Kitchen Garden.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 9 September 1890, Page 2

Kitchen Garden.

if • q Brussels Spyouts are vegetables of great value, having both a long y season, and being excessively hardy, P and also being of deleioua flavour ] when cooked. To secure an farly y crop with ! ar£e stout stems which 3 will bear a line array of sprouts, it i is well to take advantage of favour- . Ab e weather and sow, at least a few i early. The seed may be sown 1 thinly in a box, and \> aced on a s gentle hotbed. When ther* ia t space availib'e the Sprouts may 3 have a distance of at least 4ft. 3 between the rows and have Potatoes p between thorn The large aiaouut 3 of space thus given is berufical to b crops. A box of Leeks placed ou t the hotbed will I.e. a'vai able for i early pricking cut. The soil in c mo t localities is now in a very t favooi able condition for preparation s to receive the extensive sowings and 3 plantings at the end of this or the c beginning of the next month.. By . that time the ground beii\g in pood • oider, with an increase of tempera 1 \' tare and we hope some warm rams, 0 seeds sown and roots or plants put a ou* all do well. To secure success 3 it is not only necessary ihat seeds j should be surrounded with a fine J soil but that underneath ought, to be f in an equally suitable condition for 1 th" reception of the delicate root • fibres. The ground should therefore he forked over , bringing up the 3 the lumps of unbroken soil from be--3 neath, and allowing the finely ) divided surface stratum to go dowu and fill their place. Where the soil ? is of a very c\y«y or lumpy nature the seeds will have to be covered l with light sandy soil after sowing, r they wil th'-n germinate much more I freely than would otherwise be the , ca>-e. Then there are several j enemies to delicate eeedlings, and t; unless some preparation is made in f anticipation of their attacks, much f mischief may be done before eyeD t the seed has germinated. Much > ' may be done by way of prevention, » frequent stirring of the ground to a > good depth prior and surface hoeingd . flnb?oquent to cropping, greitly i checking the increase of slugs and • a'so disturbing grubs and othe" pe-ts . in their resting places. • Then, a^ain ; if either soot, ashes of various kinds,

charred sawdust burnt soil, lime, oi 1 sat, or in mixt.ire are well sfcivrei into the surface, these prove to a certain extent d< structive to insect pe*ts, and in any case will have a stimulating effect upon the seedlings or young plants of any kind 83cupying the ground this treated — rnp.d growth p receiving many of them fro:n their c lemies. Parsnip < may now bo sown on well-trenched ground free of rank manure, allow ing a distance of 14in between the rows, sow the seed rather spaii'igly in drills an inch deep, ny the see 1 may be dropped in thn.es at eight inches apart, to save labour of thinning later en.- Press.