WORK FOR THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1987, 24 March 1892, Page 5

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

Kitchen Garden.— The small cabbage plants remaining in the seed-bed, after supplying the plantation for early use and general crops, may be pricked out about 3in apart on a piece of wellmanured ground. These will make nice stocky stuff for transplanting in spring, or for filling up vacancies occurring in the plantations. The earlier section of cauliflower plants will also be ready for putting out in a plot which has been previously prepared, by digging or forking in a dressing of 3in of thoroughly decomposed manure. Later sorts will also be ready for pricking out, where they can remain through the winter. If the plants are allowed Bin space, and the soil is not over rich, good sturdy stuff will be ready for spring planting. If a rough frame can be put together in a sheltered corner, and filled with a light, rich compost, good lettuces may be grown for winter supply. Black-seeded Brown Cos and Stanstead winter cabbage are the sorts to use, and strong plants being selected from the seed beds, they may be planted in the frame about Oin opart.

Flower Garden. — The woik of propagation of bedding plants should not be delayed. All the strong-growing zonale pelargoniums can be put in boxes of sandy soil, moderately moist and stood in the full sun, all the leaves except the top pair being removed to prevent the exhaustion of the cutting by evaporation. They will callus in three weeks, and begin to form root by the time they must be taken under cover. Verbenas, heliotropes, and ageratuins should be inserted in boxes of sand and placed in a cold pit, keeping close during the day and giving them air at night. They must be shaded from bright sun, and occasionally dewed with a fine rose syringe if they flag. In taking cuttings of verbenas, &c, it is a good plan to examine them for thrips, and if these pests are upon them, the cuttings should be drawn through tobacco water without wetting the ends. This little precaution will save a lot of trouble hereafter, and a larger proportion of the cuttings will succeed.

Greenhouse. — There is yet time for another sowing of calceolarias for late spring blooming, scattering the seed thinly on the surface of damp poil, covering with a square of glass and a piece of slate over that to keep the seeds in darkness until they have germinated. This is a sure way to raise most seeds, but after the first week they must bo examined every day to remove the slate the moment germination has taken place. Tho first batch of calceolarias, cinerarias, and primulas will be ready for pricking out in boxes

of turfy soil. They seem to come on better In boxes, having more root room, and th<jy can bo potted into 3in pots, singly, when large enough. Bignonia jasminoides is now a great ornanient of the conservatory, and where stock is required the cuttings taken now will root pretty freely if put in small pots of sandy soil. Sometimes It Is foUHd difficult to bloom, and if this is the case it'is probably the shy-blooming sort, there being two varieties in cultivation. The true sort will bloom freely in small pots when no more than. Gin high.