THE HOME GARDEN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24203, 19 February 1942, Page 2

THE HOME GARDEN

Vegetables Dig or trench all vacant ground. It is advisable to trench some of the garden every year. Lift and store potatoes as they ripen. Do not leave exposed at night to the attentions of the potato tuber moth. Earth-up advancing crops of leeks and celery when the soil is in dry condition. Keep up a supply of lettuces by sowing and planting at regular intervals. Strawberry beds no longer required for use should be well trenched over and manured and limed over the top - in readiness for other crops. Plant out more cabbage and cauliflower and sow more seed for later supplies. Sow another batch of short carrots for use in winter and early spring. The Greenhouse Bulbous-rooted plants such as hippeastrums will be nearing the end of their growing season and water supplies should be reduced. Clivias do not have a marked rest and should have some water all the winter through as the foliage is evergreen. When transplanting the calceolarias, do not neglect the smallest seedlings, as these are invariably the best colours. Many old zonal pelargoniums if cut back now will soon make fresh growth and provide plenty of flower for the winter. The potting of bulbs for early flowering should be completed by now and the pots plunged in a bed of ashes or sand until the bulbs are well rooted.

' The Orchard Continue to gather the fruit crops as they j-ipen; store no damaged fruit but place on one side for immediate use. The pruning of the summer fruiting ra s pbe rries should be completed; five or six strong young canrs are enough to leave on each clump. Black currants feel the effects of dry weather, so soak well with water • and give a good mulch over the top to keep the young growth going. Insect pests on fruit trees should be kept down at all times. It is a good plan when the fruit has been removed, to give a good spraying with an insecticide or fungicide as the case may need. Complete the budding of fruit stocks at the earl lest opportunity as j bark will not rur. freely for much longer. Flowers Continue the planting of bulbs for spring blooming: apply no ranK fresh manure for these subjects. Anemone and ranunculus corms should be planted in well-drained soil; ll the position is likely to be wet in winter, raise the beds above the surrounding level. Plant out Iceland poppies for the earliest bloom a*id sow more seed for later supplies. Polyanthus, primrose and violas may be divided and transplanted into their spring blooming quarters. Cuttings of soft wooded bedding plants can be inserted for next season s supplies.