HAWKE'S BAY GARDEN CALENDAR.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1074, 13 August 1869, Page 4

HAWKE'S BAY GARDEN CALENDAR.

AUGUST. Kitchen Garden. — Sow carrots, paranips, onions, leeks, lettuces, radishes, spinach, beet, peas, beans, cabbages and cauliflowers. Protect early potatoes where necessary ; fronds of fern stuck along the rows form a good protection against the frosts of spring. Silver beet, which is grown for its leaf stalk and leaves, should be sown in rows and thinned out to two feet apart ; the young leaves aro an admirable substitute for spinach, and the stalk and mid rib is used for seakale. Fruit, Gab-pen.— Peaches aro now in blosspm! and towards the end of the month

the plums begin to bloom ; therefore it would not answer to prune any of them, but such trees as are late in developing either blossom buds or leaf buds may still be pruned. Grafting should be performed this and next month, according to the state of the buds ; the most successful time is when they begin to swell. Apples, pears, medlars, quinces, plums, may still be planted in cases of emergency ; the trees will require mulching and frequent waterings if the next month should be dry. Flower Gabden.— Sow anemone seed ; mix the seed with sand and rub well, so as to separate the downy seeds from each other ; sow them thinly, sand aiid all, but a little below the surface in rows 12 inches apart, and thin them out afterwards to 12 inches in the row, transplanting to another bed those thinned out. Manure, roses with cow-dung, two years old if possible ; prune some of them, leaving others to be pruned in October, so that you may obtain a succession of flowers. Put dahlia roots in gentle heat to make them shoot previously to dividing and planting out. SEPTEMBER. Kitchen Garden. — This is the busiest month in the year. A final dressing of salt and guano should be given to asparagus beds. In transplanting, never draw the plants from the seed bed, but lift them with some kind of tool. Sow asparagus, American cress, beans, beets (white and red,) brocoli, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, celeriac, celery, lettuces, leeks, onions, mustard, nasturtiums, parsley, peas, parsnips, rhubarb, seakale, savoys, spinach, turnips. In gentle heat sow cucumbers, melons, marrows, tomatoes, and capsicums. Make thyme borders. Plant potatoes, garlic, horse-radish. Plant j out leeks when about size of a goose-quill. Plant carrots, parsnips, beet for seed ; do not attempt to raise seed of more than one variety of each at same time. Fruit Garden.— Graft fruit trees. Rootprune over-luxuriant trees. Watch for American blight ; if it is making rapid progress among the bursting blossom buds, touch with a little olive oil. Mulch newly, planted trees, and water them occasionally. Flower Garden. — Sow tender annuals ; sow biennials and perennials. Spring gladioli should be at once planted. Transplant perennials (excepting tap-rooted ones), every other year ; where they cannot be safely removed, manure them freely. Put in cuttings of fuschias, petunias, verbenas, geraniums, roses, pansies, aloysia, syringa, spirea, &c. Plant dahlias and marvel of Peru. OOTOBER. Kitchen Garoen. — All sowings omitted last month must be performed now : keep seed beds well weeded and thinned. Sow plentifully kidney beans and runners, carrots, parsnips, small salading, melons, cucumbers, and marrows. Slugs now become very troublesome; cabbago leaves smeared on the under side with grease and laid among the beds successfully entrap them ; as the slugs feed at night, the leaves will have to be visited at that time. Fruit Garden. — Disbud trees, with the thumb, of superfluous buds. Trim away strawberry runners, reserving such of tho strongest as may be required for new beds. Mulch newly planted trees with lawn mowings, rough stable litter, or even weeds. Flower Garden. — Sow annuals of all kinds for successional flowering ; sow also biennials and perennials. Acacia seeds and others of similar nature germinate with greater certainty if they have been steeped in water at nearly boiling heat for an hour. Plant dahlias; those that were lett in the ground during winter will send up numerous shoots; select the strongest, and remove the others ; the suckers will all root. NOVEMBER. Kitchen Garden. — Asparagus beds should be in good working order at the beginning of this month ; salt applied once a week materially increases the yield, and keeps the weeds under. Sow Cape brocoli now, if done earlier, the plants are apt to run ; sow carrots, rub the seed in sand and sow in drills nine inches apart. Plant potatoes ; sow kidney beans, runners, (scarlet and case-knife,) peas, celery, vegetable marrows, melons, cueumbera^tomatoes ; sow nasturtiums.fbr-pioklirig. Capsicums may be planted out in open border at end ofthe month. Part thyme, sage, savory, mint, and marjoram. Thin out and transplant Oriioris and leeks ; prick out plants of cabbages and cauliflowers to about four inohes apart. . ,F.aurr Garden.— -Keep down American flight ; during the summer months a strong decoction of tobacco mixed with flour of sulphur is a better application than turpentine, as the latter destroys the foliage wherever it touches. Remove suckers from raspberries, reserving three or four of the strongest canes for next year's fruiting. Peach and other trees much infested with scale should be painted over with a mixture of 2 lbs soft soap, 2 lbs flour of sulphur, 1 lb tobacco, a wine-glassful of turpentine, and 7 gallons water. If the season is at all dry, water strawberries every evening ; cut away the runners, excepting those reserved last month for planting new beds. Flower Garden. — Sow annuals and biennials of all kinds. Take up and store hyacinths and most of the Cape bulbs as soon as the leaves begin to change colour. Plant cuttings of China roses; banksian roses must be pruned now; hybrid perpetuals will be going out of bloom, cut them back a Uttle, so that they may gain strength for autumn blow ; apply liquid manure occasionally. . If the green fly or rose aphis is very troublesome, dip the ends of the shoots in a decoction of 2 ozs. of quassia to a gallon of water. Prune flowering shrubs as soon as they have done blooming. Divide and plant out chrysanthemums. ' DEOEMBER, J Kitchen Garden.— Sow peas, kidney beans, and swede turnips. Plant out to- j matoes. Cease cutting asparagus, that the I plants may gain strength for next season ; j mark such plants as you may require to | save seed from. Prick out celery plants j when about two inches high ; let the soil be very good, and keep them watered and shaded so that they receive no check. Reserve radishes for seed ; be careful not to save more than one kind for that purpose, as the different varieties cross and eventually become useless. Stop cucumber plants, to induce them to throw out fruitbearing laterals. Fruit Garden.— Summer pruning should now be dono: those shoots that are ill placed or crowded, which cannot be rubbed off with the thumb, should be cut away close with a sharp knife. Bud peaches, nectarines, apricots, almonds, and plums. Strawberries will require abundant and constant watering. Flower Garden.— Stake lilies, hollyhock, foxgloves, Canterbury bells, and other tall growing flowers. Dahlias, planted in October, will require attention ; to obtain good flowers, allow of only one shoot from each plant; keep them tied to the stakes as they advance in growth. Roses may now be budded; when the bud has been inserted about three weeks, it will be seen whether it has taken or not ; if it has, loosen the bandage and cut back the shoot, two eyes above the bud; cut away all shoots from tho stock below the bud. Pinks and carnations should now be in bloom ; make layers, and pipe the choicest; should the weather be dry, frequent waterings are necessary to the full development of the flowers. Take up ranunculuses, anemones, cape bulbs, as soon as they have ripened. Save ixia seeds. Strike side shoots of pansiest