GARDENING NOTES

Kaikoura Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 24, 24 March 1938, Page 4

GARDENING NOTES

THE FLOWER GARDEN. (By fi Spring Bloom.”) When digging in the garden do you realise that the soil may be full of insect life in three different stages? The first stage is the egg. The moth or insect comes along, finds a suitable place, preferably near the stem of a plant, and lays her egg. The stem itself is often used for laying the eggs in. The next is the larva, better known as the grub or caterpillar. The final stage is the chrysalis, which is the insect or moth minus its wings. The chrysalis is generally of a yellow colour. Many of these arc so small that they are invisible to the naked eye. When a healthy plant begins to get a sickly-look about it, these small insects, by feeding on the roots and stem, are generally the cause of the trouble. For their destruction, each one should be studied individually. However, a good clearance can be made by forking 4 oz. of napthalene to the square yard into the soil. A bed where choice plants are going to be planted should receive this treatment about a fortnight previous to planting and the napthalene should only be lightly forked in, four inches deep being quite sufficieent. A few of the common pests, together with the general means of combat used, will assist considerably to rid a garden of large numbers of them. One of the worst enemies to gardeners is the earwig, as there is hardly a part of this country which this obnoxious pest, has not overrun, due to their distribution in plants and fruit. A knowledge of their habit is useful in checking their progress. It is generally known that they iricrease in early summer from eggs laid in the soil the previous autumn. Therefore, if an efficient soil fumigant is used in spring gardening, many colonies would be destroyed. During summer war should bo waged on the earwig in several wavs. A magpie having the run of the garden will prove one of the best aids. Pieces of hollow bamboo pole, empty matchboxes, inverted flowerpots filled with moss, even ('rumpled newspaper placed about the plants, w T ill serve as traps. It is astonishing how* many can be caught and destroyed in this way. Poison baits can also be used made of pollard or bran with either Paris green or sodium fluoride, and are also very effective. The two chosen, supposing bran and Paris green, should be mixed together into small petals and distributed amongst the plants and placed under old sacks or pieces of board, care being taken that children or animals are unable to reach them. If boards arc always placed on top of the pellets there should be little risk of damage. If all garden lovers were more or Jess persistent in their attack upon insects, control of most pests would nearly be attained.