THE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24492, 28 December 1940, Page 12

THE GARDEN

is Contributed by D. Tannock, A.H.R.H.S. ——

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS "Live Hedge," St. I&lda.—Your escallonia hedge is attacked by scale blight, and the best remedy would be to spray it with kerosene emulsion. This is made up' of half a pound of soft soap, which is dissolved in a gallon of boiling water, and when still boiling add one gallon of kerosene and churn until it emulsifies. Dilute for use to 24 gallons and spray thoroughly. Two or three applications at intervals pt a fortnight will be necessary. •Constant Reader," Wanaka.—There is probably a borer in your hedge. If the plants are coming away at the bottom cut away the dead part, but if not satisfactory dig the old plants out, put in some new sou and manure, and plant again. Your aspidistra is in far too big a pot Shake it out. wash the roots, and repot in a five-inch pot. Palms often grow brown at the tips of the leaves when they are getting too much water. Soaking once a week should be enough, and allow to drain thoroughly before replacing in a: bowl. GENERAL All chrysanthemums except those to be grown in six-inch pots should now be potted up into their flowering pots and stood out in their summer quarters. Continue to pot on tuberous begoritas and to pot up cinerarias and primulas into three or four-inch pots. Tomatoes should by now have set quite a number of bunches of fruit, and a light top-dressing consisting of two parts blood and bone, one part sulphate of potash, one part superphosphate, and one part sulphate of ammonia can be applied. This should be mixed with some nice loam, about three parts loam to one of the mixed manure, and applied at the rate of a pound to the square yard. Continue to sow Sweet Williams, Canterbury bells, anemones, ranunculus, wallflower, and native celmisia seed, THE FLOWER GARDEN The flower garden should be gay with Sweet Williams and nemesia, both of which are most and most useful for providing colour until the antirrhinums, dahlias, and other bedding plants come in. Continue to stake perennials, dahlias, and strong-growing annuals, to keep the seed pods picked off 6weet peas, violas, and pansies, and to scuffle hoe all bare soil once a week. Mark the best and most desirable colours of Sweet William and nemesia with a view to saving seed, collect seed of polyanthus primroses before it is quite ripe and put in a paper bag. Continue to spray roses with cozan sulphur or lime sulphur for mildew and with soft soap and nicotine for green fly. Lift daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs and, if possible, plant them back again in a few days. There is nothing to be gained by -keeping them out of the ground. THE VEGETABLE AND FRUIT GARDEN Continue to spray apples with arsenate of lead for codlin moth, pears and cherries with hellebore for leaf slugs, and cut out any branches of cherries or plums which show signs of silver blight. Thin apples and, if desirable, carry out some summer pruning? Thin out the young growths on, currants and gooseberries, reduce the suckers on raspberries to the number required to replace the old ones when they are cut out, with one or two to spare . in case of accidents. Layer the runners on the strawberries by pegging them down with a forked stick or a wire layering peg, or place a stone on each to keep them steady until they' root. It is not desirable to take more than three or four young plants off each old one, and not more than one plant from each runner, unless it is important to increase the stock. Plant out winter greens as the early potatoes are being lifted, and while digging save a few medium-sized tubers from the best plants for next seasons' planting. Keep the hoe going after each shower. Plant out celery. Sow seeds of lettuce, spinach, radish, mustard and cress to maintain supplies. Stick runner beans and peas, and pinch the tops off broad beans as soon as they have set a reasonable crop.. BROCCOLI Broccoli, like cauliflower, is a cultivated variety of the wild cabbage, the flower stalks having become soft and succulent, and they bunch together to form a head, or" it is sometimes called curds. When left in the ground the parts of the head open up. and ordinary yellow flowers are produced. Broccoli is sometimes considered to be a hardy cauliflower, but there are certain differences in appearance. The broccoli usually has more numerous, broader, and stiffer leaves, generally bare leaf-stalks, and the veining of its leaves is also stouter and whiter. It is a very useful vegetable, and if leveral varieties are planted which take different times to mature it is, possible to maintain supplks during late autumn, winter, and spring. Seed can be sown on a small, well-prepared, but not rich, bed from October until December, the drills being six inches apart. It is necessary to protect the seed bed from birds with pieces of twiggy branches, 'but as soon as germination takes place these are removed and strands of black cotton are fastened over the rows. Broccoli, and, in fact, all winter greens usually follow early potatoes, but if these are not dug in time to put out the broccoli before the plants become too large they can be lined out on a well-cultivated border at six inches apart, where they can grow until space is available, when thev can be transplanted with a good ball of soil and, therefore, receive little check. After digging the potatoes or removing early peas, the ground is lightly forked over and levelled, a dressing of superphosphate and lime being worked in; two ounces of each to the square yard will do. It is not advisable to dig over the ground, for when grown in a firm soil they stand the winter better. Before planting, draw drill two feet and a-half apart and four inches deep, and if the soil is very dry fill ■ this with water and allow it to soak in, likewise give the plants in the seed bed a good watering. This will help the soil to stick to the fine roots when they are being transplanted. Lift the

plants carefully with a fork or a trowel, make a hole with the trowel sufficiently large t 0 allow the roots to go in easily, place a little deeper than they were in the seed bed, and pack the soil in firmly round the roots. Give one good watering to settle the soil among the fine roots, and then surround each plant with a ring of lime to keep oil slugs, which are specially fond oi young plants which have been newly transplanted. . To maintain a succession, diftereni varieties are planted; for example, Michaelmas White for the autumn* Superb Early White for winter, and Snow White for spring. The sprouting varieties are also worth growing, for their supply shoots which are nice and succulent for a fairly long season. There is a sprouting white and sprouting purple, but purple is the better. Other greens which come into use during the winter and spring are curly kale, a most useful vegetable in f district where there is heavy frost, savoys and winter cabbage such as Improved Winnigstadt. Advantage should be taken of a rainy day to transplant the winter greens, but should the weather be dry a sprinkling overhead in the evenings will help to freshen them up, and as soon as growth commences the soil can be hoed into the drill, and later on thev will be earthed up to steady them during windy weather. Leeks can also be transplanted as soon as; thes seedlings are large enough, but they require rather different treatment.

PESTS IN VEGETABLE GARDEN Last week I dealt with the insect and fungoid pests which attack our various vegetable crops above ground, but there are still some which do the damage below ground, attacking the roots and tubers. One is the wellknown grass grub, of which one of its stages is the brown beetle, which flies about at nights during the latter part of November and December. The beetle also does considerable damage eating the buds of roses and the leaves of turnips and beet, but the grub is still more destructive, eating the roots off lettuce, cabbage, and many of the other plants when they are in, the infant stage. The beetle lays its eggs among long grass for preference, but also among weeds and on lawns, and, as prevention is better than cure, by keeping the garden free of weeds and the lawn and grass paths . mown closely we discourage the beetie, and it will go into a more neglected garden where it considers its young will have plenty to eat. It can also be discouraged by spraying the ground and the plants with tar water or hoeing in some of the coal tar products, such as restar and naphthalene. Apterite was also used some time ago, but probably it is off the market at present. When taking over an old, neglected garden or breaking in a new one, it would be better to chip off the surface grass and burn it, rather than run the risk of turning in grubs in their infant stage. Collodial arsenate of lead is suitable for destroying the grubs in lawns, but it would hardly be suitable for cultivated ground, though it might be worth watering in a little round young plants in the early part of the year. The beetles, when flying about at night, are attracted by lights, and a little bonfire or an electric light suspended over a trav of treacle or water would destroy many. The other underground pest is the wire worm, which is the underground stage of the click beetle, which, like the brown beetle, also lays its eggs among long grass and weeds. For it, too, clean cultivation and absence of weeds and grass is an advantage. Unlike the grass grub, the wire worm, is yellowish in colour, from half an inch to an inch long and very hard and tough, hence the name wire worm, which is very appropriate. Unfortunately it lives in the worm stage for several years, and during all that time it lives on the roots of plants and tubers. One is usually recommended to grow a crop of potatoes,the first year after breaking up a lawn and bringing in a new garden, and it is then that the wireworms are most destructive, eating their way into the tubers and spoiling them as food. If the ground is broken up in autumn, a dressing of gas lime can be applied at the rate of from 501 b to 601 b per square rood, and forked in. They can also be caught by means of bait, either pieces of potato or carrots buried a few inches under the soil near plants which the worms are likely to attack. A piece of wood stuck into the bait will mark where it is set, and when examined in a day or so the worms will be found to have partly eaten their way into it. They can be pulled out and burned or dropped into a tin of kerosene. They are also said to be very fond of oilcake, and this, too, can be used as a bait. Slugs are also very destructive in cold, wet seasons, but when the weather is dry and) the soil dusty they are not nearly so troublesome. Lime in some form is the best deterrent, and when planting out young cabbage, cauliflower or any of the brassicas it is advisable to dust a ring of lime round each, and to renew it from time to time after rain, for it loses its effect after being wet. There are several preparations guaranteed to destroy slugs, but for an ordinary visitation there is nothing simpler and more effective than lime end soot, though Vaporite and Apterite are also recommended. The most satisfactory method of control is to destroy their hiding places, to dust lime freely amongst all rubbish, and to maintain a loose, fine surface soil, which dries out readily. Woodlice and earwigs are sometimes troublesome, especially among young seedlings. Boiling water can be poured into their haunts, all rotting wood and other rubbish cleared away, and poison baits laid. The following was recommended recently:—Mix together a quarter of a pint of treacle, threequarters of a pint of water, and one ounce of sodium flouride. Then stir into this about lib of bran, enough to make it moist, but not wet. Put bits of this about in match-boxes, in crevices where the earwigs or woodlice would find it, but out of reach of small children or birds.