The Home Garden

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23263, 4 February 1939, Page 10 (Supplement)

The Home Garden

By KEPOS

FLOWERS Plants in window boxes and tubs should have a weekly application of fertiliser when they have filled the boxes with roots. Seedlings such as Iceland poppies need all the air possible and yet be shaded from bright sun; remove the shading in the evenings. Lift the-gladioli when the foliage turns yellow; dry and clean the corms before storing. Prepare the trenches for winter sweet peas; the sowing of these should not be delayed if winter flowers are required. Plant lachenalias, freesias and grape hyacinths in good time. Good varieties of double petunias should be selected and propagated by cuttings of the un flowered growths. [Watch for buds on the chrysanthemums from now on, as these should show during the next few weeks. The Greenhouse \Vhere bulbs are required for early flower in pots and bowls, the potting should be taken in hand at once. Where a succession is desired, it is the better plan to pot up a batch every fortnight. Plunge the pots completely in a shady, cool spot out of doors till root action is well advanced. [The old corms of cyclamen that are showing renewed growth should be shaken free of the old sioil and potted up in pots a size smaller. Shift on the primulas and cinerarias before they become pot bound. Shift on some young plants of maidenhair fern into larger pots to provide a supply of fronds for winter.

Working, Guide for the Week

VEGETABLES •* Make a sowing of prickly spinach; this should be sown in successional crops from now on. Make a good sowing of cabbage and cauliflower, for planting out in autumn. ' Most of the potato crops are ready for lifting; when saving for seed, choose only those tubers from healthy plants. Keep the marrows and pumpkins well watered during dry spells. Permanent crops such as asparagus, rhubarb and seakale will appreciate supplies of liquid manure to build up strong crowns. Lift the runners of kumaras to prevent rooting at the joints, i Dust the cabbage and cauliflower plants with sulphur and [ pepper to deter the insect pests. The Orchard i The early crops of apples will be ready for picking; do not [ delay the picking too long after maturity. > When the raspberry crop is picked the old fruiting canes [ should be cut out and burned. l Loganberries can also be relieved of the old canes and the ► young growths tied in. [' Where patches of woolly aphis are showing, use a brush dipped [ in benzine or kerosene. i The budding of fruit trees can be taken in hand; give the stocks a good soaking of water the day before if the soil is dry. [ Figs require plentiful supplies of water to develop the fruit; r make a basin of earth around the tree and fill up with t, water.