The Garden

Otago Witness, Issue 4085, 28 June 1932, Page 11

The Garden

•'WORK FOR THE WEEK;?

NOTES BY

D.TANNOCK, A.H.R.H.

THE GREENHOUSE AND NURSERY The seeds recommended for sowing in last week's notes do not take long to germinate if they are placed in a heated greenhouse, and as soon as the seedlings appear the pots or boxes should be placed up near the glass in an airy but not draughty position. As soon as they are large enough to handle they are pricked out into boxes, to give them more room to develop. The soil for pricking out should consist of loam two parts, leafmould one part, sand half a part, with a six-inch potful of bonemeal to every barrow load of the mixture. If dry, well rotted manure is available, this is mixed with the rougher part of the soil and used for providing drainage. The mixture is passed through a half-inch sieve, the boxes arc filled to within an inch of the top, made firm and smooth, and the rows marked out with a straight stick. A fruit box cut on the flat will provide room for nine to ten rows and there will be eight seedlings in a row. Water the seed b-xxes or pots well the night before pricking out is to take place, lift them carefully with a pointed stick, taking care to have as much soil adhering to the roots as possible. and drop into a hole large enough ~To admit them without bending or crushing. After firming the soil, water well and stand on a bench in the warm green house, shading for a few days until the i root system recovers from the shock of transplanting. It is still early for seed ; sowing and pricking out, but where space is limited —and it usually is in spring—it is an advantage to get the hardier bedding plants through their first stages and out into cold frames before the more tender kinds need the room. THE FLOWER GARDEN The pruning of rambler roses, trees, and shrubs should be receiving attention just now, and trees, shrubs and roses can be planted out whenever weather and soil conditions are favourable. Carnations are very useful for growing in beds or borders by themselves, for grouping in the mixed border, or for planting among new roses. They like sea sand, and unless the soil is of a very light nature, work in a good dressing while preparing the soil. Plant firmly and protect at once from sparrows, with a few strands of black cotton fixed on pieces of thin sticks. Sparrows are also

very destructive on primrose polyanthus, picking out the young flower buds and pulling them to pieces, and as it is better to anticipate an attack than to await until the damage has been done, put on the black cotton now, one strand on each side of a row being sufficient. Berberis are very bright at present; in fact they are the best berry bearing shrubs we can get for winter. When planted on a dry bank they fruit freely and are very effective when the sun shines through the bushes. There are a great many species, and a number of varieties. * Three of the best species are B. I’rattii, B. subcaudata and B. polyantha and the three best hybrids, Autumn Cheer. Sparkler and Carmime. Seeds collected now can be rubbed out of the berries, mixed with dry soil or wood ashes, and sown at once in boxes or in the open border. They germinate very readily and soon grow into serviceable plants.

FRUIT GARDEN Complete the priming of fruit trees and bushes as soon as possible, clear off spent crops, and continue to trench or dig the vegetable quarters. LIME IN THE GARDEN The advantages of the use of lime in garden soil are usually recognised without being properly understood, and this substance is sometimes credited with properties which it does not possess. It is, however, valuable in all garden soils, and for some crops quite indispen sable. Lime occurs abundantly in nature, principally as limestone, chalk, and marble, and in smaller quantities as gypsum and various kinds of marls. Limestone is never quite pure, but contains more or less sand iron, and sometimes phosphatic materials. As limestone it is not readily soluble in water, but is dissolved readily in weak acids, including carbonic acid, or water containing dissolved carbonic acid. Though suitable for pasture lands carbonate of lime is too slow for the garden; consequently quick or burnt lime is usually recommended. When limestone is burned in a kiln, several important changes take place. The inert rock is converted into a light porous rock, known as shell lime, or quick lime, and in this form it is more active than either limestone or slaked lime. When quick lime is exposed to the atmosphere it generally absorbs moisture, with which it combines very readily, giving out heat, swell ing up, and crumbling into a fine powder Both quick and slaked lime absorb car bon-dioxide from the atmosphere whereby they are reconverted into carbonate o lime. The ultimate of all forms of lim< in the soil is conversion into bicarbon ate of lime, a soluble compound readih washed into the soil. This is the reasoi why dressings of lime have to be givei at frequent intervals, and it is bette applied “ little and often ” than ii large doses at long intervals.

Lime has a three-fold action—e.g., (1) physical, (2) chemical, and (3) biological. It has an important physical action on stiff clay soils, rendering them less sticky, more granular, more porous, and therefore drier and warmer. The general effect is that lime opens up these heavy soils, letting away excess of water, so that they warm up more quickly in the spring, and plants start into vigorous growth a fortnight earlier than on un treated lands. On light soils on the contrary, lime has some cementing powers, and particularly when applied in the form of clay marl, binding the particles together to some extent, and rendering them more capable of holding supplies of water and soluble plant food. Chemical Effect.—Lime in itself is a plant food, but with the exception of pod vegetables is only required in comparatively small quantities. Quick lime is extremely caustic, quickly decomposing all animal and vegetable matter with which it comes into contact, and is applied with great advantage to soils containing an excess of inert vegetable matter such as newly-broken-up grass lands or soils of a peaty nature. It is generally conceded that lime acts more by bringing other substances into proper condition for being absorbed by the roots. In soils which are sour owing to excess of organic acids lime acts as a corrective by uniting with and neutralising its evil effects. Where the ground has been long manured for the purpose of growing vegetables it is liable to be more or less sour, and lime acts beneficially both by neutralising the acids, and hastening the decomposition of the vegetable matter. It should be remembered, however, that constant liming without the addition of farmyard manure or other organic matter would soon exhaust the soil.

Biological Effects of Lime. —Lime has . a considerable effect on the character j of vegetation, and such troublesome t weeds as sorrel and spurry, which like o a sour soil, and are eradicated to a con s siderable extent by liming and thereby 1 creating alkaline conditions. It is also s very useful for controlling fungoid t diseases, one of the commonest and most troublesome being “ club root,” which j attacks all brassicas such as cabbage, i cauliflower, and turnips. Ground in- f fested with this disease can be cleaned with one or two dressings of quicklime. s Lime does not have much effect on insect pests, but is death to slugs when ' it comes in contact with them. It is c only effective when applied in a freshly t slaked powdered form, and should be c dusted over the ground in the evenings, 1 when the slugs are out looking for their > food. Freshly prepared lime water is : also effective, and this is the most suit- * able form for applying to the mat-like plants on the rock garden. , There are several more or less impure 1 forms of lime which are very useful ’ when they can be obtained easily. One is gypsum, a substance sometimes used , for dusting on the dropping boards in . fowlhouses. It is a combination of lime and sulphur, and is suitable for applying to light or sandy soils. Clay marls, which are a combination of lime and clay, are useful for applying to loose, sandy, or gravelly soils. Gas lime, which is lime used for purifying gas, is sometimes recommended, but it should not be used in a fresh state. After exposure to the air and water for some time it practically becomes gypsum and lime, and is suitable for applying to soils infested with clubroot. There are some families of plants which do r«ot need lime, and are better without, such as heaths, azaleas, rhododendrons, and pines. They have an arrangement of their own for overcoming the acidity in the soil. BROCCOLI Broccoli, like the cauliflower, is a , cultivated variety of the wild cabbage, the inflorescence becoming succulent and white. By some it is considered to be a hardy cauliflower, but there are several marked distinctions. Its growth is more prolonged than that of the cauliflower, and it is often treated as a biennial, being plained one season to produce its heads the next. Its leaves are more numerous, broader, and stiffer, than the cauliflower. The leaf stalks are bare, and the veining of the leaves is stouter and whiter. Broccolis should not be planted in soil which is loose and has . been heavily manured with stable i manure. The best place is where the I early potatoes have been dug, and ini stead of digging or forking the soil over > it should be tramped to make it firm, ; unless it is wet and liable to puddle. A i dressing of lime and superphosphates, or simply basic phosphates, is all that is required. The seed is sown in shallow . drills about the middle of October, and - if the plants are going to be too far 7 advanced before the potatoes are dug, f they can be transplanted to an open e border, and later on lifted with a ball of soil attached to their roots. The y best method is to plant out with a crown bar or stout dibber, making the soil firm n round the roots, and, after wattering r well, to fork over the surface soil lightly, n The distance apart will be from 24 to 27 inches between the plants and 27 to

30 inches between the rows. All the after cultivation necessary is to water during dry weather, scuffle hoe the surface, and to eaitJi up when well grown. The head of the ordinary broccoli is close and white like a cauliflower, but there are sprouting kinds which produce an abundance of elongated flower heads and are very useful for small gardens. There are both white and purple varieties, but the purple is considered the hardier. By planting different varieties it is possible to have broccoli from autumn, right through winter, spring, and continuing into early summer. Varieties to plant for autumn are Veitch's Self Protecting; for winter Penzance; spring Snow White and Purple Sprouting; and for late crops Late Queen. In districts where frosts are very severe during the winter it will be an advantage to lay the plants over on their sides and cover with bracken.