GARDEN & FEILD

Manawatu Times, Volume 60, Issue 196, 21 August 1935, Page 13

GARDEN & FEILD

(Specially written for the “Manawatu Daily Times” by "Lorna."

Routine Work in the Borders. Loosen the soil among all growing iulbs and annuals as’ weather and soil conditions permit. A little superphosphate sprinkled among the annuals and lightly worked in will prove of benefit. Get new lawns in readiness for sowing. Roll and topdress existing ones. Plant shrubs, roses, hedge plants and shelter belts. Continue to plant hardy annuals and perennials. Sow sweet-pea seed for Christmas blooms. Plant liliums and a few gladioli corms. Mike another planting of anemone and ranunculi conus. Sow seed of frccsics for early blooms. Also sow hardy annuals in open ground but only where the s °il is light ;mt i well drained. Continue to take side shoots from chrysanthemums. Pruno roses and strike more cuttings. Plant dwarf forget-me-nots among the tulip bulbs; these make a nice groundwork. Break up clumps of all perennial plants where they are growing too thickly. Plant roots of gypsophila here and thero among clumps of Oriental poppies and delphiniums, as these cover up the baro. spaces in tho autumn with a cloudy mass of white.,

The Vegetable Garden. Continue to dig and manure all vacant ground. Plant a few early potatoes, giving them plenty of potash. Sow first early peas and broad beaus; also early turnip, radish, beetroot, spinach, silver beet, lettuce, cabbage, and early cauliflower where tho ground is light and well drained. Sow tomato seed under glass. Plant out cabbage and early cauliflower. Plant all kinds of fruit trees. Complete winter prunings as soon as possible. Topdress rhubarb beds with rich manure, and asparagus with kainit. Prepare new beds of same, deeply digging and well manuring. Work a little blood and bone manure among the strawberries. Black currants are gross feeders, requiring rich, moist, deep soil to do them really well. On light, gravelly soil some attention must be given to ensure anything like success, and this often can be obtained by incoporating heavy loam and manure to provide consistency. Black currants aro practically surface-rooting and therefore the upper layer of soil should always be well enriched. Cultivation can never be too

deep and full trenching should be practised before planting. Black currants always produce their fruit on young wood, and for that reason the plants need to bo pruned buck in early autumn to give them a chance to make fresh wood for tho following season. If the plants are well-led they resist the inroads of tho borer, beside rewarding with long trusses of rich fruit which the housewife finds so useful iu tho manufacture of preserves. The ground should have an annual topdressing of lime.

Manure for Roses anad Gladoli. Often the question is asked, “What shall I give roses and gladioli?” Quick-acting manure for roses should always be used with great care. The opinion is held by the majority of rose growers that good cow manure, when well rotted and added to the soil, gives the best results. The manuring of an established rosebed depends to a large extent on the amount of preparation that has been given the soil before the roses were planted. Where the soil has been double-dug and manure worked into the lower spit and bone meal iu the top, it requires little in the way 6f manure for two years. After that period a topdressing of basic slag at the rate of four ounces per square yard applied in the late autumn and forked in, is useful. In the spring, after pruning, give a dressing of well-rotted farmyard manure. Every third year omit the basic slag and use lime instead. If liquid manure be used at any time, it is best to use that made from animal manure in preference to that made from nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. In the culture of gladioli a good topdressing is, one part of superphosphates applied at the rate of two ounces per square yard. One application of this should be sufficient during the growing season. The gladioli loves moisture, and the soil among them should be kept to a fine tilth to keep the moisture rising. . When the flower spikes appear they will benefit immensely from frequent copious supplies of water and liquid manure.

Feeding Lawns. The subject of feeding lawns is one of very great interest. Some people hold that it pays to give a humus dressing every third winter. If one does not do this the physical condition of the soil deteriorates, gross grasses creep in, and the turf lacks the quality that marks a perfect lawn. In the two intervening years the food supply can bo applied during weather, otherwise plasmolysis will induce temporary browning of the turf. When a dressing of artificial fertiliser is given at the beginning of the

season it does very well for a time, but tlicu tho late summer droughts produce rather marked browning and there is a dofmitc falling off iu the vigour of the finer grasses. This means, of course, that the stronger, undesirable ones, increase their unwelcome range, and the lawn becomes patchy. Tho conclusion is, therefore, that tho artificials aro subject to loss to tho drainage water, even though they are supposed to be held by the soil. That is the reason why summer feeding, as against spring feeding, is to be favoured. When you feed by stages you get all, but when you feed all at once you lose some.

Control Measures Against Slugs In the Garden. Slugs aro nocturnal feeders. Control measures against them fall into three main divisions: When Lho slugs are active iu the evening they can be killed by watering them with a 2 per cent, solution of copper-sulphate; by dusting tho slugs with finely powdered copper sulphate; on a large scale by dustingover the ground in the evening a mixture of finely powdered copper sulphate and finely ground kainit (ono of tho potash manures) made by mixing one pfirt by .weight of copper sulphate to twenty parts of kainit. Another way is by sprinkling the slugs with lime; applied by shaking a perforated tin or from a bag made of scrim. Some cover the ground with a mixture of soot and finely powdered lime. This mixture does not kill, but tends to keep the slugs away, and soon loses its effectiveness.

A sprinkling of liaptkulcnc, finely powdered and used at the rate of live ounces per square yard, has a deterrent effect upon slugs, but docs not kill. Slugs- can also bo trapped by simple means and disposed of as thought Jit. The “traps” can be made of smalJ heaps of bran, or boiled potatoes, placed at various intervals, each heap being covered by a leaf of cabbage, lettuce, rhubarb, etc. Lettuce leaves alone, or inverted orange skins, also make efficient traps. Metal slug traps can bo bought, and where slugs abound in large numbers aro found to be very useful.

For tho prevention of re-population by slugs, dll ground should be kept free from weeds, aud after tho harvesting of any crops, all dead leaves or garden refuse should be removed or dug in at once.

Weeping Trees For Hot Weather. There are many trees with weeping or pendulous branches which might well be given prominent positions on lawns, especially when the lawns aro used for afternoon teas, for on a hot summer's day the shade of a large weeping elm or ash is very acceptable. A shady tree in the vicinity of a tennis or croquet lawn is also a valuable asset, for spectators may then enjoy watching a game without being subjected to the full glare of the sun—a very necessary consideration where people of delicate constitution are concerned. Apart from this, pcnduloushabited trees arc a necessity in a largo garden from a landscape point of view,

particularly! in th'o vicinity of water, i'or they tend to relieve the monotony of trees of more rigid outline. Some consideration must bo -given, however, to tho selection of lho kinds of weeping trees, for all arc not suitable for tho same purpose. Weeping trees may be divided into three groups, according to habit. One group is made up of trees 'on which every branch is pendulous, the whole branch system assuming more or less the outline of an open umbrella. Another group is composed of tree's with an upright leader and moderately straight main branches, with the secondary branches pendulous, while the third set consists of trees with a curiously contorted habit of growth, m which tho main shoots bend over almost at right angles and yet the trees continue to increase in height without any attention oil the part of the cultivator. As a rule, in such a case, all side branches are long- and pendulous. When shade is the first consideration, the umbrella-shaped tree is the best one to plant for the branches develop in a uniform manner and shade is provided all round. It is difficult to get some kinds of trees to lho desired height without aid. If, however, a central branch is staked upright, a new set of branches may gradually be formed. To prevent the branches of this class of tree becoming too dense, it is necessary to thin them out occasionally, while the effect of the tree is increased if the branches are kept clear of the ground. In the first group the weeping birch, weeping thorn, weeping ,usb, holly, elm and cherry arc all useful for general purposes. For landscape effect the second group provides the best examples. There arc many trees which are not by any means beautiful, some having the appearance of monstrosities. Several pendulous forms of the common spruce may be obtained, not one of which could rightly be called ornamental. A really good weeping tree is a pleasure to look upon aud a worthy occupant of the garden, but an inferior example is an eyesore and not worth the ground it stands upon. Select; the best kinds, and treat them to a liberal amount of good soil at planting time in order io get all that is possible out of: them.