Enjoy Your GARDEN

Northern Advocate, 22 April 1939, Page 5 (Supplement)

Enjoy Your GARDEN

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN The Asparagus Bed

Spend the Leisure Hours of Daylight with the Flowers

Brilliant Bedding Plants For Spring Display

The autumn show of blooms is fading and many gardeners are wondering what to plant now to make a good show in the spring. Something bright, with a Jong flowering season is wanted in every garden. Iceland poppies and calendulas head the list for length of flowering, and are very showy. Anemones and ranunculi have not quite such a long flowering season, but are oven more brilliant. The satiny petals of the ranunculus glisten in the sun; and a bed of scarlet anemones, with the beautiful velvety finish to the petals are equally showy.

Then crimson tulips carpeted with crimson Virginian stock or pink tulips with dwarf Forget-me-not. Nothing could be brighter than a bed of mixed tulips, or combined tulips, anemones and ranunculi in rings in a round bed; or better still, plant in drifts in a long bed, one merging into the other.

If you prefer annuals to bulbs and if you have a bed sheltered from wind and frost; you might try nemesias. They are very bright, and have a long flowering season in good soil. Nemesias can be purchased in separate colours now, and a bed of dwarf scarlet could be the gayest thing in the garden.

Anemones and nemesias combine very well. Try a scarlet bed of anemones, say “His Excellency,” edged with a double row of scarlet nemesias; or the anemone “Blue Bonnet” with blue nemesias; or a bed of mixed ranunculi and nemesias would be very showy. Stocks are always popular, and should not be forgotten. A bed of stocks looks well edged with primula malacoides, mauve violas, or blue nemesias.

Do not forget the viola and pansy for edging plants and for small beds. I like the brown viola with wall flowers, polyanthus, or with yellow and brown tulips. The yellow viola fits in with ranunculus, calendula, daffodils, nemesias, polyanthus and numerous other plants. Blue seems so necessary in any spring show of blooms. The variety Mars is clear enough in colour to combine well with yellow or scarlet, while there are many lighter blue and mauve shades that tone in with lavender and light blues found in nemesias and stocks.

Dwarf flowering plants are useful for carpeting under the beautiful spring-flowering shrubs and trees. At no time of the year are colour schemes more beautiful and more worth while than in the spring. The beautiful daffodils growing wild under the deciduous trees, the new fresh growth contrasting with the clear yellow of the daffodils, is an example. The drifts of wood hyacinth, or of Forget-me-not beneath the peach trees: or again, to come back to our gardens, plant the blue viola, nemesia. wood hyacinth, or Forget-me-not under the cherry tree.

Put a few inches of good soil around the trees, and scatter seed of Virginian stock, linum rubrum, cr plant small bulbs, such as lachenalia, freesia, tritonia, etc. There is no end to the planting that can be done at this season.

When working out your colour schemes, do not mix the colours in every bed. A bold splash of colour here and there will be very effective. A bed of clear yellow or scarlet will always attract the eye.

Asparagus beds often look untidy and unsightly at this time of the year. It is no easy matter keeping the bed tidy at any time, but between the cutting of the last shoots and the cutting of the ripened tips, the bod is often allowed to become untidy. Weeds grow apace in the heavily manured ground. The use of the hoe is almost out of the question, as it is important that the crowns of the plants should not be injured. Very shallow hoeing is permissible, but difficult. It is safer to hand weed the bod. Weeding is necessary in order to give the plants all possible sun and food so necessary for healthy growth; a reason, too, for putting the plants well apart at planting time.

As soon as the asparagus tops have become yellow and ripened, they should be cut down. The manuring and top-dressing are best delayed until the heaviest rains are over. A good time for manuring is towards the end of next month, though it is common practice to dress soon after the tops have been cut down. In the case of heavy soils, the manuring would perhaps be better delayed until early spring, otherwise there is danger of the roots rotting. With lighter crops there is less danger, and other things equal, there is the chance of an earlier crop. Stable manure is generally preferred, and it need not be thoroughly rotted., A good dressing over the whole bed

can be safely given, for asparagus is a very hungry plant. It will persist in most soils, but only does really well when well fed with animal manure. Cabbages and Cauliflowers Cabages and cauliflowers that have not been sprayed or dusted with some insectide have suffered considerable . damage at the mouths of the grubs of the Diamond Back Moth. This pest has been particularly bad during the long dry. hot spell we have had, and generations have been keeping the bad work going. Although the grub of the white butterfly is many times larger than that of the Diamond Back Moth, the ravages of the latter make those of the former pale into insignificance. Whore spraying or dusting has been carried out regularly, the cabbages Jand cauliflowers will soon recover, and make headway when the much delayed l autumn rains set in, for these will -v probably put an end to the pests. , The transplanting of these tables at this season is a matter of some importance. Choose a sunny, well- f| drained part of the garden. A previously well manured should suit well. Or a section that has had soiling crops, such as oats or blue lupins dug /j in, suits admirably. The decaying vegetation supplies fertility and underwarmth. A good sprinkling of lime :|| added at/the time of digging in the.|| soiling crop helps in the decomposition. A little super, two or three ounces to the running yard might, with ; advantage, be mixed in with the top soil. Transplant, if possible, showery weather. Otherwise, choose || the late afternoon, see that the soil is 4 well watered before planting and give a little shade fer a week or so, until- ; the young plants have rooted in.