by wire or chains, or oven a plain border, instead of by brick walls. This presupposes a similarity of aims, and generally of class, in tho people’ inhabiting them, but it certainly does lessen the “shut off” or “ small _ villa ” effect in such a street, and gives the whole neighbourhood an open, parklike, and well-kept appearance, besides allowing for better cultivation than brick walls or privet or laurel hedges. Where, however, seclusion is desired one of the other and more difficult means must he adopted. SCREEN THE BOUNDARIES. Wo will take tho most awkward case of all—that of a conventional brickwalled rectangle some 120 ft by 60ft. The first thing is to screen the boundaries. This can lie done by shrouding the walls in creepers or climbers such as roses, Virginian creeper, jessamine, or even ivy on north walls, and screening them by flowering trees to break up the outline. A way to obtain the effect of- distance is by use of arches and pergolas, glimpses through which reveal a succession of views beyond. Another plan is to place the taller plants at the end nearer the house and gradually decrease these in size. This gives the effect of the foreshortening produced by distance, and if there are overhangs of verdure and dark “ holes ” and recesses in the end mass the result is good, _ Many years ago I noticed in such a garden a mist of blue forget-me-nots, and since then have often been struck by the value of their colour to give an effect of depth. It is a good plan to combine these ideas: Clothe walls, create “blinds” to disguise the angular form of tho garden, make vistas by means of pergolas, obtain perspective by making use of decreasing height, use dark holes and caves and overhangs to create mystery, and, finally, place skyblue flowers on the further edges for “ horizon.” Suitable flowers are clematis, forget-me-not, nnchusa, and delphinium. These principles can be varied in any number of ways by tho use of different plans and plants, but a_ study of contrasts will give n surprising appearance of space. A NEW RACE GF ROSES What might almost be described as a new race of roses has been raised lately (says ‘ Popular Gardening,’ London). 1 think there is a groat future before it for bedding purposes, also for forming low hedges. Tho varieties are of upright, sturdy growth, and attain a height of three to four feet. At present they are classified in the rose lists under tho dwarf polyanthus, but I think a new name will have to be found for them. They are really hybrids obtained by crossing tho dwarf polyantha with the hybrid tea. They flower constantly in clusters like the former, but iu growth and foliage they arc more allied to the latter class. The blooms are single or semi-double, but they retain their petals and freshness for a long time and arc constantly throwing up new flowering growths from the base. At present they arc represented by three varieties: Else Poulsen, flesh pink, semi-double, largo clusters; Kirsten Poulsen, orange scarlet, single, retains its colour well and is very effective; D. T. Poulsen, tho latest variety, semi-double, red, white at the base, good foliage.—B. W. Price. FINE SINGLE AND SEMI-DOUBLE ROSES Billy Boy, yellow. Dazla, orange scarlet, yellow base. Dainty Boss, salmon pink, fragrant. Lise Poulsen, rose pink. Irish Fircflame, orange, splashed crimson. Isobei, carmine red, flushed orange scarlet. Kirsten Poulsen, orange scarlet. Lulu, orange .salmon. Mrs Oakloy-Eisher, orange yellow. Pax, white. Vesuvius, scarlet crimson.