WORK FOR THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 7

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

Kitchen Garden. — Turnips should ba thinned before they get too large, as they only injure one another and lessen the chance of! forming bulbs before winter. Remove all but the strongest plants and give them a good watering. Although the days are shortening and there are heavy dews at night a good deal of watering is necessary to keep vegetables; moving in light soils. Ividney beans will con* tinue in bearing till they are cut down by frost, if they are well watered and the pods ara picked as fast as they are ready for use. They must not be allowed to ripen pods for seed, as it stops the bearing at once. < Vegetable marrows will also continue to yield well if liberally supplied with' water. Tomatoes ara growing fast, but the new growth should ba checked as it tends to stop the ripening of the fruit. Nearly all the foliage may be removed from the plants so as to expose the fruit freely to the sun.

Flower Garden.— -Much may he done to prolong the blooming periods of the plants in the beds by removing decaying flowers and seed pods, also by checking strong growths and cutting out unsightly shoots. Beds of roses may be gone over to remove suckers and to shorten all Btrong shoots. Annuals which have been sowm in borders for spring blooming may be thinned, and if slugs are troublesome give a sprinkling of soot. Continue the propagation of tender plants for next season. Violets for winter blooming may be planted in frames filled with turfy soil within six inches of the glass. Chrysanthamums, solidagos, and other tall-growing plantß must be staked and securely tied as a protection against the autumnal gales, which will soon put in an appearance. Gbeenhouse.-— To keep up a succession of bloom in the house it is necessary to look a-head, and to prepare plants at once. Bulb 3 are invaluable for the purpose, and if potted at intervals of a week or ten days they never fail to supply the stages with bright flowers during winter and early spring. Tne varieties of lachenalia are very well adapted for the purpose, as they are easily grown,iand when established in pots they throw lip many spikes of bloom. The leaves of L. tricolor are more densely spotted than those of the dog's tooth violot, which they resemble in form, The bulbs should be repotted in sandy loam and placed in a cold frame till the bloom spike is perceptible, when they can be removed to the sfreenhouse. Another batch of hyacinths should be potted to succeed those which were plunged in wind three weeks back. Another early bloom is diclytra spectabilis, and no time, should be lost in preparing the plants,