THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLV, Issue 192, 18 July 1925, Page 11

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 witli the weekly notes.

THE SOIL AND HOW TO TREAT IT, As this is the time of the year when all owners of a garden plot begin to turn their attention to the cultivation Of the soil for some, kind of gardening, a few words written by an Englishman who is acknowledged to be the greatest grower of plants in England may be of some use. The man referred to is Mr Edwin Beckett, and he is acknowledged to be one of the greatest exports in England at bringing unsatisfactory soils to a condition to get the greatest benefit from them. He says: “There is as much in the manner of dealing with soils for growing plants in as there is in all other details of cultivation put together. If a soil is not treated pro-, perl.v in its first phase of cultivation, it will certainly not go out of its way to help you. In my experience there is nothing like deep trenching for any class of land. Trench them to a depth of two to three feet, and in dealing with very heavy clay land you may have to go further than mere trenching to secure draiivage, and employ field drain pipes below the depth to which you have dug to encore the surplus water being carried away. No vegetables or' indeed, any other plants will stand stagnant water around their roots. My experience tells me that light soils should bo trenched during the late autumn and heavy soils during late winter and early spring. In any case, deep movement of the soil is a thing you have to believe in and practise before you can expect to grow plants as they should be grown, since this is the only way of giving the scope for their proper development. It must bo borne in mind that plants can no more be grown on the same site year after year without the addition of plant food than man can find support in an empty cupboard. Animal manure 1 still regard as the best and simplest form. It has the advantage over practically everything else of supplying plant food and a large bulk of lnimus-forming stuffs at one and the same time. For heavy soils choose stable manure, with all the bedding intact, because the long straws help in time to relieve the solidity. For light soils use cow or pig manure, either of which helps to create

“body” in the soil by binding the particles together. Apply manure during the process of trenching. Lay it as thickly as your supply allows in the bottom of the trench, leaving the surface rough and open to give free access to the air and frosts, whose combined action will reduce the soil to a. fine workable condition. Other materials you may use at trenching time arc wood ashes and the residue of burnt garden refuse,

both of which may be spread over the soil before digging and turned in as the work proceeds. Wood, ashes absorb, or tend .to rectify the acidity of a soil, and aroAhereforo beneficial to old gardens that have been manured for a number of years. It may interest some people who can get supplies to know thkt seaweed is a useful substitute for stable manure. On heavy lands it should be used fresh, and on light lands in a half decayed condition. 1 The real benefits of seaweed are a great content of humus-form-ing material and a considerable quan titv of potash. Lime will sweeten and revivify stale and sour soils by neutralising the acidity and thus induce the healthy functioning of soil bacteria. If land were rested at intervals nature would adjust the balance mainly through the medium of the alkaline constituents of the atmosphere, and all would bo well, but as the soil is cultivated year after year it is never given a chance of natural restoration. Unless soil is alkaline (the condition in which a sufficiency of lime will put it) the func- . ion of soil bacteria is so enfeebled that little or no use is made of the soil’s natural content of plant food, or any additions made by the way or manure. My idea of a dressing for heavy soils is six to eight ounces of unslaked lime to the square yard, and for light land from eight to sixteen ounces to the square yard. Seed is another important item and you all know well enough that it is important to sow the best that can bo got if you want to get a good crop. My advice to you is to buy the best seed procurable, even if you have to pay a little, more for it. A bad strain of seed would be dear at a gift. Wh?n choosing seed take notice of varieties that do well in your immediate neigh-

bourhood and grow these for main crops.- Trying novelties is always a worthy ambition and you may find something particularly suitable to your soil. Alyaws sow to time providing that soil and weather conditions a.*o suitable, but be sensible about it and rather wait a week or two for good weather than bury seed in ;old wet soil to rot, for surely it is better to have a late crop than no crop at all. Thin out plants as soon as they are large enough to handle. Do not be timid about thinning; give the plants plenty of room. Overcrowding is a common and serious fault. Stake plants thad need support when they are quite young. It is a common fault to let plants get out of hand before any support is given to them. ’ Keep the hoe going amongst growing plants.”

THE FLOWER GARDEN

The wretched weather lately has put a stop to anything like serious work with the soil in the garden, hut still the gardener can always find something that has to be done. Pegs are wanted for naming plants and in some cases those in the border have been there so long that they should he renewed. Get them in and give them a general clean up and paint them over with white paint to / freshen them up. This is work that may seem unnecessary to those who do not care whether their plants are named or not, hut there are numbers of gardeners who would not grow a nameless plant unless it was a common one they know so. well that it is hardly worth while putting a name \ to it. Stakes for the various plants want sorting out and this is work that can be done when the soil cannot be touched. Trim up all hedges now and clear away the rubbish that has collected at their bases. Hedge trimmings are no good for the compost heap and so they should be burnt and the ashes scattered over the vegetable garden and around fruit trees. Fruit trees all want potash in some form or another and the cheapest that you can get is from a garden fire. Priming all sorts of shrubs in the garden can also be done when other work is at a standstill. TKe fruit trees want it and the shrubs that are growing too strongly or straggly want cutting back to reasonable limits. Rosts will bo all the bet- ; ter if they are left until the beginning of next month before they are done because cutting them stems to make them want to grow almost immediately and if they are cut too early the young shoots may be nipped by a heavy frost and spoilt. Sweet peas seem to be growing well in spite of the very wet season and they need attention in the way of tying up and training in the way tiny should go. .When the weather is fine enough to go on tho borders thin out the growths of herbaceous plants that have been in the ground for several years. There is no doubt that perennial plants are coming to their own in gardens now, and a lot more interest is being taken in them. To get the best out of those varieties that make a big growth in the autumn and spring it is better to divide them up annually and to plant back some of the stronger pieces than it is to let them go on year after year without any attention.

QUESTIONS,

“Black Currants” says; “What kind of soils do black currants thrive best in and what manures are best for them ? Do they require regular and heavy pruning?”—Black currants will thrive: in almost any class of soil unless it is very wet and sour, in which case it is only a matter of draining and proper attention to bring it to that state of fertility in which they will grow well. It does not matter how good the soil the plants are growing in, they will in a few years exhaust the plant lood and additions of manure are required. It is better for the crop never to allow this state of things to come to pass, but to give manure at the beginning and to keep plenty of growth going. Farm yard manure is the best that can be dug in around them, but if this cannot be got rise compost from the rubbish heap, helping it out with a generous sprinkling of bonedust and superphosphate. Pruning is necessary because plants that uro making a strong growth will be making 100 much wood for the crop at the same time, and it is necessary to keep the centres of the plants thinned out and to allow air and the sun to circulate freely amongst the branches. One of the most important things in connection with the cultivaion of these plants is to give them a spraying with Bordeaux mixture, using the winter strength as soon as the plants begin to make new growths. To every fifty gallons of the Bordeaux add a couple of pounds of arsenate of lead ; this is for the destruction of the currant laid moth, which lays its eggs in the axils of the bud and hatches out and eats through the hud into the wood. These notes apply to red currants .just as much as to the others; Gooseberries

must bo pruned and sprayed also, or they get so much crowded with branches that they cannot.be picked. “A Reader” says: ‘ I am a constant reader of your notes and find them very lielpful to a new chum like I am. I want to put a hedge round my house and have very little room to spare. Whatever hedge I put in must not grow too wide. Could you tell me of some plant that would be suitable for the purpose,- The reason I do not want the hedge to grow wide is because it would shut out the light-from my windows and from my neighbour’s also.” —The best thing that you can grow under the circumstances is escalonia. exoniensis. It is a rapid grower and can be trimmed about a foot in thickness and is evergreen. It will also grow in almost any kind of soil.