you and your Garden

Northern Advocate, 24 May 1941, Page 9

you and your Garden

One of the first essentials in planting is to see that the drainage is right. No Diant likes stagnant water about its roots. Dig deep and dig wide so that the plant may have any amount of rooting room. To give the plant just room enough is to bind and gag it, leaving it to take its chance. This applies particularly to heavy soils. When transplanting, the plant should be set in as soon as possible after lifting. If the fine roots are allowed to become clry before planting, the plant may find great difficulty in establishing itself. It must be remembered that the fine thread-like roots are vital to the plant’s feeding. Absorption of soil food cannot take place without them. When a plant is lifted for transplanting, a very large percentage of the threadlike roots is destroyed, no matter how carefully the lifting' is done. If the plant has been lifted, sent possibly from the nursery, and the weather

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To clean up the garden, particularly the untidy corners where snails and other pests are likely to spend the winter. To burn all blighted tops from chrysanthemums, delphiniums, etc. / To keep the charcoal from the fires for use in rotting soil, and for laying in the bottoms of seed boxes. To pinch back early sweet peas to cause the seedlings to shoot from near the ground. These early side-shoots are stronger than the first growths sent out from the seed. To keep the ground stirred among growing plants so as to encourage all the air and sunshine possible to reach the soil. To pinch back the autumn-planted Chauband carnations to encourage them to shoot from near the ground. They will make much sturdier and stronger plants if this is done. That wood ashes is an excellent soil dressing for any time of the year, and

Careful Planting Is Worth While

is too dry for planting, the plant should be left in a shady place, and the ball soaked with water if necessary. If the plant is a perennial, such as a shrub or tree, a mixture of well-rotted manure and bonedust may be mixed in at the bottom of the hole, but out of immediate reach of the roots. Torn or lacerated roots should be cut out with a sharp knife. Flant firmly, taking care that fine soil is in contact with all the roots. Tramp the soil about the roots as filling in proceeds, but be careful not to injure the stem by barking it. If the soil is naturally loose, or if the plant is to grow in an exposed position, it should be tied to a firm stake. Don’t use string. Raffia or other soft material should be used. On no account allow the bark to be injured. The present is a good time for planting any, but tender, shrubs which should ire left until all danger of frost is over.

that it will suit any plant except the select few that do not like lime.

That new soil makes a valuable topdressing for lawn and garden. Try topdressing with a few inches of good loam taken from the top of a paddock. This will put new life into the soil. To cover your delphinium clumps with ashes, sand, or chips to keep slugs, snails, and slaters from eating the crowns during the winter months. That carnations like a gritty soil that is not too light rather than one containing leaf mould and having a smooth feeling. To change your vegetable plots. To grow the same crop in the same plot year after year is not a sound practice. That soot is a valuable dressing at this season. It has a manurial value, and it also helps to warm the soil. Do not dig it. in, but keep it at or near the surface, where it can absorb the warmth from the sun.