USEFUL TIPS SENT IN BY GARDEN READERS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 204, 12 August 1932, Page 9

USEFUL TIPS SENT IN BY GARDEN READERS

Turnips for Slugs— The best method I have found for catching slugs is to place slices of turnip, Jin. thick, round the young plants you want to protect. The slugs hide underneath, and can be scraped off into a tin of salt water.

Asparagus-growing Tip— A dressing of nitrate (2ozs. to the square yard) given to asparagus once a week during the cutting season, and well watered in. makes the grass grow very quickly, and every part can be eaten. Summer Turnips— These may be sue-, cessfully grown if a few seeds dropped here and there in the rows of the dwarf beans. The foliage of the latter shades and promotes quick growth of turnips and prevents attacks from fly pests.

Economical Seed Sowing.— To sow -seeds economically and;.reduce thinning to a minimum, take an ordinary Foz. tobacco tin and bore two holes in each end. The seeds are then placed inside the tin. The lid is put on, and the seeds are shaken out along the drills.

Use for a Worn-out Fork— lf you happen to possess an old fork with theprongs worn too short for, digging remove the wooden handle and heat where the prongs join the haft; put the prongs in a vice and bend half down at right angles to prongs. A broom handle will now convert this old work into a first-class tool for earthing up potatoes, cultivating, etc.

To Get Bid of Ants— Cover a sponge with treacle and lay at entrance to anthill. The ants will congregate on tho sponge, which should be plunged into hot water, tho process being repeated until the colony is exterminated. To Catch Snails, betties, etc.— Get an empty syrup or treacle tin which does not leak. Nearly fill it with water and add some kitchen salt, Now sink tho tin level with the ground. Next get a small piece of wood, on which put a small piece of bran, and let it float inside the tin, being careful not to spill much of the bran in the-water. If this trap is set where the snails are working it should not fail to catch twenty or thirty per night, as I have seen it worked in tho garden hero with great success.