OTAGO GARDENERS' CALENDAR FOR APRIL.

Otago Witness, Issue 853, 4 April 1868, Page 14

OTAGO GARDENERS' CALENDAR FOR APRIL.

This is the last month of Autumn, and ■work in the kitchen garden will be restricted to the sowing of cabbage, cauliilower, onions, spinach, radish, and lettuce. This is considered the best month in the year for sowing onions. Early cabbages should now be planted in quantity for Spring use. Shalots may now be planted to nse green. Dig and trench ground, as it becomes vacant.

In the fruit garden, fasten trained trees, untie budded trees, and prune currants and raspberries when they have shed their leaves. Attend to drainage, and dig and trench ground. Complete the gathering and storing the fruit. Plant •fruit stones and pips for stocks. Plant •strawberries from the best rooted yotmg xunners of the current season's growth. Twelve inches from plant to pl;'i)t in the tow, and twenty-four inches between the rows, are fair distances. In the flower garden, seedlings, such as polyanthuses, canterbury bells, sweetwilliams, and all the biennials and perennials, may t c planted out, if hardy, and potted if tender, if it has not been done. Hardy annuals of all kinds may be som-ii, and if they are well up and established before the winter sets in, many will stand well. Transplant your cnttings, layers, or pipings of pinks now, if not done last month. Transplant most kinds of flowering and evergreen shrubs : water them immediately after planting, Sow the' seeds of bulbous-rooted plants. Plant roses and rose-cuttings. Cut down the stems of herbaceous plants which have done blowing, and puli up dead annuals. Part perennials which are oit of bloom. "Where moisture-loving plants stand in the sun for many hours, the pots should "be placed in larger ones, and the space between filled with moss. Calceolarias, .fuchsias, and roses require this treatment ; for, however they may he fed by ordinary "watering, the heat of the sun on the pots soon exhausts them. This is the best way of using ornamental pots. Warm "water is very much relished by potted plants in windows ; indeed, cold, hard water is as injurious to flowering plants as absolute drought.

Before you take plants to the greenhouse, tie up any which require it, and cut off or shorten any straggling or useless shoots. Place the smallest in front, and the largest at the back. Water them gently, aud give them water when they "begin to get dry. Let them have air on

fine days. " Cuttings of greenhouse plants not well Tooted should be put into, a frame, where you can give them a gentle heat. The conservatory should be" sup-, plied with plants in flower from all avaU T able sources, and preparations, made for forcing various plants •to - keep up the brilliancy of the house. ■ . >