Seasonal Gardening Notes

Hutt News, Volume XXII, Issue 1, 16 June 1948, Page 6

Seasonal Gardening Notes

(By "HORTL")

Work in the garden during the present month is entirely dependent on the weather, and it is futile to enter on a vain conflict with nature. When heavy rains prevail keep off the ground, but immediately it will bear traffic be prepared to take advantage of every favourable hour.

Strawberries The strawberry is generally regarded as the most difficult of the small fruits to cultivate successfully. The first necessity is a suitable soil and experienced growers are agreed that a heavy loam gives the consistent returns. On light soils growth is often retarded through lack of moisture.

When preparing the ground it is well to remember that the plants are to remain in position for three years and a little extra time spent on the preparation of the bed will be well worth while. Deep digging is essential and the soil should be enriched with well-rotted manure or compost and the surface made firm and raked-ready for the reception of the plants. Each plant should be firmly set and care taken not to bury the crown. A small crop of fruit will be borne the first summer after planting. Straw should be placed beneath the berries when they are about the size of marbles, to keep them clean. All runners not required for the purpose of propagation should be removed as soon as possible and an abundant crop will be carried the second year. After it has been gathered, the oldest leaves should be removed. They have reached an age when they cease to function well and the crowns ripen better in their absence. It is wiser, therefore, to remove them. Runners should also be cleared away from the bed. In the third year the plants will give a profitable return. After that they cease to be worth the land they occupy. The above routine will, of course, be commonplace to experienced gardeners. It is necessary to have successional batches of strawberries or there will be a break in the supply of fruit. The accepted and sound custom is to provide three batches of one, two, and three-year-old plants respectively. Care should be taken in the selection of this propagating material. Runners from blind or fruitless plants are unsuitable as they are almost certain to bear the sterile character of their parents. The best runners are those from one-year-old plants, and the choice should fall upon the first runners from these plants because they are known to possess a strong constitution. Generally speaking strawberry plants-should be set out in rows two feet apart and one foot between each plant.

Household Soot—lts Value in the Garden

The main manurial value of soot lies in the sulphate of ammonia content. This is variable and may be as low as 1 per cent, or as high as 5 per cent. Other elements enter into its composition,' including potash, phosphorus, and lime, so that, on a minor scale, soot is a complete plant food. It may be used liberally when digging vacant ground for vegetables or flowers. New soot is caustic to some extent, and should not be used in that state on vegetation, especially on seedlings and tender foliage. Neither shbuld it be used or added to potting composts or roots will be killed. To avoid accidents only soot that has been exposed to the air for three months should be used on growing plants. Soot and lime should not be mixed together or the ammonia will be driven off, but this result is often turned to account on the onion and carrot bed by scattering the mixture between the rows in the hope that the onion and carrot fly will be kept away by the fumes. Soot is of much value in checking slugs and snails if the soil around the plant is blackened by it, renewing the application as often as necessary. Birds find the foliage of peas distasteful when smothered by old soot. It adheres best when the leaves are damp with dew. Another benefit credited to soot as a result of its black colour is that it raises the temperature of the soil a degree or two, and thus hastens crops in the early spring. To ensure this the soil should be kept black with it. Soot is best spread by placing in scrim or loose sacking and beating the package with a stick. Soot, in liquid form is also excellent for stimulating growth and giving a dark green colour to the foliage of hot- | house plants.

The Winter Sweet ("Chinionantlms fragrans") This' ia a delightful shrub and one that is worthy of a place in every garden. There is always an element of uncertainty about the date of flowering of this beautiful shrub. Dependent upon the weather the fragrant blossoms may be expected any lime between the months of June and September. Winter Sweet Is extremely hardy, the plant is deciduous and attains a height of about 8 feet, being excellent for clothing walls, as this position ensures just enough protecfciqn ;to enable the flowers to open early and well. The leaves are deep green, rough to the touch and slightly, downy when young. The liowers are'

solitary and borne on .'very (short stalks from the joints of the shoots made during the previous summer and their' colour a transparent yellow green. A few sprays cut from the plant when the flowers begin to expand and placed in a warm room will leave you in no doubt as to why the plant obtained the name of "Winter Sweet." Its fragrance is delicious and amply repays the ground occupied, more especially when one remembers the season at which the flowers are available. Cinerarias for Pot Culture Cinerarias are among the finest of flowering plants for cool greenhouse culture, coming into bloom during September and October and producing a mass of colour that will please every gardener. They are also most suitable when pot grown to take indoors for table decoration.

Although it is now too late 'o raise plants for spring flowering from seeds the local nurserymen are displaying boxes of well-grown plants that may be potted on and* grown to fine-specimen plants.

The best compost for the potting is a mixture of turfy loam, sand, and leaf mould or a small quantity of peat. The soil must not be too rich or more leaves than flowers will result. On the other hand the plants will not do well if starved, for the cineraria is a quick grower and needs abundance of food.

The young plants need to be set low in the soil but care should be taken not to cover the hearts of the plants. Plants newly purchased could be set in four-inch pots and placed in the shade for a few days, where they will soon recover from the shift. Good drainage is essential and firm potting necessary to avoid soft sappy growth. Hardy treatment is called for from thence onward. Pull light and ample room must be allowed for the plants to develop successfully. Cinerarias are thirsty subjects and require careful watering, rain water being preferable to cold tap water. They are also dirty plants and require regular spraying, at least once weekly, with Black Leaf 40. A close look-out will also have to be kept for caterpillars, whicn will soon destroy or spoil the foliage of the plants. When the buds appear the flowers will be much improved by regular doses of liquid manure, best applied shortly after watering. The plants must at no stage become pot-bound, and it will be necessary to make regular checks to avoid this condition. Wellgrown plants may be carried up to eight- and nine-inch pots and amply repay the attention bestowed upon them. Wilt or collar rot is tho greatest enemy of the pot-grown cineraria and I do not know of any cure for this complaint. It is first observed by a wilting of the leaves and. may occur in the early stages of growth or may appear when the plant is commencing to flower. As soon as this condition is observed it is wise to remove the plant from the glassliouse and destroy immediately. Good and Bad Cuttings There are good cuttings and also bad ones. It does not follow that the latter will not root, but where they do they will result in very inferior plants. Good cuttings in almost all cases consist of growth of the current season, and they are either torn off so as to provide a heel of firmer wood or they are cut squarely across, just below a joint where leaves are or have been. The heel, if any, is trimmed smooth and any torn portion removed.

The values of a heel lies in the fact that the woody fibre or flesh is at that point more compaot or close grained, the joints are often close together, and there is a greater inclination to form roots than in the looser, softer and perhaps hollow growth farther away. The cutting across just below a joint is for a like reason. Just at that point most stems are solid., and the capacity to callus or heal over is greater. That is why it is very difficult to get pansy and viola cuttings to grow if prepared from long straggling flowering shoots. Such shoots are hollow, while the basal part of the young growths that freely form on cut-back plants is short jointed and firm, and speedily form roots. It is usual to trim away the lowest leaves on a cutting so that there is a clear length of stem for insertion in the soil. The leaves, if allowed to remain, are very liable to decay, and when removed would leave the cutting base open to the

Finally, when striking cuttings do not insert them too deeply into the soil. All that is necessary is that, the soil, to which sand has been, added, should be pressed firmly around the cutting sufficient to prevent any movement until roots have formed.