Working Guide for the Week

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23061, 11 June 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

Working Guide for the Week

By KEPOS

FLOWERS Plant roses, and by the end of the month the pruning can be undertaken in most localities. Where severe frosts are the rule, pruning is later. Continue the planting of ornamental trees and shrubs; prune established specimens which require attention. Clumps of, Iris stylosa should be relieved of all dead and decaying foliage; scatter some coarse, sharp sand among the crowns. Overhaul the rock garden and make tidy for the winter; protect choice alpines with a pahe of glass tilted over them. Give the hedges the winter trimming and plant new hedges where required. Remove the large weeds from the lawn while the soil is soft; the deep roots will draw out more easily The Greenhouse Plants under glass now need all the light possible, and give • fresh air at every favourable opportunity. [The stock plants of chrysanthemums should be kept in a light position where they will throw up sturdy cuttings for next season. Examine the plunge bed of bulbs at frequent intervals and remove any forward specimens to a cold frame. Bulbs in pots and bowls placed in dark cupboards should not be allowed to dry out. Cyclamen are now commencing to flower freely and more , care is needed in watering.

VEGETABLES Sow a few rows of dwarf early peas and in favoured localities a few rows of potatoes. Clean up the old asparagus beds and give a topdressing of manure for the winter. Collect all the vegetable matter for rotting down in the compost heap; this will be useful material for digging-in later. Make fresh plantations of rhubarb and lift a few roots for forcing purposes. Watch the seedling onions for any sign of mildew; dust with sulphur as a precaution. Dig artichokes and select some well-shaped tubers for replanting. Trench out the horseradish bed and heel-in the roots required for use. The Orchard Plant fruit trees of all kinds while the soil is in good condition. Attend to the pruning of fruit trees. Destroy prunings by burning, and heel-in any scions required for grafting purposes later.

Grub out unprofitable trees or head back for grafting over with better varieties.

Trees coated with mosses and lichens should have a caustic soda spray applied when the pruning is completed. Complete the planting of strawberries without delay. Clean up and prune the vines under glass and thoroughly cleanse the house in preparation for starting again. Outdoor vines should be pruned as soon as the leaf has fallen.