GARDENING NOTES

Northern Advocate, 20 February 1926, Page 9

GARDENING NOTES

___ ■ ——— m (By "Tainui.") ffl

OPERATIONS FOR FEBRUARY THE VEGETABLE GARDEN ! Sow cabbages, cauliflowers, lettuce, dwarf beans, turnips spin- ! ach (prickly seeded), silver beet, carrots, quick maturing dwarf peas (at once). . i Sow mustard, 'oats, or other soiling crop for digging in later. = This is a very important operation, more particularly witn I our volcanic soil. , ! Plant out celery and keep well watered. This crop should be § grown without interruption, a result assured by sufficient : moisture, sufficient warmth and a sufficiently rich soil. ' Plant out cabbages and cauliflowers for winter and early spring use Give any amount of water at time of planting, and { plant preferably during the late afternoon. If the weather 1 is showery, all the better. 1 Collect all healthy, soft-wooded garden rubbish, and set aside, ! mixed with a little soil to rot. This makes a valuable com--1 post for future use, and a good substitute for animal manure. THE FLO'WER GARDEN Sow seeds of perennial climbers, shrubs and herbaceous plants. 1 Sow seeds of cineraria, Iceland poppy, larkspur, anemone, stock, ranunculus, hunnemannia, antirrhinum, pansy, linaria, leptosyne, winter-flowering sweet peas, dimorphotheca. Nemesia may also be sown for planting out later into the most favourable positions. Slips of soft-wooded plants may be put in; they should be kept I shaded and damp, with the drainage good. Put in slips of violas and pansies. Bulbs of all kinds may be planted. | Plant primulinus gladioli for winter bloom. I Clip evergreen hedges.' I Prepare ground for new lawns. I Prepare ground for sweet peas. The ground should be deeply ! dug, and plenty of old manure should be mixed in with the I soil from about a foot below the surface. : Plant cyclamens in a good soil in a sheltered position, barely cov- . ering the conns witlusoil. ! Anemone and ranunculus conns do well started in a shallow box ! of sand kept just moist. I It is well to wait for a break in the weather before planting out 1 seedlings of anemones, ranunculus, larkspur, Iceland poppy, 1 primula malacoides, sweet peas, antirrhinums, linaria, which | are the annuals for earliest bloom. | Keep carnation slips and layers watered.

prices, the habit of saving one's seed almost died out; but there are still many gardeners who, having grown specially fine bulbs of a good variety, plant a few. bulbs for the production of seed. By so doing, one is at least assured of a supply of fresh seed — year-old onion seed should never be used.

The process is quite simple and easily carried out. It is necessary to select firm, well ripened bulbs in autumn. They should be true to type, thin necked, physically sound, and free from any taint of disease. Store them in a cool place until late winter or A-ery early spring, and then plant them out. The position must be a warm one, exposed to the sun, yet sheltered from cold winds. No special soil is j needed, simply, a good medium, welldrained one preferably on the light side. If a number of bulbs are to be grown, draw drills 4in deep and 3ft apart. In these plant the bulbs at intervals of a foot and tread the soil down firmly around them. When growth has begun place in a stout f.tnke oft to 4ft long to each bulb, and :js the stems grow, secure them to the stakes so that wind and rain cannot bend or snap them off. Heads of i bloom will form in due course, and given a warm summer, the seed heads will attain maturity by the autumn when the stems should be cut off close to the ground and laid on a sheet of papr or cloth and exposed to the sun for a few day?. Keep the heads dry, and keep them under cover at night. Afterwards place the heads in a muslin bag and hang it in a dry place for a couple of weeks or so, and finally rub out the seeds.

SPINACH. As one of the most wholesome of vegetables, spinach deserves to bo more generally grown, and it is not a difficult crop to grow, provided that an enriched soil is available, -.with plenty of water for the summer crop. As with most foliage' vegetables, for the best results Spinach requires to be quickly grown; and quick growth depends on a rich soil, abundance of moisture and fairly warm weather. A plot of ground twelve feet square will, with proper cultivation graw sufficient spinach for the average household.

The first sowing can bo made in October or November when the roundseeded variety is sown for summer use, and the next sowing is usually made about the end of February, using the prickly seeded kind, . which is hardier and available for a winter crop. Commence by digging the plot well ami working into it a liberal dressing of good stable manure. To help tho seed to germinate quickly it is a good plan to pour warm water on it, soaking for two days before sowing. The seed may be sown, in shallow drills a foot apart, or it may be broadcasted over the whole plot. After sowing, tread the ground firm and apply a mulch of manure over she j whole surface. As soon as the plants are up, give them weekly doses of liquid manure, together with plenty of water. Chemical fertilisers may be used in liquid form, but the use of liquids except water should be discon tinued about a fortnight previous to using the leaves. The summer variety is usually pulled for use as soon as the leave's are large enough, b,ut th' winter variety produces a succession of leaves if the plants are allowed to remain in the ground. It is of the first importance in spinach culture to use only fresh seed. If more than a year old, the seed germinates badly and plants grown from old seed never become as vigorous and healthy as those grown from seed saved the previous season.

FEBRUARY PLANTING.

This is one of the busiest months in the garden. Growing weeds should be eradicated before they get a chance to seed. Plants in bloom and plants coming into bloom need attention. Flower heads should not be allowed to ripen seed, for nothing is more devitalising, particularly to annuals and biennials than seeding. If the flowering season is to be prolonged, all old flowering stalks should be cut out. Spraying, disbudding, etc., must be attended to where necessary. Bulbs too, Will be ready for planting. Fresh manure should never be used for bulbs; a little bone-dust forked in is as good as anything. Bulbs do not need too

rich a soil, and. the ground should be

for these plants like to push their — " through the soil, particularly with their roots. A general rule for planting is to set in twice the depth of the bulb, or not quite as deep if the soil is heavy. This rule applies to narcissi, freesias, hyacinths. The amaryllis bave the top of the bulb just showing above the ground. Anemone and ranunculi, two inches in and a little less in heavy soils. If wanted early, the corma are best started in moist sand. If we have heavy rair followed by hot sunshine, the warm 'soil steams and "cooks" the corms; many left in tho ground are lost in this way during the hot summer months. Plants of Canterbury Bells, Qjiental poppies, aquilegia, delphinium, cyclamien, polyanthus and other perennial plants raised from seed sown before Christmas may be planted out into their flowering positions when the weather breaks Do not delay the seed-sowing of plants that are to bloom in the spring. Some are better sown next month, but . those mentioned in the heading should be put in without delay.

VERBENAS. These plants arc too well known to need description. They frequently become blighted during summer, when they should be cut back and sprayed with lime-sulphur solution. They will subsequently spring into fresh growth 0(1(3 bloom in the winter. Shoots of new growth a few inches long are the best for slips. These may be put in any time now; they should be „kept watered and shaded until rooted. Seed should also be sown now in boxes. The seedlings are pricked out into other boxes of good soil as soon as they can be handled. After hardening into nice j sturdy plants they are ready for their permanent positions in the open garden. BOUVARDIAS FROM SLIPS.' Young slips a few inches long, if taken off with a bed, will root if treated carefully. Use a shallow box of soil to which a. little very old manure or leaf mould has been added. Make the soil firm, then make a hole for the slip, putting in a little sand at. the bottom. Put the slip in, make the soil firm about it, water well, and cover with glass, and finally with, paper for shading. Uncover when rooted, but keep in the box until late spring, as bouvardias are killed by fro.st in the winter.

SAVING ONION SEED. Cottage gardeners sometimes make a practice of growing their own supply of seeds, perhaps for economy's sake, oiCperhaps for the satisfaction obtained in carrying through the whole sequence of operations unaided. In any case there is no'reason why the resulting crop should not be quite satisfactory. When specially grown and well ripened seed of good varieties fcecame easily available at reasonable