Gardening News & Notes

Northern Advocate, 6 August 1949, Page 2

Gardening News & Notes

Vegetables

August marks the beginning of spring sowings, when all but tender vegetables may be sown. Prepare the ground for later sowings and make good use of the hoe for checking weeds as soon as they appear. Plant potatoes, onions, rhubarb, asparagus, Jerusalum artichokes and lettuce. Sow dwarf peas for succession. Give them a deep, well-drained sweet soil. Sow lettuce in the open ground in a sheltered warm situation with light soil. They will grow well where a green crop has been dug in. provided the bed has been firmed before the seed is sown. Lettuce like a moderately firm foundation soil, but the surface soil must be kept free. Lettuce like good rich soil and blood and bone, and super should be mixed with the top soil. Always sprinkle a little clean soil along the rows before sowing the seed. Sow turnips, beetroot, parsnips, carrots, silver beet, summer spinach and parsley in well-drained, warm soil with a sunny aspect. Sow tomato seed in boxes. A few plants may be put out in warm frostfree situations. A sheet of glass in front of the plants, with a wall as a background, will generally keep the plants warm if they are facing the sun. Earth up early potatoes. Also hoe up a little soil about cabbages and cauliflowers. Propagate herbs by root division or cuttings. Complete the pruning of fruit tries. Carrots Seed should be sown now for the summer supply of carrots. Carrots need a fine soil of Gin or more according to the variety sown. Lumoy soil or fresh manure will cause divided roots. Some growers put sin of sand into the trench with good compost or manure under the sand. One ounce of superphosphate and half an ounce of sulphate of ammonia per square yard is forked into the sand. Some growers believe in salt for carrots. The hoe is run along to a depth of about 4in. Salt is sprinkled freely along the rows. When the rain has washed the salt into the soil, generally about a fortnight, the seed is sown. Carrot seed may be sown thinly in rows Ift. apart in a bed 4ft wide, or one row about sin wide may be sown. Aphis are troublesome on carrots. They are hard to see as they live under the leaves and on the stalks.

DDT spray is a good remedy. Nicotine and soap is also good. The following is said to be a good spray for carrots, killing aphis and carrot fly. • Dissolve a handful of soft soap in boiling water; add two gallons of soft water, and mix in a wine glass of paraffin; churn up well with the spray pump before using. Sand or sawdust soaked in kerosene and sprinkled along the rows near the carrots is said to keep away the carrot fly. Horticultural naptheline has the same effect. It is necessary to renew it every two weeks. It is easier to keep the carrot fly off than to kill it when it takes hold., A good mixed garden manure is the best to work into the soil before sowing carrot seed. Flowers Continue to plant trees, shrubs, perennial plants, rock garden plants and .climbing plants that arc hardy. Really frost-tender plants should be left until later in cold gardens. Pacisies. violas, Livingstone daisies and lobelia may be planted out now. These arc good for edging beds and borders, also for small beds. Antirrhinums, carnations, verbenas, scabosa, larkspurs, delphiniums, schizanthus, nemesia, salpijlossis, gerberas, etc., may be planted. Seed of viscaria, calendula, clarkia. larkspur, cornflowers, Virginian stock, godetia, etc., may be sown in the open ground if slugs are not troublesome. Flowering Shrubs

There is still time to order and plant trees and shrubs. The following are a few specials. The flowering almond is conspicuous in many gardens. The prunus mums in different varieties is also very showy. Two .early flowering cherries that have small flowers freely produced are, P. campanulata and P. subhistella autumnatis. Chnmaclancium. better known as "Giralaton wax flower” is a graceful fine foaliage shrub in flower just now. Give sunshine and good drainage with chips or gravel added to the soil. Plant against a warm wall away from frost. Fremontia mexicana has rather large flat, rich-yellow flowers. Tire long growths look well fastened to a sunny wall or fence as the plant is easily blown over. Garrya elliptica is charming more than showy. The long silvery-green catkins hang from the plant in winter and are most useful for cutting. The male fern has the long catkins. Europs tenuissimus better known as othorma has very fine foliage covered with yellow, daisies. It is easily grown from cuttings of new growth planted now.