THE GARDEN WORK FOR THE WEEK

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21432, 5 September 1931, Page 7

THE GARDEN WORK FOR THE WEEK

W&Mfrr notes by <gs®§ A.H.R.H.S.-

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS “ Inquirer,” Richmond.—Fowl manure is very good and of a high value for most garden crops. It is very important that it should be kept dry, otherwise it losses part of its plant ' food, and is difficult to apply. The usual method is to dust the dropping boards with dry soil to which is added a little lime or. gypsum which interacts with the ammonia, giving carbonate, of lime and sulphate of ammonia, two fairly stable compounds. The droppings with the dry soil and gypsum should be collected every day, mixed with more dry soil and kept in a box or barrel in a dry place. It is really a general >’ '■ hiamsfe, rich in nitrogen; and ds ■> ,i . suitalolo for .applying as topdressing for such crops as onions, car/ots, parsnips, peas, beans, cabbage, and cauliflower, and for such flowers as roses, dahlias, sweet peas, michaelmas daisies, and in fact all hardy perennials. Apply at the rate of 4oz to the square yard when the plants are in growth and hoe in. A good liquid manure can be made by 1 placing a gallon ’of manure, in a sack and soaking it in » tub containing 10 gallons of .water for three days. , Dilute by adding one gallon of liquid to two of water and apply to plants in growth. “ S. G.,” Palmerston.—The spots on your palm leaf are scale insects, and the best way to remove them is to sponge the leaves with warm, soapy water, afterwards syringing them with clean water. Spraying only will not remove them. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY There is now more sun heat, and greater care., has to be taken with the ventilation, or the plants will be scorched. It is rather too soon to put on permanent shading on any but the fernery, but newspapers spread over newly pricked out seedlings, newly put in cuttings, or seed boxes, will prevent wilting. They should be removed at once when the sun disappears. Continue to prick out the various bedding plants, and it is now time to bring in the dahlias if it is intended to propagate them by means of cuttings. The greenhouse calceolarias and hydrangea are now making good growth in the cool house, and they will require very careful watering. If the young side shoots of the hydrangea are taken off now, with a heel, and dibbled in round the inside margin of a small pot of sandy soil and plunged in a hot bed, they will soon root and they will form good flowering plants by next season. The shoots need not be more than two and a-half to three inches in length. Cinerarias, cyclamen, and the various winter flowering primulas will be making a fine display in the greenhouse at present and any specially good ones should be pollenated and marked for seed saving. Boxes of young vegetable plants such as cabbage, lettuce, cauliflower, leeks and onions can be placed out into cold frames, and gradually accustomed to open air conditions in preparation for planting out. THE FLOWER GARDEN Continue to roll and mow lawns, to dig and replant the herbaceous border and to clean up in preparation for the spring display. THE SMALL FRONT GARDEN At all times, and especially at the present, it is the duty- of - all to make their small front gardens as bright and attractive as possible, and a well kept, well planted garden is usually an indication of thrift, industry and good taste. Though a lawn is very nice, I often think it a pity to devote any space to the cultivation of grass (which is, after all, only green) when the space is limited, and when it could be turned to better account by planting it all in flowers, with the exception of the path leading to the front door and perhaps a crazy paved path or stepping stones to enable the flowers to be reached in comfort during wet weather. The mixed border is the mainstay of the small garden, and if it be planted with a careful selection of perennials, annuals, shrubs and roses a good and continuous display can be maintained. The flower garden should also provide supplies of cut flowers for house decoration, and plants which provide flowers suitable for cutting should be given preference.

The border next the house can be planted with suitable climbers for covering the walls, and groups of delphiniums, hollyhocks and sunflowers are always effective, geraniums and pelargoniums being specially suitable for dry borders

at the foot of a wall. Plants which should be represented in addition to roses and flowering shrubs are daffodils, crocus, grape hyacinths, wallflower, biennial stocks, columbines, bearded iris, delphiniums, stocks asters, nemesia, Iceland poppies, antirrhinums, dahlias, gladioli, sweet williams, perennial scabious, coreopsis, michaehnas daisies, carnations, sweet peas, perennial phlox, godetia, clarkia, mignonette, lavender, violas, pansies, montbretias and chrysanthemums. BRASSICAS Last week I dealt with the cabbage and savoy members of the brassica family, both of which form large buds on the end of the stem, these being composed of succulent, tender leaves closely packed together, forming the head. In the cauliflower and broccoli section, which may be ranked next in importance to the cabbage, the part we eat is the succulent inflorescense, or flower head. The flowers have become abortive, and the branchlets along which they form have gained in thickness what they have lost in length, forming a compact bunch or head with a white , fleece-like surface, which is rarely broken'by a few small leaves. These floral branchlets have become large, white, and tender, producing nothing but a homogeneous mass which is known as the head, and sometimes called the curds.

The cultivation of cauliflower is very similar to that for cabbage, and the plant likes a similar kind of soil and a liberal quantity of readily-available manure. Being more tender than broccoli, it is usually grown to provide supplies during the summer and autumn, and there are two methods of obtaining plants suitable for planting cut in spring as soon as soil and weather conditions are favourable. One is to sow the seed in the autumn, and, when the plants are large enough to handle, they are, lined out at about six inches apart in a cold frame, or they are potted up into four-inch pots, and plunged into a bed of ashes in a cold frame. In many districts in New Zealand the plants would come through the winter all right on a warm border sheltered from the cold winds. We have to be careful that they do not receive any setback, or they are liable to produce small, premature heads called buttons. Where a little heat is available either in the greenhouse or in a frame, placed on top of a hotbed, seed can be sown in July or early in August. The seedlings are pricked out into boxes like half-hardy annuals, and, when properly hardened off, planted out in the open in September. They should be planted in drills like the cabbage, and it is advisable to stick some twiggy branches round them for protection for the first few weeks. The next lot of plants are grown in the open. A small bed is made up in a , sheltered part of the garden, the surface is made fine with the iron rake, and the seeds sown thinly, then pressed into the soil with the back of the spade and lightly covered with fine soil. Water well if the weather should be dry, and shade by placing a few pieces of twiggy branches or a piece of scrim over the surface until germination takes place. As soon as the seedlings appear, remove the covering and stretch a few strands of black cottoff over the bed to keep birds, which are very fond of young greens, away. This is the method followed when raising all the young brassicas, such as Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, savoys, and kale, and this description of seed sowing will do for the lot. I know that seedsmen supply very good and reliable plants, but there is always a danger of introducing club root, and plants lifted from the seedbed with their roots intact, and often with a ball of soil attached to them, and placed in their permanent positions at once, with the minimum of check, are likely to be more satisfactory than those which have beeen handled a great deal. It means a little more trouble, but after all it is only by taking trouble that one can achieve complete success in gardening. Varieties to grow are Early London for the first crop, Walcheren for the , second early, and Veitch’s Autumn Giant for the autumn. During the summer they must not be allowed to become dry, and a mulch with strawy manure as well as an occasional application of liquid manure will assist growth. Broccoli is a hardy variety of cauliflower which takes longer to develop, and may be considered a biennial, the' plants making their growth one season and -developing their heads the next. Seeds are sown in November and December as described for the cauliflower, and, if the early potatoes are not

dug in time to plant them out in their permanent places in January, they can he lined'out in a cultivated border for a month or so, and then lifted carefully with a trowel, with a ball of soil attached to their roots, and planted permanently. in February. They will make good growth by autumn, and, if the weather is not too severe, will develop heads through the winter and-spring. Conditions are not usually very favourable for transplanting in either January or February, but if lifted carefully, puddled in a mixture of cow dung and clay worked up to the consistency of thick cream, and watered in, the plants soon recover. The ordinary broccoli, such as Yeitch’s Self Protecting or Late Queen, has a head like the cauliflower, but there are sprouting varieties with branching heads. These are called sprouting or asparagus broccoli, and they produce rather thick fleshy, purple shoots, the flower buds of which do not abort, like those varieties which produce a true head. These shoots are produced in succession for a long time, and they are gathered as they lengthen and before the flowers open, and are used like green asparagus. There is also a variety with green shoots, the flowers of which are partly abortive and form at the end of every shoot a small bulging mass or lump of a greenish yellow colour, A new variety of broccoli, called “ Nine Star,” promises to be very profitable. It is quite hardy, and many of the plants produce as many as 12 heads. After cutting the heads the plants may be left in the ground, and they will again produce a large number of heads. It is well named a perennial broccoli.