THE GARDEN.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LI, Issue 117, 18 April 1931, Page 11

THE GARDEN.

Notes are published 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 bo published with the weekly notes.

THE FLOWER GARDEN,

The rain lias soaked the soil now so that any kind of garden work can be done such as the preparation of beds and borders for the reception of new plants or for the extension of other’s. It is getting late now for planting daffodils, and if there are any that have not been put in they should be got into the ground as soon as possible. Any surplus not required for the garden can be naturalised in grass. Those who are lucky enough to have a grass bank can add to its beauty considerably by planting all their surplus bulbs in it. Ranunculus and anemone planting should be done as soon as you can. The tubers that are planted now will flower late in the season, but they will come in when flowers are wanted. It is not so much the winter cold that retards crops as it is the continual saturation of the soil and anything that can be done to stop this will not only increase the productiveness, but will also make them flower earlier and better. Drainage is the most important part of garden work that can he done, and where drainage is deficient crops take longer to mature and are not as good in quality as those that are grown in well drained soils. The preparation of new rose beds should be taken in hand as soon as possible now to give the soil a chance to settle down before the plants are set out. Drainage in heavy soils is very important, not only to keep the surplus water out of them, but also to conserve moisture when the weather gets drier. This statement may seem paradoxical, but it is the truth. Drains simply remove the surplus water and allow the soil water to remain in the same way that a sponge holds water. When a sponges is in water it is saturated, but when it is taken out the surplus water runs away, and remaining water does not become stagnant, and that is the same thing with the soil. Keep water on the move and it will be quite sweet, but once allow it to stop moving and the soil round it will be'Come stagnant and sour. Borders for shrubs and other flowering plants should be prepared with the same end in view. This is a good time of the year to trim hedges and give the garden a general clean up before it settles down for the winter months. All plants that have finished flowering should be cleaned up. Those of an annual nature can be pulled up and burnt and the tops can be cut away from herbaceous stuff. This is generally too woody to rot down in the compost heap and is better burnt on the rubbish fire. The ash can be spread over the garden afterwards.

FREESIAS (Continued). Freesias are easily raised from seed which should be sown in March or kept until the following spring. I prefer the earlier sowing because a few may flower the following spring, but they cannot be judged then, and it is advisable to grow them for another year at least before deciding upon what to do with them. 'When harvesting seedling conns keep the offsets intact with the corm. These are planted together in five-inch pots to flower. The coloured varieties vary in scent considerably. I do not think they lose much, but it requires warmth to bring out the true scent, and I must admit that if the freesia is to lose its scent I should preiei’ to keep the old variety without trying to colour it. Yellows are bred from aurea and will breed nearly one hundred per cent, true by their own pollen. The other colours, self-pollienated, will breed almost anything and the majority will show a white tube inside. The larger the flower the paler the colour and the more white in the tube. The small flowers have the most colour and it is. here that improvements can be made. Possibly the large flowers do not get enough pigment to cover the whole sui’face. I find that most varieties set seed freely when hand fertilised or are visited by bees. I am convinced that careful breeding is necessary if good seedlings are wanted as I have never seen anything one could keep from haphazard work*. When selecting a new variety be sure that it is an improvement on existing ones, and the only way to do this is to buy a fairly representative section of the already named kinds. Pink is the most elusive colour, and is the one that I think most hybridists should strive for. However, whatever colour appeals most is the colour that should be chosen, and, although you may never succeed in getting one of the “tops,” you will at least get some varieties that are more than worth while. The ideal flower, to my mind, is one that it carried on a stiff stalk, and when the corm is full-sized there should be about eight flowers on a stalk. There are few pests or diseases that attack the corns and those that do can be put down to careless soil mixtures or neglect. Aphis sometimes attack the foliage or flower stalks, but a springing will often clear this right away. It should be done at once or the flowers may come deformed. Any good catalogue will give a good selection of varieties to begin with, but the first three I mentioned are still worth exploiting and are full of possibilities. QUESTION. “J.H.D.” asks -when to trim hedges of macrocarpa and escallonia.—The present time is a very suitable one to do this work. They will not make any more growth until the spring and will be neat and tidy if they are done now. GREEN MANURING. To keep up the supply of humus in the garden is one of the most important things that a gardener has to do. lie

knows perfectly well that he cannot go on cropping land and taking plants and produce from it without repaying back to the soil something that he has removed. There are several ways of doing this, and the general plan is to apply generous applications of animal manure, but now the days of mechanical traction have reduced the available quantity until there is not enough to go round and other ways and means have to be devised. Growing green crops on the soil and digging them in is the best that can be done where animal manure is not available. This can be done now by digging over the surface soil and sowing the green crop on it. We favour a good covering of one of the perennial ryes, and as this will grow in the winter it can be dug in when the spring comes. If the ground can be spared for another crop, one of blue lupins can be grown and this also dug in. The best time to dig in is when the crop begins to flower. If the cover crop is very heavy it can be mown and the green part laid in the trenches. When sowing seed or setting out plants has to be done artificial manure can be used to make up what is required for plant growth.

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. In the vegetable garden clean away any crops that are over and dig all potatoes that are ripe enough for storing away. Any vacant ground should be sown down with a cover crop for digging in during the late winter or early spring. It is better to keep land employed than to allow it to lay fallow all the winter. Onion seed for transplanting should be sown at once and also cabbage and cauliflower seed for spring planting. When sowing the two latter seeds draw a drill about an inch in depth and sprinkle some basic slag along it before putting the seeds in. This to a certain extent will help to control club root, which is getting very bad all over the district now. One of the chief reasons for this is the great use that is made of sheep manure which has come from turnip fed sheep. Once I club root gets into the ground it takes a considerable time to eradicate it and can only be done by using lime and planting other crops in the soil. Some gardeners have stated this year that they have had considerable difficulty in growing peas this year. Where lime was not used they have been a failure, but where the trench was whitened with lime we have not seen any failures. The best lime to use is slaked lime as it is quicker in action than ground limestone. When onion seed begins to grow it is a good plan to prepare the onion bed. The old way of simply digging over the surface is not enough. The soil should be trenched and treated in the same way as that for roses or any other special crop. Dig it at least two spits d,eep and leave the clay below, but break it up as finely as possible and add some manure to it that will help to hold the moisture. In light land cow manure is invaluable for this purpose. In fact, lor all drained soils cow manure is far more valuable than most people think. It has a fair feeding value, but its water holding capacity makes it a splendid thing for vegetable gardens. In some parts of Holland it is sold for as much as two shillings per barrowful. For heavy land stable manure with straw in it is a good thing to use, but we are doubtful if there is anything to beat a mixture of cow and stable manure with the scrapings of the fowlhouse thrown in. It must always be remembered that lime is necessary where vegetables are grown, and this should be sown on the soil in the autumn and lightly worked into the soil. The usual quantity to apply is about a ton to the acre, and if the soil is given this dressing one year a quarter of that quantity will be enough for the next season. Growing crops such as leeks, .celery, celeriac, winter cabbages and cauliflowers will respond to a light dressing of nitrate of soda; they will not need any water, but liquid manure can he given freely, especially if the vegetables are wanted for show purposes. Apples and pears that are ripening on the trees should be picked before frosts come along and stored away in a dry, airy shed. Handle carefully without bruising and they will keep for a long time. Any fruit that have codlin moth holes in them should be used at once as they will not keep. They can be looked over from time to time and 'any fruits that show signs of going can bo used at once. This season has not been a good one for ripening tomatoes, but any fruit that show any signs of turning can be put on a shelf in a room or shed away rfrom frosts and they will soon ripen up. The green fruit will have to be used for pickles or jam as it will not be any good for any other purpose and at any time now a frost may come to destroy it.