THE GARDEN

Otago Witness, Issue 3832, 23 August 1927, Page 11

THE GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK.

By

D. Tannock.

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY. The main display in the greenhouse will still be primulas and cinerarias, but cyclamen will be coming on, and the calceolarias are growing- rapidly. Continue to give the calceolarias a little liquid manure once a week and fumigate them regularly to keep down green fly. Continue to put in cuttings of chrysanthemums until the required number is obtained, and as seedlings of bedding plants are coming on rapidly pricking out will require constant attention. Conditions will be very crowded under glass at this season, and the chrysanthemums and all hardy plants which were placed in frames during the winter can be stood outside at the foot of a wall or hedge, and the most forward of the geraniums and annuals can be placed out in the frames. Keep the sashes on for a day or two, but admit air gradually, remembering to shut them up early in the afternoon, and to cover them with a piece of scrim on frosty nights.

As soon as the young growths on the hydrangeas are long enough to make cuttings (about three inches) a few of the surplus ones can be taken off with a heel, put into pots of sandy soil and plunged in a gentle hotbed. These will root quickly, and if grown on will make nice plants for growing in pots next season. Both the fuchsias and hydrangeas shuld be syringed regularly twice a day, but they must be watered with great care until their roots develop a bit.

THE FLOWER GARDEN. The planting and pruning of roses can ?till be carried out, and the digging and replanting of the herbaceous borders can also receive attention. Growth has started in the shrubbery, but this is quite a good time to plant and transplant trees and shrubs. The recent heavy rains have beaten down the surface of beds and borders, and, as anemones and daffodils are now through the ground, this is a good time to prick up the surface with a fork, or to hoe between - the plants with a scufflehoe. The hoeing and forking will also dislodge many seedling weeds which will perish on sunny days. Grass has now started to grow, and this is a good time to renovate old lawns and to sow down new ones. I notice that there is more moss than usual in the lawns this season, no doubt due to the moisture in the soil last autumn and winter. This is also considered to be a sign of the want of drainage. The moss can be raked out with an iron rake, a dressing of lime applied, then some grass peed sown if it is required, and a topdressing of fine soil put on. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Prepare the ground and make small Sowings of early varieties of hardy vegetables, dig over all vacant ground and among fruit trees and bushes, and mulch rhubarb with farmyard manure. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Though the potato is usually called a root crop, the tubei-s are not true roots, but true stems with buds situated in the axils of rudimentary leaves, the stems becoming swollen for the purpose of storing up plant food, mainly in the form of starch. This enables the plant to tide over a time of difficulty, either a very low temperature or a period of drought when all above-ground growth is impossible.

Tile potato (Solanum tuberosus) is a native of the dry, mountainous regions of Chile and Peru, but though a native of dry regions it succeeds very well in countries with a well-distributed rainfall, and particularly well where there is a considerable amount of organic matter in the soil. Potatoes do not liks sour soils, and they certainly like good drainage and deep cultivation. Though the best table potatoes are grown in fairly dry districts, the best seed potatoes are grown in cool and moist districts where complete ripening is impossible, and it is a well-established fact that immature tubers make the best sets. I usually recommend the selecting of the sets when the crop is being dug to enable household requirements, medium -sized tubers of good shape being selected from the plants which produce large crops of good tubers, not a few extra large ones or a great many small. These are greened by exposing them to sunlight, and afterwards stood on their ends in boxes and placed in a cool, dry, airy shed or cellar where they will remain until required for sprouting in the spring. If this has not been done seeds should be purchased now and boxed up in preparation for sprouting. Like any other stem, the strongest and best bud is on the top, and as this is the first one to grow it is usually destroyed when tubers sprout prematurely through being stored in a warm cellar or pit from which light is excluded. When stood on their ends the sap rises to the top bud, which, as usual, develops into the strongest and best stem, and if this takes place in reasonable light, it is strong, sturdy, more or less green, and it develops into a strong, healthy plant. When the top bud receives the supplies of sap, as a rule those lower down remain dormant, and we have plants with one stem which are considered the most desirable. As a rule, however, two or more buds start to grow, and when this is the case all except one or two of the best should be rubbed off at the time of planting. Medium-sized, whole seeds are considered the best, but cut sets are also satisfactory if the variety is scarce, for each piece of the tuber with. an eye or bfld is capable of developing into a new plant. For early crops which have to develop quickly I always

recommend whole sets, but for the main crop of late kinds cut sets are quite satisfactory. Deep and thorough cultivation is very essential, and in the proper management of the vegetable garden one portion should be trenched each year, and the potatoes should be planted on the newly-trenched plot. They will be more satisfactory in .?. oose s °il than any other crop and will be dug and cleared off in time to allow the crops of winter and spring greens being planted to follow. In a small garden there is little use growing any but the early crops, which will supply tubers when they are scarce and’ expensive, until Held crops come in. Potatoes like plentj’ of 'rganic matter, and if this is at all scarce supplies of faimyard manure, leafmould, or compost heap should be provided. This should be dug in during the autumn or early winter, so that it may become thoroughly incorporated with the soil. In spring the soil is forked over, care being taken to keep the fine soil on top. and at the same time a good dressing of wood ashes or burnt rubbish, lime, potash, and phosphates might be used. A complete chemical manure to be applied in addition to the • natural manures would be lib nitrate of soija, 31b superphosphate, 11b muriate of potash to a square rod. this being scattered on the sui'ace r.nd worked in while preparing th- soil for planting, or, if planting is done in drills, it can be sown at the same time as the sets are planted.

There are several methods of planting, one being to draw drills about 3in deep, plant the stems from 12in to 15in apart, sow the chemical manure and then pull the soil in again. To pull out the soil and push it all in again to cover sets at this distance apart is a waste of energy, and it is really quicker and better to . plant the -sets with a trowel, or. if the soil is light and open and not likely to become hard, it is quite satisfactory to make holes with a blunt dibber at the desired distance apart, and to drop a set into each. In this way there is less danger of the sprouts being broken off, which is very important when early crops are desired. As the sprouts are near the surface and liable to be damaged by frost, it is desirable to spread a mulch of straw or bracken over the drills, this being removed when all danger of frost is past. Another method of protecting newlysprouted potatoes from frost is to stick in a few pieces of twiggy branchr on the sunny side of the rows to shade them in the early mornings until they can thaw gradually, for it is the rapid thawing which destroys the tissue of the leaves and stems. It is also important to keep the soil between the rows stirred up with the fork or hoe from time to time.

Earthing up should be done as the stems develop, but during tl.e process great care has to be taken to pull the soil up a little at a time under the leaves, and not on top of them. It is well worth while going to a lot of trouble to get very early crops, but unless a warm sheltered border is available it is better to leave the sets to sprout in the greenhouse than to plant them in cold, wet ground.

Spraying is also an important operation, not quite so necessary for crops which arc to be dug green, but very important for the second early and main crop varieties. It is not expensive, does uot take long to carry out, and may mean all the difference between success and failure. The spray usually recommended is Bordeaux Mixture “summe- formula,’’ which is composed of copper sulphate, lime, and water, in the proportion of 41b quick lime, 41b sulphate of copper, and 40 gallons of water. To be effective, spraying should commence early, Hie first applb-. cation being given immediately after the first earthing up, the second a month later, and the third after the final earthing up.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. “Lilium” (Middlemarch). —It is certainly rather late to repot your lilium auratum and to divide it up, but you can remove as much of the surface soil as possible and replace it with new soil composed of turfy loam, with a little wellrotted stable manure and bone meal. As the lilium is a stem rooter it will root into the new soil and derive considerable benefit from the nourishment. It is evident that your soil requires a liberal dressing of lime to render it suitable for growing peas and cauliflower. I shall describe the planting and sowing of the vegetable garden shortly. It will be better to prune your Forsythit when it is in flower or immediately afterwards, thinning out the branches and shortening back the young wood.