THE GARDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 156, 3 June 1937, Page 15

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 be published with the weekly not.es.

THE FLOWER GARDEN. Continue doing up the herbaceous borders and manuring wherever possible. There are few gardens where perennial plants are not grown, and the present time is a good one to attend to them. Such plants as paeonies and hellebores do not like being moved and will “sulk” if this is done, but if they are left alone and given a good dressing of manure forked into the ground round them they will respond to it during the next flowering season. Examine tne ground under the leaves of the hellebores and you may find a lot of sturdy young plants coming up from seed. These are useful to make fresh plantations and may be stronger than the parents. The highest percentage will be white, even if the seedlings are gathered from one of the newer coloured varieties, but they are always worth growing for a new break. When chrysanthemum plants have finished flowering cut the old stems down to within six inches or so of the ground and with a fork gently prize the whole plant up in the soil to give it better drainage. This is particularly good in heavy clay soils where water is likely to lie about. Slugs are very fond of the young shoots and steps must be taken to get rid of these by some treatment or another. If the soil is very loose they are likely to attack the suckers under ground and in these cases it would be better to lift the plants and pot them up into fresh clean soil, where they can send up their suckers. Pruning and trimming shrubbery plants can be done now in the case of those varieties that flower on the older wood. Those that flower on the young wood of the present season’s growth are done after they have finished flowering in the spring. All stakes that have been used for supporting plants during the past season should be collected and stored away in a dry place where they will be ready for future work. To keep these stakes in' good order often means a great saving of time when it is necessary to use them again. When the ends of stakes are tarred they will last much longer than other plain wood. The violet beds are beginning to bloom well and if a little help is given to them in the way of some artificial manure it will be a great help to them. Whenever the ground is in a fit condition to work get on with planting shrubs and roses as fast as possible. One never knows when the soil will get wet again, and the earlier things are planted the better.

QUESTIONS. ■ “K H ” says: “Would you kindly answer the following questions. I am trying to use up my bit of soil, which I believe is very good, and the water does not lie on it except immediately after heavy rains. Across the front and down one side I am planting a bed o’e of escallonin. Does the ,soil require manuring for this, and how far apart should the plants be set out: There is a rose bed here, and the plants are covered with- a white land of mould from the ground up. What shall I do for them? I have to put a few more plants in the bed; slial l put manure with them, or will the ordinary soil do? A friend has given me two standard roses, which I would like to plant on each side of the front oor which faces the sun Will they he alright there, and what manure shall! use?” When planting the hedge

it should not be necessary to use any manure if you dig the ground as deeply as possible and allow a space about three feet wide for the hedge plants to grow in. Plant them fifteen inches apart. The main thing is plenty of cultivation after the plants are in the ground. The mould you refer to on the rose plants is evidently the white rose scale and should be cleaned away at once, because when it gets very bad it will kill the bushes. Lime sulphur at the rate of one part to twelve parts of water will do this, or you can use red emulsified oil, one part to fifteen parts of warm, soapy water. This disease is a bad one and should be attended to at once. It may be necessary to give a second application when the bushes are pruned in August. When putting fresh plants in any old rose bed remove the soil the plants were growing in and put in some fresh, clean soil that has not grown roses before. Do not put any manure near the roots of newly-planted stuff. Wait until they are growing strongly and then put the manure on the surface and fork it lightly into the soil. The situation for the standard roses should be bright, but the same applies when planting them as when putting in dwarf roses. It will he necessary to stake them carefully. When planting them allow room for the heads to develop sideways. If they are planted too close to a wall they are likely to give trouble when they grow by scraping the paint off the wall and it does not give you room to work round them.

“Lawn” says: “Would you be kind enough to tell me what to do to my lawn? It has been in grass for sonic years and baro patches are coming in it which arc covered with moss. In some parts weeds are very bad, such as dandelions, plantains, and a few docks. I have heard that they can be treated in some way to kill them and yet retain the grass. There are a few holes in the surface which I am going to roll out during the winter. My neighbour’s lawn is in the same condition and he is also awaiting your kind reply.” There are many lawns in the same conditions as yours and the same kind of treatment can be given to them all. In the first place, you will have to prepare the soil for treatment and we advise a good dressing of lime to be put on- now. Give it at the rate of a pound to the square yard and scatter evenly over the whole surface. When tins has been done go over the lawn with a sharp-toothed rake and scratch the moss up as much as possible and take it away. You can then leave it until the spring for inrther treatment. If there are holes or depressions in the lawn it would be better to lift the grass and put some soil under the sods before replacing them. If the sods are a little higher than the surrounding soil it will not matter as they will roll down into place. A lot can be done by topdressing these holes and depressions with sifted soil and in cases where they are only slight this is the best method. Rake the top-dressing well into the grass and it will soon come through in the spring, or oven before. In the spring you can proceed to gut fid of the moss and weeds by treating the surface with lawn sand, which you can easily make yourself. Get thirty pounds of dry sand and mix into it one pound pf iron sulphate and five pounds of sulphate of ammonia, mixing the whole thoroughly together. This quantity will be enough for one hundred square yards of surface. Mark the lawn off in squares ten yards each way and dust this mixture over one of the squares. The surface should be dry when it is applied, but if it rains soon after it will bo all the better. In a few days’ time you will think the lawn has been ruined, as it will turn brown. A fortnight later it will begin to turn green again and many of the weeds will have disappeared. Some of tlie oldest and strongest may survive, and these will have to he specially treated to a pinch of sulphate of ammonia iu their crowns. TURF EDGES. “A Reader” says: “I have an idea for improving grass edgings to lawns which I think some of your readers may find useful. I am only an amateur gardener, but am very fond of the work and read all gardening notes and books, but have never seen this idea given in, any of them. Of course, it may not be of* any use in some soils, but is decidedly good here. For some years tlie edge of my grass had been ■receding owing to cutting and the path was getting too wide, so I decided to try to move a foot or more of the edge forward about six inches. I his I accomplished by cutting a strip one foot wide and from six to eight inches deep from the edge and moving it forward. The whole of the strip was cut first, and the path was cleaned and made smooth along the whole of the strip; then I carefully levered it forward till it reached a board I had put in place to hold it. It did not take so long to do, and looked we I when it was in position. At the back of the strip I packed soil, which I rammed down until it was level with the old grass and then sowed some seed on it. In a few weeks the whole lot was green again and. though it showed up for a while, it lias now changed to the same colour as the olu grass. I was so pleased with this that last season I moved another strip a foot out and again filled in with soil and sowed grass seed on it. In addition to the grass seed I also planted some, tufts of sod about two inches square in the new soil and I think that they flave taken root far quicker than the young grass and have spread considerably. These tufts were taken from a patch of a different kind of grass from that '"which is growing in the main lawn and I would very much like to find the name of it for future reference. I can recommend this idea. of moving edges to anyone who wants to narrow up the paths. The grass can be trimmed again when the boards are taken away and looks very well.” We thank our correspondent for this idea, which . is certainly a good one, and is one that could be made use of in many gardens where the edges are recoding from constant cutting. In reference to the grass, we would advise a tuft, say six fuclics .square, being submitted to the Plant Research Station in- Palmerston North, and they would he able to name it for you. After having seen it or tried it out years ago, we have seen good lawns made bv adopting this method of planting a likely-looking grass. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. If one wants to hoe any plants at this time of the year all the weeds should be picked off at the same time. If they sue left lying on the soil it is practically certain they they will begin to grow again in a very short time. We do not advocate raking them off, because it makes the surface of the soil too smooth and flat, and the rain and wind harden it down so that air cannot penetrate into it. It is better to leave the surface of the soil in a rough slate tliua ; to, Smooth it<

over. Any vacant ground that is being dug over for future planting should also be left in as rough a condition on the surface as possible—that is, as long as the weeds or whatever was growing on it are covered. You will find that it is easier to break when this is done than when it is smoothed clown. When such plants as gooseberries, black currants and raspberries are being top-dressed with manure it is far better to dig the top-dressing in than to leave it on the surface. It will rot down quicker when it is in the soil and nothing will be lost. The surface here can be left in a rough state until the ground gets dry enough to break up easily with the hoe. Strawberry plants can be put in now and a little care must be taken to spread the roots out well and to put the plants in firmly, without covering the crown. AVe have hcen asked: “AVlmt is the best kind of strawberry tn grow?” hut this question is not one that is easily answered, because different kinds seem to adapt themselves to different districts and few growers seem to knoiv the names. At least, if they are asked they will say, “just strawberry.” Clean up plants that are being left in the ground for another crop and take away all the runners. New asparagus beds can be made now in readiness for planting later on. The ground should be deeply dug and plenty of farmyard manure worked in below the surface and then the bed can he left to settle for a couple of months before the plants are set out. The end of August or September is early enough to think about ’ planting. This is generally done when the plants are just beginn'ng to grow. A two-row lied is quite wide enough for most gardens anil if it is made 4ft din wide that will be enough.