GARDEN & ORCHARD.

Otago Witness, Issue 3673, 5 August 1924, Page 11

GARDEN & ORCHARD.

By

D. Tannock.

WORK FOR THF WEEK. THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. Growth is now fairly started under glass, and the potting of all ferns and foliage plants should be completed as soon as possible. Hydranges which were cut back some time ago can be taken out of their old pots, all loose soil shaken out, the roots trimmed a bit and then repotted iq the same sized pots or those just one size larger. Being greedy plants they require a good potting mixture with a quantity of old manure and bone meal mixed in, and should be potted fairly firm. Stand on the bench in the warm house and syringe twice a day to encourage growth, and as the stems should be limited to three or four all others when from two to three inches long can be removed with a heel, potted up 6ingly in small thumb pots in a cutting mixture ar.d plunged in bottom heat, where they will soon root and make good plants for flowering next season or for planting outside. Though quite hardy the newer varieties are quite as hardy as the old, we don't get the same delicate tints outside. Pot on fuchsias, standard ivyleaved geraniums and heliotropes, stand seed boxes up near the light as soon as seedlings appear and prick them out in boxes as soon as they are large enough to handle. The greenhouse calceolarias are also growing rapidly now and will require careful watering, a little weak liquid manure once a week and fumigating occasionally to keep green fly m check. Put in chrysanthemum cuttings, box up ivy-leaved geraniums and make further sowings of early vegetables and half hardy annuals. THE FLOWER GARDEN. The work in the flower garden will be increasing, and in the pruning of deciduous trees and shrubs and the digging or forking of the borders should be completed at once. Bulbous plants are peeping through the ground, and the surface soil should be weeded, forked or cultivated to break the surface, and to clean the beds in preparation for the flowering season. It is most important to get the work as far forward as possible now so that we are able to meet the rush of routine work later on. The planting and transplanting of trees and shrubs can alsc he hurried on, it is possible to plant all through the winter in Dunedin, out the most satisfactory staasons are in autumn, just before the leaves are preparing to drop off, and in the spring, when the buds are beginning to swell and root action is commencing. I consider that August is one of the most suitable months for planting, and as far as possible we try to carry out most of ours during that month, but we have transplanted quite successfully in September. In maintaining a display during the whole year round in the open garden we have to rely very largely on shrubs during the winter. I have already mentioned the wattles, specially Baileyana, Chirnonanthus fragrans, the “winter sweet’’ and Hamemalis japonica, mollis and virginiana, the “Witch hazel” Erica melanthera and several of the other hardy heaths. There is still one more, Garrya elliptica, which though not showy is quite decorative. It is an evergreen shrub of bushy habit growing to a height of 12 to 16ft. Ihe flowers are densely crowded on a slender, silvery-grey, pendent catkins, the males being up to 12 inches long and crowded on to the ends of the shoots. This plant is a native of California and Oregon, and was introduced into England by Douglas in 1828. It does not need a rich soil, and is better when planted on a sunny lank and sheltered from the cold S.W. winds. It is a plant which does not transplant well, and should be put out when quite small. It call be grown from cuttings or layers. There are several other species, but none so ornamental as elliptica. •—The Vegetable and Fruit Garden.— If beetroot and carrots haven’t been lifted they should be got up now and stored in dry sand or soil hi a cellar or under a hedge, remove all spent crops, manure and dig all vacant land and keep the soil cultivated among all growing crops. Plant out fruit trees and bushes, finish pruning, rake up leaves, prunings, and shrivelled fruits and burn them, afterwards scattering the ashes over the ground and digging them in. Apply winter sprays and complete root pruning. Set up potatoes in sprouting boxes, keep those which have begun to sprout in the light to prevent the shouts from becoming drawn and spindly, an i make small plantings of very early varieties on a warm border or on a mild hotbed in a frame. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “J. H 5.,” Duntroon.—You should prune y..m outdoor vine at once, cutting the you;- usowths back to within an inch of tlie <•!<; wood. Five spurs or side branches sh< uld not be too many for each rod, and ! hey should be from one foot to 18 inclic- apart. Bone meal or basic superphosphate s a good manure for gladioli. Soils. ! \ e soil is the raw material from win. !■ gardeners produce their crops and to get the best results in the most economica, manner, by giving it the correct treatment. Some knowledge of its physical character and its chemical composition is necessary. Though soils are usually * h.vified in books as according to the* [i. i.tities of sand, clay, or organic matter winch they contain, for our purpose it is more* convenient to classify them roughly according to their mode Of origin. In and around Dunedin we have three more or less distinct kinds of soil, each of course merging into one another in places. We have that found on the hills round Dunedin, its characteristic being a clay subsoil topped with • layer of black organic matter usually

called bush soil, varying in nature irom six to nine inches in depth, with an intermediate layer also about six to nine inches in depth, composed of friable clay and organic matter. The delay has been formed just where it is, and so also uhe organic matter, and where it was covered with a growth of manuka scrub or thin bush it did not deteriorate, but after Uie bush was cleared in many cases the vegetable matter was allowed to deteriorate through faulty cultivation, until it has pracically disappeared, leaving little but the clay. Though soils of this class are considered poor, they have great capabilities when properly treated, and in many cases they failed to grow crops because they were saturated and cold during the winter, and dried up during the summer. By a system of bastard trenching whereby the bottom spit is inverted, and broken up in the trench, the organic matter and the friable clay thrown on top of it, and the whole area well drained either by means of agricultural pipes, which are the best, or open ditches. This soil becomes easy to cultivate, it retains water and plant food until the plants require it and by adding organic matter of any kind from time to time, either in the form of green manure dug in a compost heap or strawy stable manure, and just a little lime for the crops which like it, this soil can be made to produce crops of any kind. When we started to clear the scrubby manuka on the hillside for the nursery it was stated by the wiseacres that we would fail to grow’ crops, but so far no plant has refused to grow ,and it has proved excellent for growing forest trees and general nursery stock. We never water even in the driest years, the cultivated layer of subsoil being able to hold sufficient moisture to maintain growth during the summer and autumn, provided the surface is kept stirred and cultivated with the scuffle hoe or the wheel hoe. Land of this kind is wonderfully improved by growing a crop of broom or gorse on it for a few years, both these, plants root deeply breaking up the subsoil, and when cleared, they leave nitrogen impregnated nodules in the soil, and the leaves which they drop add very considerably to the store of organic matter. There are few better soil-improving plants, and it \s a pity that they are so aggressive. i‘2) Alluvial soils, such as we get on the flats near rivers and creeks like the Leith Valley and the lower gardens. These soils have no very decided sub-soil, the top gradually merging into shingle or silt. They have been brought down from the surrounding hills by the rivers and creeks and are usually considered to be rich, and easy to cultivate and to drain. Though they have all the appearance of being rich they are rather deceiving and though trenched from two to three feet deep fail to grow good crops unless heavily manured with farmyard manure. Being so porus below’ they dry up readily during summer, and crops require regular applications of liquid manure to maintain satisfactory growth. Wo find it much easier and cheaper to garden on the hillside than on the flat, and though clay is heavier to work at first it is the most productive and most profitable in the end. (3) Peaty soils, also found on the flat, are formed by the decay of moistureloving plants which have been enabled to grow in almost saturated conditions, and consequently at first are inclined to be sour and unsuitable for the grow’th of many plants. When drained, well cultivated and limed with care they improve considerably, and being easy to work, are appreciated by many gardeners. Crops growing in this kind of soil suffer more during wet weather than during dry, when they are almost as good at resisting droughts as the hill soils, provided they are well cultivated on the surfaco. Deep cultivation and good drainage will make any soil productive, and though manures are very necessary there is no manure which will take the place of thorough cultivation, and I would advise all who are forming a new garden or renovating an old one to have it thoroughly trenched in the first place, it will save a lot of labour later on and ensure success from the start.