IN THE GARDEN

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 6 December 1940, Page 3

IN THE GARDEN

NOTES FOR AMATEURS RESTRICTIONS ON USE OF HOSE Water is becoming precious again in the city and on the use of the hose have been announced. Hosing is allowed from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the respective districts on the day allotted. The districts remain as before except that portions of the high levels are now included in a separate district and allotted Saturday as the day on which watering is permitted. With a fair distribution of rainfall there has not yet been a great call on the hose so far in Nelson this season and the restrictions should not unduly inconvenience gardeners unless a prolonged dry spell comes. Without the use of water much can be done to sustain growth by using the hoe regularly among all growing crops. This stirs up the soil, provides a surface mulch, admits fresh air to the roots of plants and destroys quantities of seedling weeds. Without adequate water however it is not so easy to keep the lawns green as summer advances. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN Continue to make sowings of broad runner and French beans, peas, lettuce, maincrop beet and carrots, radish, spinach and mustard and cress. Also make small sowings on a specially prepared border of cabbage, leeks broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts and celery to provide plants to put out in January. Spray maincrop and second early potatoes and rth them up as they develop. Lettuce plants will benefit from a light dressing of nitrate of soda, which will help to increase the size and brittleness of the leaves. One of the main things to keep up the supply of these plants is to sow more seed as soon as the last lot are about two inches high. the young seedlings out to a foot apart and keep the soil between them well worked. SAVING SEEDS It will be necessary for gardeners to make provision for saving seeds for themselves this season. It may not be possible to import seeds next season and there is no reason why we could not save sufficient seeds for all our own needs. We know that it has not been possible to get seeds from Continental sources this year. Seeds for the vegetable garden should be the first concern of all. Onions for seed can be planted now and should be some of the most solid of last season’s crop. Set each bulb at the foot of a stake and tie the flower-bearing stalk up as it grows. Leeks can be treated in the same way, but all that is required with these is to leave one or two good plants in the ground where they are growing and stake the flowering shoots when they appear. With both onions and leeks the seed can be allowed to become fully ripe before it begins to fall out. Carrot and parsnip seed is easily saved and one root of each should give all the seed that will be required. A warm, sunny corner is all that they need. When saving seed from red beet, see that the parent plant is one with a good deep red colour. When saving seed from cabbages and cauliflowers, choose plants that have good solid hearts and allow them to burst and send up flowering shoots. As soon as the flowers begin to burst build a tent of muslin round the plant so that bees cannot carry foreign pollen to the flowers. As soon as about half the flowers have fallen the muslin can be removed and the rest of the flowers cut away. The seeds that are left on the plant will be enough to provide all the plants you will require. Peas and beans can be saved easily enough, but the plants should be harvested early in the season and not left until the weather gets cold and wet. Lettuce seed is easily saved by allowing a plant or two to go to seed and saving the seed before it begins to fall. Flower seeds have to be picked as soon as they are ripe and should be put in separate tins as they are collected, and it may take some time to get all that are wanted. A few will have to be picked each day. Polyanthus primrose seed is beginning to ripen and this has to be taken before it falls to the ground. When saving sweet pea seed, select one plant and remove all the rest, and then there will be a chance that the plants are true to type. Any plants that are required for seed purposes should be marked off so that the best flowers are left for seed-bearing. ’MIDST THE FLOWERS One of the best plants that can be grown in hot, dry situations is portulaca. Simply sow the seed where you wish the plants to grow and they will come up in their own time. They can be sown on gravel paths, where they make a very effective display until frost begins. Mesembryanthemum crinafolium is a good plant of a similar nature for edgings, and will last in

bloom for quite a long time. If violet plants have not been set out, do this work at once and get them planted out where you want them to flower. The best pieces to plant are the runners, leaving the tip poking out of the soil. These plants should be taken out and new plantations made at least every two years. THE FLOWERS OF GREECE Greece in spring becomes one of the loveliest flower gardens in the world. Yet strange as it*may seem, the average Greek is not actively interested in flowers. He undoubtedly appreciates them, but if asked to name any particular blossom that may catch the visitor’s eye he is almost invariably at a loss to describe it. If it is in a garden it is a flower; if elsewhere it is a weed. Anemones which have only reached England in comparatively recent years, grow wild, and one of the most beautiful sights imaginable is field upon field of these blossoms in purple, scarlet, pink and white interspersed with grape hyacinths and scillas. In the hills daffodils, wild tulips and crocuses abound, and in the dried up riverbeds great masses of pink and white oleanders makt. vivid splashes of colour. In the gardens most of the English flowers are seen, but generally in greater profusion, and of greater size: cosmea, a pure Greek word, grows to a height of six feet, and one plant will have a diameter of four to five feet, and bear hundreds of blossoms. Lilies of all sorts grow beautifully in the gardens, and wild. Marigolds, daisies and pealike flowers of various sorts are found j everywhere. On the slopes of the hills, notably on Mount Hymethus, near Athens, the turf is scented with thyme. Rosemary bushes and rock roses abound in the stony soil. Altogether Greece, particularly in the spring and early summer, is a gardener’s paradise.