GARDENING NOTES

Grey River Argus, 20 September 1939, Page 6

GARDENING NOTES

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY Complete the putting in of the chrysanthemum cuttings, and pot up those already rooted in three-inch pots, placing them up near the glass. Box up tubers of begonias and gloxinias, continue to sow seeds of half hardy annuals, and prick off seedlings as soon as they are large enough to handle. The first sown of the annual will now be able to stand out in the open in a sheltered sunny position. Tomatoes, if well grown, can be planted out in unhealed houses, either in pots, boxes, or borders. Sow seeds of vegetable marrows, pumpkins, and ridge cucumbers. Place dahlia tubers in heat to start them into growth with a view to taking cuttings. Cuttings of hydranges can be put in as soon as the young growths are about three Inches long. Start vines into growth by shutting up the ventilators, watering the borders, and syringing the rods night and morning.

. THE FLOWER GARDEN Mow', manure, topdress, and aerate old lawns, and sow down new ones. Plant and transplant herbacious perennials and dig over the borders. As many of these throw up far too manyyoung shoots, those should be reduced to from five to 10 on each plant. This applies to michaelmas daisies, perennial phlox and delphiniums mainly. Spray roses with lime sulphur, and complete the manuring and digging of the beds and borders. Clean off the beds of bearded iris, give a dressing of lime or oyster grit, and then a dressing of superphosphate at the rate of tw'o ounces to the square yard. A topdressing of fine clean soil will also be an advantage.

THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN Continue to sow peas and broad beans 1o maintain a succession sow shorthorn carrots, white turnips,'globe beet and radish, and plant out cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce. Plant or sow new asparagus beds and make ; liberal sowings of round spinach. Prepare celery trenches, and make furIther plantings of potatoes. Spray apples and pears with lime sulphur or Bordeaux mixture for black spot and brown rot, and after | pruning spray peaches for leaf curl. I The pruning of peaces can be carried out now. and as the fruit is borne on the young wood it is mainly a case of thinning out to allow the flowers and fruit to develop. Old apple trees which were cut over some time ago can bn grated now that the. sap is flowing. This is an excellent way of converting varieties which are strong and healthy but not desirable into bearing trees in a short time. Keep the soil among fruit trees and bushes cultivated with a view to keeping down weeds and admitting air to the roots. THE CARE OF LAWNS Most people like to have a lawn

no matter how small it may be, either to provide an appropriate setting for the house, the flower beds and borders and trees, or, to provide regular exercise during the summer pushing the lawn mower. Like every other form of cultivation, we like to have the lawn as free from weeds as possible, and to have only legitimate plants in ii, such as the various kinds of grasses and clover, and if the soil is dry and hot perhaps yarrow.

From my own observation and from requests for information regarding moss in lawns, it appears to be particularly bad this year. This may be to some extent due to the changeable weather we have had during the past few months, but it is usually attributed to either want of drainage or poverty of the soil. It is difficult to have

a lawn sufficiently drained to prevent the growth of moss during winter, and spring if the soil is a heavy and retentive one, or if it is shaded by trees or houses. Ordinary pipe or stone drains at intervals is not enough it would be necessary to put in a layer of ashes or rubble six inches thick at six inches under the surface, as is done in bowling greens, and this would be too expensive. Ordinary drainage, however, if put. in to prevent the soaking down of water from a higher level, and if pipe drains are laid at 12 to 15 feet apart, and moss can he treated in summer, it soon disappears. The lack of fertility can be corrected by applications of chemical manures and lime, with light topdressings of clean light soil, which will not only feed the grass but make up any inequalities in the surface.

The remedies for moss are therefore: (1) To make the drainage as perfect as possible, and specially to intercept moisture which soaks down jfrom higher ground. (2) To correct I the acidity of the soil by applications |of lime. Ground agricultural lime or freshly-slaked shell lime should be dusted over the. surface at the rate of four ounces to the square yard. . It is not sufficient to give a dressing every ] few years to cure acidity, and a dress--1 ing should be given every year. This can be done now. Before applying the lime or any kind of manure, the moss should be raked off with a steel rake and the surface scarified in the process. Further, to admit air to the roots of the grasses, the surface should be punctured with a sharp digging fork. The fork should be pushed in to a depth of six inches and. lightly raised, but not sufficient to break the turf. There are many forms of spiked rollers and other spiking machines especially designed to aerate the turf and assist surface drainage. The.constant mowing and rolling, ’ tramping over lawns consolidates the surface, and some form of opening up is necessary. After scarifying the surface and puncturing the turf with the fork and applying lime, in a week’s time a sowing of grass seed can be made, a light top-dressing of soil given to cover it, • and then a dressing of superphosphate at the rate of two ounces to the square yard. Do not roll until the seed germinates, and then onlyl lightly, and give a dressing, of sulphate of ammonia at the rate of one ounce to the square yard. Dressings of sulphate of ammonia can be given at. intervals of three weeks right through the growing season.

Should grubs get into the lawn, and they are common, they will quickly eat out the grass roots and form bare patches. The pests themselves are difli- ' cult to eradicate, but a watering or spraying with collodial arsenate of lead' applied according to instructions on the container, will kill both them and worms. There is no need to dig up ’an affected lawn, lake off the loose grass, give a dressing of lime, sowsome grass seed, and top-dress with fine sifted soil, sufficient to cover it. Weeds are very troublesome, and daisies, plantains, capeweed, docks and other spoil the appearance of a lawn, in addition to retarding the growth of the grass. These can be kept in check and in time utterly destroyed by ap-j plications of lawn sand, w-hich can be, made by mixing 21b of sulphate of ammonia 'with 21b of dry beach sand, and half a pound of sulphate of iron. This is dusted over the lawn at the rate of four ounces to the square yard, taking special notice that the weeds are well powdered. This mixture does not harm the leaves of grasses, but it scorches up the foliage of all broadleaved plants, and it also acts as a manure for the grasses. Two or thiee applications throughout the season would keep weeds down. The roots ol plantains, established docks and capeweeds are difficult to destroy with lawn sand, but by keeping the foliage from developing, in time they too will perish. They can be dealt with quickly by dropping a little weed killer on the centre of them, or eject-, ing a few drops into the centre of the root by a special tool made for the purpose. It is not expensive and is effective. ■ i

Very often, in fact, usually quantities of woods appearopklratedfwnacin ties of weeds appear along with newlygerminated grass. There is no need to worry about them, for as soon as the lawn mower gets busy it will cut off the greater part of their foliage, and as they have not yet had time to form taproots they will die. This applies especially to docks and thistles, the seeds of which are. already present in most cultivated soils. SOWING NEW LAWNS Now is also a good time to sow down new lawns, and provided the soil has been trenched or deeply dug in the autumn or winter, it should now be levelled and lightly forked over, as far as possible keeping the fine soil formed through the disintegrating influences during the winter on the surface to form the seed bed.

If the soil has been beaten down .with rain, or tramped on while wet, it may be necessary to dig it over lightly in addition to forking and raking to get a fine surface; and during the raking all lumps will be broken' down and stones, roots, and other rubbish removed.

To get an even distribution of the seed it is better to divide it into two parts, to mark out the area in strips about four feet wide, and to sow half one way and the other half the other. It is hardly necessary to state that sowing should be done on a‘ calm day. After sowing rake in the seed or just cover it with about a quarter of an inch of fine soil, but dd.not roil unless the soil is dry, and then only with

a light roller. Birds are troublesome and not only do they pick up lots of the seeds, but they dust themselves in , the loose surface soil if it is at all dry, disturbing the level and smooth sur- ' face. Some people mix the seed with a little red lead, others erect bird 1 scares of various kinds, and some cover the surface with scrub, removing it as soon as germination takes place.

When the area to be sown is small it is better to obtain a law' grass mixture from a seedsman. This may or may not contain ryegrass, but if quick results are desired it is better to include a proportion of rye, which will germinate quickly and provide liner grasses for the first year. A good mixture, however, would consist of three pounds of perennial ryegrass, one pound of chewings fescue, one pound browmtop and one pound crested dogtail. Should the soil be light either, gravelly or sandy and liable to dry out during the summer, half a pound of suckling clover and half a pound of yarrow may be added, for both of these form-a good lawn and stand dry w-eather.

The amount of seed for an ordinary' lawn would be 11 ounces to the square yard, but for a tennis court or croquet lawn or bowling green it is better to increase the amount to two ounces Io get a dense sward. In the spring grass seed will take from 14 to 21 days to germinate, but in the autumn when the soil is warm it will come up in about, a w’eek.