The Garden

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume I, Issue 1, 12 August 1932, Page 10

The Garden

(.Written for the GAZETTE). [By “ Plantsman.”] Questions may be addressed to “ Plantsman,” care of the Editor. They will usually be ans wered in the next issue.

'J’HE busy time for gardeners has come. The severe frosts at the beginning of the week may have made even the enthusiast think the winter would continue for at least another month, but there are decided signs of spring in the air and the warmer days and a few nor’-westers coming after the rain and snow will induce an'abundant flow of. sap and promote quick growth. A Motto. This week’s motto for the gardener is “ Get busy.” If the ground has been dug in the early winter it should be forked over as soon as possible. Soil should not be cultivated if it is so wet that it sticks to the implement used. Most of the silty soils about Rnngiora can be worked a few days after rain even in the winter hut the heavier clay soils will have to* be left longer. Any part of the garden that lias been neglected should be dug over at once •and any available green stuff or manure turned well under to make humus. This humus will provide food for the growing plants. Tools.

One of the important things to be taken into consideration is to keep the gardening tools, particularly the spade, clean and bright. A good clean spade will go into the ground several inches deeper than a. rusty one with the same amount of exertion and that extra three inches of cultivation will mean longer carrots and parsnips and bigger cabbages and more pods on the peas and beans. A great engineer was asked what he would do if he had his life over again and his reply was that he would start with the sharpest set of tools it was possible to have. This applies to gardening just as much as to engineering and other things being equal the gardener with sharp and bright tools will get by far the best results. The old spade that lias been left' out in the weather and put away dirty should be. cleaned up with emery paper or put on the grindstone and then carefully dried and wiped every time it has been used.

Seed Sowing. Seed sowing can. be proceeded with at once with all the vegetables that are not affected by frost. The middle of October is early enough for beans and marrows and for tomato plants except in very sheltered situations where they can be covered, but peas, carrots, parsnips, red beet, spinach, onions, leeks, etc., should be sown in August. There are usually some warm sunny days in September and if the plants get fairly started they will grow through the later spring rains and will not be so severely checked by any of the cold snaps we often get in late October. Many people plant leek seed too late. Leeks are a very useful green vegetable for the winter months and the seed should be sown before the end of August in a small plot, preferably in rows, then the plants will be large enough to be transplanted about Xmas time, and this is necessary in order to get fair sized stems when they are wanted.

Pruning Small Fruit Trees. Last week a lady asked me to show her liow to prune her gooseberry and currant bushes as she had started them and was not at all pleased with the result. Probably others are in a similar quandary because they have not known how to start on a prickly hush with the secateurs. Gooseberries hear the best fruit on wood that has grown during the previous year and tiler aim is to get plenty of growths from eighteen inches to two fee.o in length and when pruning shorten them hack by about a third. This is done because the buds at the end of the shoots are not sufficiently developed to produce fruit. Neglected gooseberry hushes usually are covered with a forest of short thin shoots that bear poor fruit and are a nuisands at picking time. Ten, twenty, or thirty good shoots, according to the size of the bush, will hear the best gooseberries and if properly spaced the fruit can be picked without serious inconvenience. Black currants also bear the best fruit on wood that is one year old and to get this the old wood must he cut out a few inches above ground level. It is sometimes advisable to leave some two year old wood in a black currant hush but leave as little as possible and always cut out all wood that is two years old. Red currants bear the best fruit on small spun, which form on the old wood and they require much less pruning than black currants or gooseberries. Each year a few of the oldest branches should he cut out and only sufficient first year growth left to make up for the old wood cut out. \

leaves and branches' should be cleared away. Hard w,ood and sticks of any description should be burned, but leaves and weeds can be stacked up in 'an odd corner and covered with v a little soil to make compost for spreading on the garden the following year. There are too few compost heaps in our gardens and lots of valuable material is destroyed by burning when it should be stacked up to decay. A compost heap is a fine place for growing vegetable marrows and pumpkins. Time to Transplant. Any transplanting or planting of trees or shrubs that are wanted should be done at once. After the sap commences to flow transplanting is more of a set-back than it is in the dormant state and there is less chance of death. Next week it is intended to deal in a general way with the pruning of fruit trees. Any questions that readers would like answered will be appreciated.