GARDENING NOTES

Grey River Argus, 7 August 1937, Page 12

GARDENING NOTES

■ THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. The pricking out of half hardy annuals will now be in full swing and soon the entire resources of both tne greenhouse and frames will be taxed to their utmost. As soon as possible the hardier plants will have to be put out into cold frames or under shelter of some kind, for it is too soon to put anything outside altogether yet. Make another sowing of halfhardy annuals, including such popular kinds as stock and asters, and another sowing of cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce and tomatoes. Broad beans and 'vegetable peas can be sown in boxes or pots to be planted out later on and carrots, lettuce and radish can be sown on a mild hotbed in a frame. Sweetpeas can be sown in small pots, round the side of live or six-inch size, in pieces of turf or the special paper containers made for the purpose. Put in cuttings of chrysanthemums and perpetual flowering carnations and pot up the chrysanthemums which have already rooted into threeinch pots. Pot on greenhouse calceolarias into their flowering pots which will be seven or eight-inch sizes, and give primulas, cinerarias and cyclamen a little weak liquid manure once a week. Tubers of gloxinias, gesnerias and begonias can be placed in shallow boxes, watered and put into gentle heat to start them into growth. Ferns, palms and other foliage plants can bo repotted or top-dressed. Keep the house in which they are growing a little closer for a limo and syringe overhead twice a day during the sunny weather. Line out rooted cuttings of roses, and hardy shrubs and line out. the seedling primrose polyanthus. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Growth is now quite evident, in the flower garden. Primus pissardi is coming into flower and in the shrubbery we have the witch hazel, jasmine, some of the early rhododendrons and Erica carnea providing colour. Continue to divide up the rampant herbaceous perennials, manure and dig the border, weed and prick up bulb beeds, and give a dressing of blood and bone manure. Protect primrose polyanthus from birds by stretching strands of black cotton on each side of the rows of plants. Hoe or fork up the soil among wallflowers and other spring-flowering plants, and mulch azaleas and rhododendrons or spent hops. Plant and transplant hardy trees, with well-rotted manure, leafmould shrubs and roses, and a start can l.e ‘made to prune the bush roses in districts where late frosts are not expected. Established lawns can receive attention by raking off the moss, giving a dressing of lime and fertiliser, and, after sowing seed on bare patches, topdress lightly with line soil.

A sharp lookout will have to be kept for slugs on the rock garden, for they soon do a lot of damage in early spring, when growth is slow. Dust with lime, or water-mat plants with lime water. THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN. All fruit trees and bushes, with the exception of peaches and apricots, should be pruned by now, and a spraying can be given with red oil to destroy scale or other insect pests, and with lime surphur or Bordeaux mixture for fungoid ones. Plant all kinds of fruit trees and bushes, and tie up those growing against walls, fences or other supports securely with tarred twine. Make new plantations of rhubarb, and mulch the old stools with strawy manure. Make a sowing, of broad beans and dwarf peas on a warm, sheltered border, and make a small planting of earlv potatoes.