THE GARDEN

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 219, 14 August 1940, Page 4

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 notes.

THE FLOWER GARDENr I The month of August is a. busy one ill any part or tile garden, anu this! season one lias done a lot towards the l work ol planting out by getting tne ( grounds uug over and manured inr readiness lor planting. It roses ana Airiihs have iio<- been planted, get them .n as soon as you can. It may be necessary to give some ot them a good watering to settle the soil round the roots, beeds can be sown in suitable soil under glass. The soil for this should be made fairly firm in the boxes, which should be well provided with drainage holes. j Some of the seeds that can be sown now are: Arcliotis, calliopsis, candytuft, carnation, summer chrysanthemums, dianthus, gaillardia, godetia; larkspur, lobelia, lupin, pansy, phlox Drummondi, petunia, scabious, , verbena, and wallflowers. One lias to choose the flowers to grow and then sow a few seeds of each. Do not sow thickly, because you ruin your plants by drawing them up. Good, strong, sturdy plants are wliat one requires and they are easier to handle than spindly weaklings; another thing is ■f . • t i,. lx n —l, f-hotr

that they give better results when they i are set out in the open. A hen pricking plants out from the seedling boxes a lot can be gained by adding a little superphosphate to each box. About a teaspoonful will be quite enough to use. This should be well mixed into the soil. Keep the daffodil beds clean. Some , growers put clean straw or rushes between the rows to stop the mud from i splashing up on to the flowers, and it ( is quite a good idea. Good stiff strips of paper can be used for the same purpose. Next month there will be a succession of bulb shows and groweis are already preparing by erecting covers on their beds and covering them. The material used should be i light, so as not to darken the bed too 1 much. When showing daffodils, always 1 remember that good stems are essen- < tial to these flowers when they are : staged on .the stage benches. The same , tiling applies to polyantha primroses. ; These, should lie picked with as long - stems as possible. When,the heads arc . being picked, choose those with the most clean flowers on them. _ ... 1 The preparation of dahlia beds , should begin now. Jf a green crop is used after the tubers have been dug this will have to he turned under so as to allow it time to rot. Artificial manures arc useful to the growth* of. these plants, but without humus in the ground they will be useless. Another wav in which manure can be used is to cover the surface of the ground with farmyard manure to about three inches in depth and then fork this into the soil, mixing it well with the surface soil. After this has. been done the whole lied can bo given a good' liming. Dahlias like plenty _ ol lime in the soil and it should be given every season.

ARTIFICIAL MANURES. Those gardeners who have worked their soils well and have dug in plenty of green stuff to make liunius uill fmd that artificial manures are very helpful to their plants. Neither farmyard manures nor green plants are complete in themselves, and the deficiency has to be made up with the right quantity of artificial manures. The main tiling is not to use too much at a time. When growing lettuces, cabbages, and all leaf vegetables, nitrate of soda will be found to be invaluable to belli the growth along.. It must not he used in large quantities, one ounce sprinkled along four yards of row is quite enough for any kind of plant, and will supply the nitrogen so necessary to leaf growth. It can be used for cabbages and turnips also, hut must not be used 01/ root vegetables. Superphosphate is a useful .and sale manure and can he used on such tilings as potatoes, peas and tomatoes

and is splendid for fruit trees and gooseberry bushes. In making liquid manure a handful or two of superphosphate put in tho water will help to make it better. Cabbages respond sooner than any others to basic slag. This is known to be a very slow manure and is generally put 011 the soils some'time before it works, but in the case of cabbages if some is put in the holes with the roots the plants seem to take hold at once and extract something that helps them to grow. There is no doubt that ithe lime in the slag helps the plants Ito keep free from finger and t-oe disease. Blood and hone is a manure that is very quick in action and there are some plants that respond to it very readily. There may be some soils where blood and bone is too strong in action. This manure must not be confused with bonedust, which is much slower in action but lasts for a long time in the soil. It is also useful when making up potting soil for ferns and other pot

plants. When Wns are growing in tlie open ground a little soil "with some bonedust added makes a splendid material for top-dressing them. We have been working on some soils lately which an analysis showed to be short of potash. One part was treated with potash and gave definitely good results. The next plot was treated with ashes and though not quite as good as the potash, this gave good results. Some burnt clay and soil was tried on the third plot and the plants did not come away until later in the season. The control plot showed definite signs that something was wanted and it would not respond to any mixtures that were put on it. Kainit will supply potash, but is a crude salt in its way and is excellent for such plants as asparagus. In these times sulphate of potash is hard to obtain and every quantity of wood ash should be saved and kept dry until required for use in the garden. If there is no way to keep it dry, scatter it over the garden soil, which iyill retain the potash until it is required by the plants. Weeds will use it if they ars allowed to do so, so keep the soil clean. ROSES. '“A Reader” has sent in some branches of roses which he seems to think are not quite normal and also ' wants to know what rose scale is like, lie has not seen it, but wishes to he prepared when it does come. As far as the rose twigs are concerned we cannot find anything wrong with them. They are simply pieces taken from a plant that has not been regularly pruned. Possibly it was not pruned last year or the year before, and these dead twigs are quite common to such a plant and are not disease. The rose scale is not very large, and is white. Bad attacks of it will cover a plant and strangle it. It can be carried by birds from tree to tree and once it gets a hold on a garden it takes time to eradicate it. Limesulphur, at the rate of one part to 15 parts of water, can be used as soon as the plants have been pruned, and if' applied with a well-powered spray it will get into all the cracks and crevices. Emulsified white oil is another good spray to use, at the rate of one part of the oil to eight parts !of soapy water. This spray has the advantage of not being harmful to foliage. Whenever rose scale is scon, lose no time in getting to work with the sprayer and one or other of the remedies named. QUESTIONS. “Amateur” says: “I should like to know whether swedes are stored in the same way as carrots and parsnips, or are they' left in the ground? Also, could you tell us something about salsify; when to sow it and should it have manured ground or the same coil as recommended lor parsnips; and how long can the roots stay ill the ground after maturing?”

If you leave the 6wede turnips in the ground now you will find that they are beginning to grow, and this will spoil them for table use, although the tops are quite acceptable. They can be kept in the same way as other vegetables, in dry sand for a' while, but they arc always liable to grow at the first chance. We have been told by one who lias tried it that the roots will keep well if they are buried two feet in the ground Oilier roots can he kept in this way also. Salsify should he sown in October in well-worked soil that has no fresh manure in it. The same soil as that recommended lor carrots and parsnips 6uits salsit3' very well. Those who have a heavy soil to deal with will find some difficulty in growing these plants, but ,at the same time they can be helped if a row is marked out and then cut down with a spade and some sand put down the cut, and seeds sown along the top of the sand. This does not always mean that you will get the best shaped roots, but they will be far better than those that are grown in a hard, heavy soil. Sow the seed thinly and thin the plants out to four inches apart as soon as they are big enough. “Inquirer” would like to know if Burgundy mixture, full strength, is a suitable mixture for spraying apples, pears and plums as well as pcacli trees. “1 know you recommend same for peach trees to stop leaf curl,” he says.

\Vc have used this mixture on plum trees to control bladder plum and have found it most successful, but have never used it on apples or pears, so cannot give you any first-hand information about it. A gardening friend said that when he sprayed his apples, for codlin moth just after the petal fall he always used this mixture because lie found it easier to make than Bordeaux. The most used mixture at this spraying is lime-sulphur plus colloidal sulphur. The Department of Agriculture will supply you with a leaflet setting out the different mixtures to use and when to use them. We would adviso you to get this leaflet from the local orchard instructor.

“Manure” says: “I have got two loads of manure but I am afraid that it is too fresh to be of any use for digging into the garden. Will you tell me what to do with it and how long will it require to be stacked before it can be used?”

There are some crops which can be grown on ground which has had fresh manure dug into it. Potatoes and cabbages do well on it and it would he good for pumpkins and marrows. If it is stacked up for about six months and covered with soil it should he rotted down enough for most crops. V you do not cover it up with soil it will be found a harbour for flies.

“P.S.” says: “Would you kindly give a list of good berrying shrubs that I could grow here. I want them partly as bird food in the winter and would also use the berries for other purposes. 1 notice that the birds are very fond of hawthorn, but I under-

stand, t'hat I am not allowed, to grow this. 1 also want some 'winter flowering plants that would attract tlie bellbirds. For the last three months I have had three of these beautiful birds here and do not know what has atti*aeted them. At one side of my house there is a gully with some native plants in it. but I cannot see any that carry food. I want trees which will attract these birds.” There are a lot of shrubs which are cultivated for their berries. Some make : good bird food and others seem to be left entirely alone. The berberis family is a large one and there are plenty of them that carry plenty of berries. The common hedge plant that belongs to this family is a heavy berry grower. B. Wilsonae has coral berries. B. Japonica has bunches of berries like small grapes. The cotoneaster family is another large one and there are several with beautiful berries. The variety Seratina and Frigida is another good one A* long as you are not in a fruitgrowing area you would be allowed to grow hawthorns. The common hedge variety is only one of this family. There are several with fruits as largo as crab apples. There are plenty of varieties of crab apples that should be grown for their fruit alone. Hollies are very pretty when in berry, but they are slow growers. Burthamia fragrifera and arbutus unedo are two different plants that rejoice in the name of strawberry trees. They have large fruits. Pyracantlia augustifolia is another plant like the hawthorns and is well worth growing for its orange berries. Quite' a number of plants can be grown to feed bellbirds in the winter. One of them, tree lucerne, seems to be a favourite with these birds and it is a quick grower. Unfortunately, when it is allowed to seed it is not long lived. Eucalyptus Campbelli is another plant these birds seem to find a lot of food in, and when the plants are in bloom the birds can be seen sucking the honey from the flowers. We have also seen them busy on a large plant of berberis Darwinii, which is in flower at the present time.. It is quite possible to attract these birds with small bowls of honey and water hung up in trees they freqhent. these birds must be increasing, because we have heard from several places that they have been seen at work on different trees. They have also been seen on the ground scratching amongst dead leaves, probably for grubs of some kind. Their notes are so beautiful that we do not wonder at your wishing to keep them in your garden. Try the honey and water up in the trees, and when they find .this they will not leave until nesting time. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Fork over any soil that, lias had a green crop dug into it. This is to mix the soil and green soil manure together so that there are no air pockets underneath. If air pockets are allowed to remain under soil they will cause the surface to dry out and wilting of crops will result. If lime has not been used on tlie soil it will be easy enough to. put it on now. Give the soil 'a good dressing and it will be ready for the crops when it is worked in. | Potatoes are about the only vegetables that do not seem to mind wheI ther there is Ume in the soil or not. For peas, cabbages and cauliflowers it iis essential. It is a good plan to get the whole stock oh seeds that you require for the season at one time and tack them on to a board. If this is done the seeds will be in front of you and will remind you from time to time of those plants that have to.be set out or what seeds to sow as time goes Oil. Lettuce plants can 'be set out in well-manured ground and seed can ba 'sown at the same time to provide plants for setting out later. | Push on with onion plants. The sooner they are in the ground the Letter they will be because they need a long growing season, j Keep on sowing peas for succession ; this month a dwarf growing variety 'should be chosen and then next month a taller one can be used.