GARDENING NOTES

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1940, Page 12

GARDENING NOTES

THE FRUIT AND VEGETABLE GARDEN. Potatoes are taking a long time to ripen off, but they are producing a very heavy crop, and so far there has been no disease. Though the foliage has not ripened off, they can be dug and stored as soon as the skins on the tubers are firm. Continue to plant out winter cabbage, broccoli, savoys, leeks and curly kale. Sow peas and broad beans to stand through the winter, also onions, lettuce and cabbage. Prickly spinach is usually sown for the winter, but in this district the summer or round seeded kind will stand. The plants should be thinned out to from three to six inches apart to allow the leaves to develop. Celery and leeks can be earthed up and the first planting of broccoli, savoys and cabbage can also be earthed a bit to steady them during windy weather. Onions which have ripened can be pulled, and after leaving them to lie on the ground for a day or so should the weather be dry, they can be pleated up into ropes and hung up in a cool airy shed, or the tops can be twisted off and the bulbs stored in shallow boxes. Those which are inclined to be thick necked and are not ripening off can be hurried by twisting or bending over the foliage or by cutting away half their roots with a scuffle hoe.

i Continue to collect apples and pears as they ripen, the test being to lift them up by the hand, and if they come away readily they are fit to store away. Cut away the old fruiting stems of raspberries, logan berries and other berry plants of that kind, and tie up or tie in the young stems. Keep the soil between the rows of strawberries scuffled or forked up, and remove all runners. Prepare ground for new plantations of gooseberries, currants or other bush fruits and holes for fruit trees. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Dahlias are making a great show at present and there is no doubt that they are the most important of 'the autumn flowers. They are so very accommodating and will flower well though not lifted for three years, provided they get a little liquid manure or a top-dressing of farm-yard manure or blood and bone. 'Keep the old flowers picked off and the young shoots tied up securely to stakes. Continue to clear out annuals as soon as they are past their best, also to cut over herbaceous perennials, and to keep the rose beds hoed and tidy. Cut over the ramblers if there is enough young shoots to take the place of the old. Plant out spring flowering bulbs such as daffodils, snowdrops, scillas, chionodoxas, crocus, and also anemones and ranunculus. There is nothing to be gained by keeping any of these bulbs ;or tubers out of the ground. Plant ; out stocks, forget-me-nots, wallflow-, ers, Canterbury bells, double daisies, and polyanthus primroses wherever space is available; trench beds and borders for roses and shrubs, and, ' prepare holes for planting out trees. ;

Seeds of hardy annuals can still be sown to provide plants which will stand through the winter and flower in spring or early summer. New lawns can now be sown down, the soil is in a very suitable state,

germination will take place in a few days, and the plants will be well established before winter sets in* Where potatoes have been planted in the site of the new lawn, it will be necessary to wait until they ripen off before lifting them but grass seed can be sown with satisfactory results for another month yet. Clip hedges and prune evergreen trees. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Continue to take the buds of the large flowering chrysanthemums and thin out the sprays on decorative, and single varieties, ana those growing in the open to provide cut flowers. Keep a sharp look-out for caterpillars and green fly, and keep all shoots which arise on the stem below the buds pinched . out. Maintain moist conditions among the cyclamen and fumigate or spray with nicoticide for mite or thrips, which, if left alone, will soon do considerable damage. The pelargoniums and geraniums which were cut over some time ago will have started Into growth, and they can now be shaken out, their roots trimmed a bit, and potted up into as small pots as possible. In these they will spend the winter, and in spring they are potted on to their flowering pots. They should be put in a frame, but the sashes should be kept on for a fortnight until the roots take to the new soil. . Hydrangeas, which were rooted m the spring, should now be out in the open to ripen off, ana to develop terminal flowering buds. 1 Tomatoes under glass will be near’ing their last bunches of fruit, the j foliage, if shading it can be reduced,, I and shortly they will have to be cut over to make room for the chrysanthemums, which should be got under cover as soon as the buds show colour. Cuttings of fuchsias can be rooted, also bedding geraniums, pentstemons, mossy phlox and all kinds of rock plants, which are increased in this way. Cuttings of pansies and violas can also be put in, and carnation layers, if rooted, can be severed from the old plant. Grow on the cinerarias in a frame shading them when the sun is bright.