THE GARDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 46, 23 January 1926, Page 11

THE GARDEN

QUESTIONS

“Sandy” says: “I am a good deal troubled with posts of various kinds in my garden—rust, green fly, and to an extent blight. How is it that one garden is severely troubled in this direction while another is not P Is it not a fact that there is something in the soil, or something missing from it that acounts for this? There is certainly a cause for it, and assuming that the cause is not neglect it seems to me that the soil is the main factor. My. main troublo is rust, and after that green fly. The soil is light and sandy and the drainage is good—too good.” There is ho doubt that the ■ main thing involved in this question is a matter of soil and what is best to do with it. The part of the question dealing with rust can be dealt with separately and is largely duo to having got it into the gardon and not having sprayed to eradicate it in the first place. Weakened plants are always susceptible to it and the soil must be built up to allow the plants _ to bo treated for it. We would advise you to take a portion of your garden and

treat it to a good manuring with some cow manure if it is possible to get this, and on this piece of land sow a crop of peas and oats or horse beans and ]beas for digging in later on. Such a manure as sulphate of potash would help you considerably as it seems to harden up the cuticule of the leaf and makes it more resistant to blights attacking tho leaves of a plant. Another thing you will find is I that a soil deficient in humus is always liable to have blighted plants on it than one that has plenty of humus in it. We would not bo content with one crop of green manure but would sow another directly the first one has been buried, and with this wo would sow blood and bone to get a quick and heavy return and, when this crop has been dug in, do not plant anything

from the other part of the garden bui get a new and clean set of plants Sandy soils will respond to this kinc of treatment very quickly and, if you can manage to do the other part oi anothor part next season, you will in time find that your stuff is healthier and bettor. This class of soil will always be found to bo hungry and, until they are built up with humus, they will not hold the moisture that is required for plant growth and for bacterial action which is going on all the time. Unless the soil has plenty of humus in it the soil bacteria will not work properly. The use of artificial manures continually will spoil land of this kind quicker than anything else and it will bo better to discontinue using it until you have got the humus into the soil again. That part of tho question dealing with another garden

equally well looked after may have nothing in it because the soils in this district are so varied that your next door neighbour may kwo a soil ‘totally different from youis and requiring a different system of working. Green fly is nothing to worry about as it is as easily removed with a spray (Black leaf 40), or you might encourage ladybirds to visit it. Where there are plenty of these “gardener’s friends” there is nothing to be feared from aphis. Last week wo were asked to liavo a look at a bed of roses badly infested with green fly and to suggest a remedy. The black leaf was tho remedy suggested or, if possible, catch some ladybirds and turn them loose in it. The latter suggestion was adopted and the green fly disappeared like magic. The life history of rust would bo too complicated for us to deal with hero, but if you could read up about it in some • gardening work you would then realise that it must be combated by giving it as little as possible to live on. “Tulip” says: “Two years ago I planted about two hundred tulips in a bed and want to know if it would be a good plan to lift them this season and replant them. They did not do nearly as well this season as they did tile first year I put them in. And would you bo kind enough to tell me what kind of soil is most suitable for them. The soil they are growing in at the present time is heavy, but I mixed some wood ashes, sand, leaf mould and old decayed grass from the lawij mowings which have been heaped up for several years.” Your best plan with the tulips is to lift them every year and to replant them. Any good garden soil will suit them, but the ideal soil is ono just on the heavy side. They are lime loving plants and some of this worked up with the soil will do them a lot of good. The mixture you used in tho first place would

Notes are published weekly under this heading:, and readers interested in gardening: are invited to sand in questions relating to mattori upon which they wish oxport advico; answers will bo published with the weekly notes.

not hurt them and if your ground is very heavy it probably made it just, about right. They do not like a cold draughty place. It is not necessary to replant them as soon as they aro lifted but as long as they are in the ground by April or May it will be quite soon enough. Use a new site for the bed when replanting, or you mayget what is known in England as fire 1fungus. Tulips have tho curious habit of changing their colour at some time in their life and this is known as “broaking.” It ,may occur in two years, or it may take twenty, no one can say. WORTH NOTING.

The larger sized flower pots are expensive to buy and sometimes an accidental knock will break thorn into several pieces. Do not throw- them away unless irreparably damaged; mend them instead. Mix three parts of clean sand with one part of cement with enough water to form a paste. Spread this over tho broken edges thinly, fit. the pieces together and scrape off the surplus with an old knife. Put the pot aivay in a cool shady position and allow it a few days to set. The pots may then be safely handled und will be as good as ever. We liavo tried tho above and have found it to bo a splendid way of mending them. The best joints were made by soaking the pieces in water before putting them together. Allow a little while to elapse after taking them out of the water for tho edges to dry and the cement will not run off.

Hydrangeas produce blue flowers in soils strongly impregnated with iron. It often happens that a gardener has some pink tiow r ors on his plant of hydrangeas and wants to turn them blue. This can bo done by working iron filings into the soil a couple of months before they flower. If your plant has blue flowers and you want to turn them pink, it would be useless to give it iron, but use alum at the rate of ono teaspoonful to a gallon of water and water the ground round the plant about three times a month or two before they come into flowering. Lime also has the effect of changing the colour of the blooms. A blueing powder can be bought at some seedsmen or manure stores which is useful for tho purpose. If you want to sow seeds in the open ground in various parts of the garden cut a benzine tin into sections about four inches deep, so that the sections have neither top nor bottom. Tie a piece of scrim across ono end and covor tho seeds with it. The scrim will _ give just enough shade to stop quick evaporation and will also protect the young seedlings from the offects of the hot sun.

The best pins for layering carnations aro made from fine galvanised wire cub into lengths about five inches long and ono end bent to form a hook. These aro cheap and will last for many years if they aro picked up when the layers are lifted and put into a bucket with some small holes in tho bottom to let the rain water through. VEGETABLES.

The rain has made a great difference to nearly all vegetables that are growing in well worked soil. There is a lot to be done in the way of hoeing and tying up. Weeds are growing as fast as tho plants in many cases. Deep hoeing is not required but ; as long as enough of the surface soil is stirred to make a surface mulch, that is all that is required to kill weeds and to stop the evaporation of moisture from the ground. Another thing is that you do not bring any fresh soil to the surface to bring out another crop of weeds. Tomatoes must be tied up as they grow and all lateral sheets picked out as small as possible. One stem is enough for each plant and, if you can get five bunches of fruit on that stem, it will be as much as the plant can manage before the frosts come and destroy them. Runner beans are making good growth and must be kept picked as soon as they are ready for use. If this is done they will go on fruiting for a long timq and in many cases will give more beans than are required, but it is better to pick them than to allow the plants to stop fruiting. Ground that is cleared of potatoes will come in handy for planting out winter cabbages and leeks and celery. Silver beet is one of the most useful crops to grow for winter and, if this is sown now in well manured soil, it will come in when other things are scarce and will continue to give

pickings right through the winter and well on to next summer. The plants will then begin to run to .seed and are useless. Bowings of peas may still be made, but it is better to olioose a dwarf kind for sowing now and to water tho seed in tho ground before the earth is drawn over tho rows. Peas sown now will come in during April and arc much appreciated then. French beans will come in quicker than that and may still be sown, .but they feel tho oolder weather quickor than peas and frosts harm them quicker. Shallots should bo roady for lifting now and these should bo pulled up and allowed to dry for a few days in the sun before being stored away. Make sowings of lettuces and turnips now and they will come in before winter. These should be sown in well manured soil so qs to give them a good start in life. The best kinds of turnips to sow now are ono of the yellow fleshed varieties, as they last longer than tho white ones. If a quick growth is wanted a few of tho white fleshed ones can bo sown, but they must be used as soon as they are roady or they get woody. Somo gardeners sow a small bed of carrots this month to give a few early carrots at the end of winter and beginning of spring.