THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 139, 16 May 1925, Page 10

THE GARDEN.

Notes are published weekly under this heading, and readers interested in gardening are invited to send in Questions relating to matters upon which they wish expert advice; answers will be published with the weekly notes.

' * THE FLOWER GARDEN. | It is very important' that all seedlings that are to be held over until the spring should be well thinned out before the wet weather conies on. If they are left growing closely together many of them will die and the rest will be very poor specimens indeed. Many gardeners prefer these winter grown seedlings to the spring sown ones, partly because they come into bloom earlier and partly because they are generally very sturdy and strong. Polyanthus and primroses are plants that are to be found in nearly every garden worthy of the name, and yet how seldom are they treated in a rational way. They are plants that Jike a good deep root run in which plenty of manure has been worked. If yoim plants have not got something like this lift them with a good ball of earth and put them on one side while the bed is thoroughly overhauled. Dig it deeply and mix in plenty of manure with the lower spits, and then give the surface a dusting of blood and bone before replanting. It will not hurt the plants at all to do this to them and the results in growth will astonish you. It is very usual to get the plants with stalks about a foot long, or even more when they are well treated, and it is enough to imagine the beauty of them when there is a whole bed of them this size. Replanting does not seem to check them at all.

Sweet peas that were sown earlier in the season must be attended to as soon as they begin to climb. Small twiggy sticks of. brushwood should be put for them to cling to in their early stages of growth, and as soon as they begin to cling to these their growth will he very rapid, so that other taller stakes must be provided for them to continue their growth upwards. If the peas are being grown for show purposes they are trimmed so that not more than three or four of the stems grow, and these are tied up to tall stakes about the thickness of a bamboo, and they often reach a height of ten or even twelve feet. For general garden purposes good twiggy branches of manuka or something like that are quite enough and let the plants find their own way up amongst them. If the branches are allowed to hang down it means that they will get broken or bent, and they are never as satisfactory as when they are taken straight up from the earliest stages. , Seeds of good hardy annuals may be sown now outside with a good chance cl success. It is very important that a fairly dry part of the garden should be chosen for this work.

CONQUEST OF MILDEW. Mr Hazelwood, writing from Australia, has something to say about mildew on roses which is well worth reading:—“For a long time past an effort lias been made to reconcile' some of the theories as to the cause of mildew on roses with some of the experiences met with by most growers. It is generally considered "that mildew spores are distributed universally in all countries and only await suitable conditions for their growth and development into the well-known rose blight. These conditions are described by various authorities as (1) sudden changes of temperature in the growing season; (2) moist humid conditions with soft sappy growth, which is peculiarly suitable for infection; (3) while another declares mildew to be worst after a long dry spell. It cannot be said that these theories clash at all, but they do fail to account for the absence of it in gardens which are regularly liable to all three causes. After reviewing all the old and new remedies for mildew Control, it was felt that there must be some explanation for the immune gardens received no special treatment at the hands of their owners. Shortly after this the oft-repeated statement --that potash was wonderful in promoting resistance to fungus diseases—received serious consideration as a possible solution. This statement appears in almost every hook on agricultural chemistry and manuring, and yet its claims never seem to have been properly exploited. It was determined to test it with particular reference to rose mildew. As soon as potash was available after the war, a small quantity was procured and applied to the soil around plants of Dean Hole, Penelope and Mildred Grant as representing three varieties peculiarly liable to the disease. Immediate results were not looked for, but in the next growth there was certainly a marked improvement. Just about this time another investigator was met who was carrying out experiments with equally encouraging results. Dean Hole had been used in this instance, and it was kept free of mildew by watering with a liquid manure made by adding one tablespoonful of potassium sulphate to four gallons of water. With this gratifying confirmation another season was looked for to further establish the truth of the theory. Several other experimentalists came forward at this time' and their experiments tallied with those who were working on the idea, with the result that much has been gained to the advantage of the rose grower.”

LIME. It may be thought that we are too insistent on the need for liming the soil, and one correspondent says that, While lie is quite aware that lime is necessary, it must not be thought that it is a manure. Perhaps we have failed to point out that, while lime is not exactly a manure, it helps to keep the soil in a good condition so that manure may do its work. Lime is one of the many elements in the soil that go towards promoting the life of many plants, just as it kills others. It is not found in every soil, but for all that these soils will grow a certain number of plants to perfection. These plants are the ones which do not require lime as a manure. There is no doubt that the use of lime in gardens promotes health in plants that are of an economic value to a wonderful extent. Then, again, our garden soils to a largo extent are composed of heavy clays, and these soils are the ones that require to be kept in a' good state of friability, and nothing helps so much as lime. We have noticed that certain trees will do much better in land that has been limed. One of these is cupressus macrocarpa. Theso trees are healthier and will grow much faster in limed land than they will_ in ordinary Soil. There may be nothing in it in some soils, but it certainly acts well in a heavy one.

ROSE BEDS. Rose beds should be given a dressing of some good farm yard manure now. The sooner it can be put on the better for the plants. Any kind of jnanure will do as long as enough of it can be

got. It must he remembered that these plants are gross feeders and require plenty of food to keep them growing well. If the beds are beginning to run out it is a good plan to take the plants right out and to make the soil up again by adding some fresh soil that has never grown roses before. Some bonedust worked up with the lower spits is also useful, and when the bed is finished a good dressing of basic slag will help it wonderfully to keep the plants going. In fact, if good manure cannot he got, basic slag is one of the most useful manures that can be got for all purposes, and it is hardly possible to put too much of it on the soil. We have tried putting handfuls of it immediately under a plant and no harm has been done.

LAWNS. Lawns are a very important feature in any garden, and the possessor of a good clean lawn is a very proud man indeed. If one is making a lawn and lias the ground ready tho seed should be sown at once, hut if the ground is not ready prepare it at once and get the seed in before the end of this month. It this is impossible it is better to wait until the earliest that you can sow in the spring. One thing is very important to remember, and that is to prepare a good seed bed. The success or failure of a lawn is often due to not making sufficient preparations for sowing the seed. 'When sowing it is a good plan to use far more seed than is actually required, because a quick covering often helps to keep weeds away when a light sowing leaves too nmeh room for the weeds to germinate. Weeds in a lawn are often put down to faulty seed, seed which has not been properly cleaned, hut we have proved that it is not the seed which is at fault, but the soil in the lawns themselves. Such a climate as we have is exactly the one that suits weeds, and unless great care is taken in making the lawns, weeds are always liable to come. Even when great care is taken to start all the weeds that are on the surface they will appear with the grass. This is a good time of the year to get on with the work of clearing the weeds from the grass of old lawns, and this can be done in several ways. One is to take a fork and loosen each weed and draw it out, having a tin handy to put them into. Another way is to cut off the tops with a knife and to put a drop of some efficient weed killer on the top. taking care not to spill any on the grass surrounding the weeds. This weed will die right down to the roots. Another way is to cut the top off with a knife and put a pinch of some good lawn sand on the place where it has been cut. Lawn sand turns the grass brown where it touches for a while, but in a couple of weeks it will recover and will grow much faster as the sand is also a grass manure. Whatever method is adopted means that some top dressing must be employed to fill iu the holes caused by removing the weeds. Tho best tiling that can be got for this is soil similar to the soil that the lawn is composed of. It may be hard and coarse, hut this can soon he remedied by rubbing it through a sieve, as long as the soil is not wet and sticky. If the ground is too wet to use the prepared soil put it under cover until the weather, is finer. Rake the soil well into the grass and do not roll until the grass is well through. A little bonedust mixed with the soil that is used for a top dressing will help the grass. *