THE GARDEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25279, 16 July 1943, Page 5

THE GARDEN

Contributed by D. TANNOCK, A.H.R.H.B.

WORK IN THE GARDEN AND GREEN-

HOUSE

Though we are past the shortest day and there is evidence of growth among established plants, this is usually the worst month for sowing or planting in the vegetable garden or for planting fruit trees and bushes. It is better to heel in roses until next month rather than plant them in ground which is cold and wet. It is better to lift the root crops which were left in the ground and to store them in soil or sand in a convenient place near a path, where they can be obtained when the ground is wet and sticky. Root crops have a tendency to start into growth early in the spring and to deteriorate, but by lifting them, growth can be checked for a time, and no damage will de done to the roots. This enables the position they are occupying to be manured and dug over, leaving the surface rough, to expose it to the action of frost and other disintegrating agencies. On a well drained, sunny, and sheltered border a few early potatoes can be planted and some spinach, lettuce, and white turnips sown. Seed potatoes should be obtained as soon as possible and these should be set up on their ends in shallow boxes and placed in the greenhouse or in a light, frost-proof shed and left to sprout. , Seakale can be lifted, and after trimming the roots, they can be packed fairly close together in a large pot or a box of light soil, placed in the greenhouse or a warm cellar, and covered to exclude light. It can also be forced where it is growing, by covering the crowns with a pot or barrel and heaping fresh stable manure and leaves over them .to generate heat by fermentation. AH vegetable refuse should be added to the compost heap, or burled in a trench, and near the coast seaweed can be collected and stacked in heaps, with alternate layers of lime and soil to assist rotting. It makes a very useful manure for potatoes and the various members of tire brassica family. Daffodils and other spring-flowering bulbs will be showing through the ground, and it is advisable to remove all weeds and fallen leaves; give a dressing of blood and bone or fish manur# and fork it in lightly. The soil among wallflower, polyanthus primroses, and other springflowering plants which was battered down with rain, or pressed down with snow, should be hoed or forked up to admit air and to freshen up the beds and borders. Lily-of-the-valley beds should be cleaned and then given a top dressing of well-rotted manure or fowl manure, mixed with an equal quantity of soil, and rubbed through a half-inch sieve. About two inches should be enough, It is also a good time to topdress violets with a similar mixture, which should be forked in lightly. A sash or old window fixed about a foot above the plants will protect them from rough weather' and encourage the development of the flower stalks.

It is a good time to lay in a supply of flower stakes and labels. If the stakes are made of dressed timber they should be painted green and the part to be pushed into the ground should be dipped into tar. If this is done, they will look nicer and last ever so much longer. Good stout labels should also be obtained and painted with white paint in preparation for the seed sowing and planting. I do not know whether the large 12 or 16-inch ones are available now, but if they are not, the dressed laths which are used for making trellis fences do very well when cut into suitable lengths. After frost, it is advisable to look over the rock garden and borders, and to firm down any plants which may have been lifted out and left exposed on the surface. Continue to prune and tie up climbing and rambler roses, and renew any supports which may show signs of decay. Continue the pruning of apples and fruit trees of all kinds, including peaches and nectarines growing against a wall or fence. After raking up all prunlngs, leaves, and mummified fruits, bum them and store away the wood ashes in a dry place to be used on the onion bed later on. Spraying can be carried out, but not during frcsty. weather. Red oil or some other oil spray should be used for scale, lime sulphur or atomic sulphur for powdery mildew, and caustic soda for moss and lichens. Peaches can be sprayed with Bordeaux mixture just before growth starts, to prevent leaf curl. Pot or box up rcoted geranium cuttings, and stake out schizanthus and other annuals which are being grown for greenhouse decoration. Hydrangeas, which were stored in a frame during the winter, can be shaken out and potted up into sixinch pots. Alum should be mixed with the soil to obtain blue colours, and lime to obtain pink ones. When growth starte some of the side shoots can be taken off with a heel, put into three-inch pots, and plunged in a bed with bottom heat. They will soon form roots, and when grown on will provide plants for the greenhouse next year, -