GARDENING NOTES

Horowhenua Chronicle, 21 March 1938, Page 3

GARDENING NOTES

Eoutine Work in the Borders. Overhaul colour borders, noting flowers with clashing colours and decide how to rearrange them. Consider any forthcoming garden alterations and make plans fully now to save time later. Prepare beds for planting daffodils, tulips, etc. Trim grass verges to give a neat, trim appearance. Make ready a place for this year’s leaves, decayed leaves form one of the most valuable forms erf manure. Give garden paths a good watering of weed killer. Take cuttings of fuschias and geraniums. Water and feed all plants intended for late autumn blooming. Propagate such plants as hydrangeas, carnations, pinks, verbena, petunia, iceplants and eactii. Make the first plantings of anemone and ranunculi this month. Sow sweet peas and other hardy things wanted for winter bedding out. Look after shrubs removing dead flowers.

Hoe shrubberies and other borders very frequently. Plant any kind of bulbs in the wild garden. The Vegetable Garden. Lift shallots, and after thoroughly drying store in a cool shed. Avoid over watering tomatoes or they will split. Keep late peas well watered. Cut all vegetable marrows before the skin gets too hard. Sow winter spinach and lettuce. Make a sowing of spring cabbage and early cauliflower. Sow parsley and any other herbs required. Keep runner beans w r ell picked, just a few pods allowed to run to seed seriously affects'production. Remove any old worn-out leaves from spinach beet and give the bed a good soaking of liquid manure. Sow broad beans. Lift the earlier planter potatoes, or they may start into growth again. Prepare beds for rhubarb, and plant at the end of the month or April. Sow onions for early use. Keep leeks w r ell supplied with moisture and liquid manure.

Mushroom Spawn. Sometimes one wishes to make their own mushroom spawn, hence the following hints will bo useful: — - Collect together a quantity of fresh horse droppings, fresh cow manure, and maiden loam. Weigh up equal proportions of the two manures and one-eighth part of the two of the loam. Break up the droppings with a small fork, spread on them a layer of cow manure and scatter the soil on this. Proceed in the same way till all the manure has been used. Then make a hole in the centre of the heap in the same manner as is done for mixing mortar or concrete, and fill with strong liquid manure from the stable yard. Work the heap in exactly the same way as is done in mortar making, but see that the mixture is not made too wet or sloppy. After thorough mixing fill shallow seed boxes previously lined with newspaper, with it, and allow to become half dry. Then insert pieces of spawn (found in heaps of old rotted dung) into the bricks or spawn flags, and place in a warm place for the spawn to work. After a day or two turn out ‘the spawn from the boxes, cut up into convenient sized bricks, and store in a cool, dry place till required for use.

The Cultivation of Mushrooms. The cultivation of these is not so general as it should be, considering how simple it is. Good fresh horse-drop-pings are the chief essential to successful cultivation, and where a regular supply of these from corn-fed horses can be secured, there is no valid reason why, with a little perseverance, good crops should not be had at all seasons. Mushrooms may bo grown during the winter months in any warm shed or cellar, but during the warmer period of the year, beds made up in a shady spot in the open air will be most likely to give crops of the best quality. Making the Bed.

Gather the droppings (minus the straw) from the stables each morning, until sufficient has been obtained to make a bed of the desired size. A suitaide size is four feet wide and from six to eight feet Jong, allowing a depth, which, when fully settled will not be less than three feet, such a bed retaining the necessary heat over a period sufficiently long to ensure the spawn working satisfactorily. This manure must be laid out thinly under the cover of a shed where rain will not reach it, until sufficient has been secured to make a start, after which it should be put in a conical heap to ferment, turning it thoroughly every third morning in order that the very rank steam may escape. After three such turnings the bed may be made. When making up the bed, should any doubts exist as to the quantity of manure being adequate, rather than risk failure the addition of a sixth-part good fibrous loam may be made, care being taken to mix this thoroughly with the manure. The bed should be made moderately firm, but not beaten hard, and as soon as the temperature of the mass, which at first is bound to be pretty high, is reduced almost to 75 or 80 degrees, spawning or planting may be done. It is most important that the spawn used should be in a perfectly fresh condition, this being easily ascertained by breaking it in pieces. If a small white thread-like substance is seen to be penetrating the whole brick, it will be quite safe to use, but where the mass has the appearance of dried manure the sample should be rejected. Pieces of spawn about the size of a bantam’s egg are generally used, burying these about two

1 inches below the surface, at a distance of 6-8 inches each way. A few days later cover the bed to a depth of two inches with finely sifted loam, making the surface even, and beating down firmly with the back of a spade. Place a layer of straw or hay over the bed to prevnt rapid evaporation of heat and moisture, also to ensure increased warmth should the temperature show signs of dropping too suddenly. About six weeks later the covering may be carefully removed and the bed examined. If very dry, a slight watering with tepid water may be given, and frbm this time forward mushrooms may be expected. Beds in bearing should be frequently syringed overhead and round about, always using tepid water, and after syringing have the covering material replaced.

Pull up all mushrooms as soon as they attain a fair size, in any case before the under side of the speciman gets really black, always filling in the holes thus made with soil or manure. Spent beds may frequently be revived by a good soaking of salt water or a solution of nitrate of soda.

Disposal of Garden Rubbish. Although there is a difference of opinion as to how garden rubbish is best disposed of, some favouring the idea of stacking it, covering it with earth, and scattering lime among it to help it speedily rotting, while others favour burning it and saving the ashes for future use, it is generally agreed that the autumn should see the ground cleared so that it may be turned over for the winter. Both methods have their good points, but in a small or moderately sized garden it is not always convenient to stack rubbish so that it may rot. There is no doubt, however, that when this is done both garden refuse and weeds when reduced to manure in this way are a valuable adjunct to the gardener for digging in the soil for the benefit of crops. Where there are plenty of pests, the smother lire is perhaps the best, as unless steps are taken to lime the debris well there is always a fear that the heap may be a breeding ground for all kinds of enemies and pests which we have to combat, whereas when exposed to fire we know' that accounts for most of them. The old-fashioned smother fire built up with turves about it can be kept in for days, and in the late autumn when crops are gathered everything which can be burnt can soon be disposed of from potato haulm, cabbage leaves, and the general flotsam and jetsam of the garden. The ashes resulting from such fires are a valuable help in spring when sowing seed of onions or other crops. There is certainly nothing to be gained in leaving a garden until spring before cleaning it, on the contrary, it hinders it being purified and sweetened by the winter frosts.

Early Flowering Gladioli. The lighter and elegantly disposed spikes of the early flowering gladioli are preferred by some to the denser and more massive ones of the later kinds. They are splendid for pot work, being equally useful for the cold greenhouse or for one where they can be forced into bloom quite early. They are also of value in the open ground, showing to the best advantage when grown in mass formation. The bulbs are very accommodating as some can be planted as soon as they are well ripened off which some will be found to be at the present time, continuing fith a fresh batch each fortnight in order to have a succession of bloom. A light sandy loam of good quality with a little sand and manure form a suitable compost. The best size pot to use is the six inch, and each one should take six to seven eorms. For a month at least they would be better plunged into the ground. If the soil is moist at the time of potting, no water will be required, but when growth is active then more water must be given. It is safest not to cause the growth to come on too fast. The temperature of the ordinary greenhouse, from 40 to 50 degrees, usually brings the flowers out as soon as they are needed. When the spikes begin to show, moderate feeding will give size and substance to the flowers, fhe spikes are always in good demand, as there are not a great many flowers jon the market at the time these early ( forced ones are out. Their long lasting qualities is another thing in their favour.

Soduin SpatlnUifolium Purpureum. Jiedums or stonecrops are not, as a rUie, favoured by rock gardeners, although some are, sure to bo seen in almost every garden of the kind. One beauty that is sadly neglected is that called sodium spathulifolium purpureum, found on the mountains of British Columbia. It varies considerably in beauty, this depending mainly upon the colouring of the foliage even more than the bright yellow flowers. The colour of the lovely little round leaves, densely set in a neat rosette, gives us wonderful tints of red, green, and purple at various seasons and on different individual plants. In growth it does not exceed three inches in height, and when planted on the slope of a sunny nook in hot, sandy soil, which it loves, it forms a dense yellow carpet in spring. It should be planted in the sunniest aspects. The more effectually the plants are matured by the summer sun the more freely will they return these favours by vivid colouring in winter. It grows freely on mossy earthy rocks, and where there is a modicum of soil to root into will develop a nice colour when fully exposed. It might be tried with advantage on the top of an old wall. The flowers are not very attractive, but the distinct aspect of the plant will secure it a place on the rock garden. Few plants make a more pleasing display during the dreary season, its vivid colour and exquisite beauty impress ' the owner taough it be but a diminutive plant.