THE GARDEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 5

THE GARDEN.

WORK FOR THE WEEK,

Kitchen Garden.— Perhaps the most important work at this ceaaon is to get every inch of vacant ground turned up either by trenching, I double digging, or forking. The object is to sweeten the soil, and in heavy claya to allow frost to pulverise, mellow, and weather it down. Earth up early potatoes in frame 3, giving them a good watering previously. This will be all the water they will require, and it is always advisable to keep them rather dry than otherwise. Rhubarb in the open ground is beginning to move, and if it is covered thickly with long litter, some fine stalks will be ready for use in six weeks. Seakale shoxild be covered with sawdust or burnt refuse, and will be fit to cut about the beginning of October. Sow a few rows of Dr Maclean pea for succession, and as lime is a necessary constitutent of tbe soil for liguminous crop?, give a good dressing of it in the drills; a thick coating of soot on the surface is a protection against birds, which attack the young shoots as they come through, and it also acts as a fertiliser. Sow radish, lettuce, and the small Baladings in a warm border. Flower Garden.— Many kinds of seeds should now be sown in a frame. Asters for early bloom, and rhodanthe, ornamental grasses, and mignonette may be sown for blooming in pots. In sowing small seeds like lobelia and begonia the pots or pans should bo well drained and the soil be thoroughly soaked with water before tbe seed is sown on the surface without any covering of soil. A piece of glass over the pots will prevent evaporation, and as all seeds germinate best in the dark, the glass should be covered with brown paper or a piece of slate until germination has taken place. Shade from bright sunshine by whitening the glass, and as the seedlings advance tilt the glass so as to admit air. A sudden increase of temperature will cause moisture to condense on the under surface of the glass, which, collecting in drops, will fall and destroy the young plants. This can be prevented by turning the glass. Sow lobelias ; but where a good strain has been secured they should be propagated bj/ cuttings, which strike freely in turfy soil with a*, little sand under a propagating glass. Although 1 the planting of evergreens may proceed duriajE ' the next month or six weeks, it is time that aS"> deciduous flowering shrubs were transplanted* a»-' growth will soon be active. Greenhouse.— Ferns being now rather extensively grown under the stages of most g&sshouses, a few hints on their management m«tr. not be out of place. As a rule ferns, when well established in pots, do not like to be disturbed,. and when they are in 6in or Sin pots, they »aonli not be repotted for three or four seasons. But if; the fronds are unhealthy in colour and the young: growth is coming weak, there is something wrong

probably "with the drainage, and the plant should te turned out of the pot and examined. If it is aneroly defective drainage by worms having got in, it can be remedied ; but if the- soil has become consolidated and sour, repotting will be necessary. A compost of lumpy loam, peat, and sand ■suit"-D IH-Gttfc ferns, placing the rougher parts on ihe drainage, the finer part being used near the top. As fewss are beginning to grow now it is a good timcto repst, taking care not to break the growing points of tae roots. Ferns which have been in the pot one-season are much benefited by occapional waterings with liquid manure made with cow dung and noot.

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. 3SHE JAHGPNJtjLLE .PEAK. Out forefathers who planted, this pear a good «teal were wise. After all the talk about imjprovemenfc in new .kinds, $nd the numbers of what are called .early pears,, inscribed in the books as high class, we have ,pever tasted any early pear at all equal .to the The good old practice of planting,,it ,agaiust high -walls, stables, &c., should be conti,nued. After that now rare thing, the perfumed,, juicy, and perfect peach, there is nothing .in our northern land 8 more grateful to the .taste than a JargoneJle gathered at the right moment.

HOW AN APPLE ,GOT JTS.NAME.

Most folk like Ribston pippins,, but few know •ftfce origin of this funny looking, uajpie. Long a*go Sir Henry Goodriche, Ro^aKstory'runs, ! 3aa<i three apple pips sent tohjgi from Rouen in JFrance. It may be supposed tthat they were the (seeds of a very fins L\Bfii of apple, for Sir JHeury teok the tcoable to plaut them in the jgarden of his house at Ribston, in Yorkshire. *2'wo of the pip 3 died, but from the third was derived all the Ribston apple trees in England. The fruit was called Ribston, from its English bnr.thplace, and pippin, from the original pip Vfrat was sent over from Normandy. — From ••'■JLittle Folks" Magazine.

TUBEIiOUS HKGONIAS.

These have rapidly and deservedly gained gr eat favour of recent years for the 6unimer ilo ver garden, as we are enabled to use fewer pc! urg.Huums, and, moreover, begonias are seUlom harmed by either extremc-3 of wet or dro.'^lit. Now is the proper time to start begt njias ttiat aro to bo planted out. Few things give less tcasble <or need less attention, for, since- "they v/erc lilted last autumn and stored in sand in a firost-pr^if place, they have hardly bee. i looked at. Starting them, too, is very siinjpla. If they.-ace grown in great quantity, bo>tes such as are \xxd for striking pelargoniums art. the inobb consaafeiit to use. These, provir <ed with «. lib&e -detin.ige. and filled with lijht sandy loan;, in wjuch the begonia conns caai be plan ied at sfrom iiiu to 3in apart, are loost convenient to handle.. If the soil is fairly n«riht at the time of pia,ntiac, no water need be ii Jven for several day«. and. .when it is applied, itj fihould be only sparingly, till shoots are growing I'recly and a healthy root action has commenced. Tho boxes can bo placed in any ■warm greenhouse to encourage the conns to i start ; but us boon as an inch of growth has been made, they slieuld at once be moved to a cold house, or frame. The whole secret of success in oport air begonia culture is in securing a solid, sturdy growth that will not be checked when planting out tjme comes. Where only a few beg onias are grown, it may be more convenient to titart them singly in pots, but the same hardy tw»tnjenfc should be accorded them. As a matter of fact, tuberous begonias can be grown and used for flower garden decoration without the slightest aid from erfcißci*! heat, even at starting time ; »nd when this is generally known, many more will grow begonia*, Provided begonias emn be wintered safe from frost, they can also bo easily started in » cold frame with *n earth bottom, by simply spread* ing a thin layer of tMjcoanufc fibre over the

bottom, laying the conns upon it, and covering therewith another layer of the same material. Witb^due attention to watering and protection from frost, the bulbs will start sturdily, and the growth made will leave nothing to be desired by tho time the planting out season arrives. Thus treated, begonias are much less trouble than pelargoniums, whilst in both foliage and flower they are far more beautiful. The stock can be increased at the time of starting by cutting into two or three pieces the larger conns, provided a crown from which growth will start can be secured with each piece.—A. H., in the Field.

"roses" on willows.

Mr Edmund Peacock, F.S.A., in a paper contributed to the Reliquary quarterly archaeological journal and review, notes that many ancestral traditions, which have been set down as "fables," modern science has proved to be true. For example, a fourteenth-century chronicler noted : "In this same yero (1338) welowes bore roses, rede and frech ; and that was in Januarie." The phenomenon is thus explained : " It frequently happens that when the leaves drop off from willows in autumn or early winter, little purplish tufts of imperfectly formed leaves or leaf-like growths, remain on the otherwise naked branches. Their form is strangely like that of a small rose, and the likeness is increased by their colour, which in early winter is light brown, nearly approaching to red. As time passes by the brown becomes of darker tint, and when the sap rises with the returning spring, these roses drop off, making way for a new crop of healthy leaves. The resemblance to a shattered rose is in some cases so complete that we cannot be surprised that uninstructed persons, either of the reign of King Edward 111 or of Queen Victoria, should have thought that in very truth they had seen roses growing on willows."

Till? ASrARAfIUS RED.

Asparagus roots do not run deeply, but derive tho whole of their nourishment from near the surface. Therefore it is useless and wasteful to manure the soil to a depth of 2ft, as is often done. The object of deep trenching is to drain the surface, because asparagus will not thrive on a wet soil. The coil must be of a light nature, so that it will hold moisture, but not become waterlogged. The surface soil to a depth of Bin may be made rich, but the manure must bo as like well-decayed horse litter as possible. Seaweed makes i good mulch for asparagus, and is a capable manure when it decays.

GRAFTING WAX OR CLAY.

I had a difference of opinion with my gardener as to the grafting of trees. He said the French grafting wax was as sure as the oldfashioned clay. I held the opposite opinion. This spring we cut down a tree having eight stumps for grafting — four of them were treated with wax and four with clay. Wo were as fair as we could be, a clay graft and a wax graft alternately. The four clay grafts have all held, only two of the wax grafts have held. The old-fashioned clay is made from refuse from the stable or byre beaten up with the clay. With one of the clay grafts I mixed up some oil; the graft with the oil came away first, and never cracked the whole summer. I have never tried it before, but this single experiment seems to show that it is an improvement.—J.D.B. in the Field.

THE PERSECUTION OF 'UIE EDELWEISS.

The edelweiss (GAaphalium leontopodium) has been hunted from one point of refuge to another, among the Alps, till it has been almost exterminated in its native home. One of the most beautiful and quaint of the mountain flowers is condemned to extinction because tourists in Switzerland consider themselves bound by fashion to wear a couple of dried specimens in their hats, or Bend them home gummed to a card. In one or two of the cantons the Government has interfered to 6ave the persecuted plant, and has set a fine on the plucking of its beautiful white fluffy flowers. The edelweiss does not submit readily to cultivation in gardens. It will indeed grow when planted in a rockery, but it degenerates early, the flowers assuming a green hue in place of snowy white, and the petals losing their curious wool. — Cornhill Magazine.