The Home Garden

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13106, 14 November 1935, Page 3

The Home Garden

By Andy Gardiner

PROGRAMME OF WORK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Remove spring-flowering annuals as they complete their displav and replace with varieties for summer blooming. Attend to the disbudding and feeding of roses if exhibition blooms a.re required, bleep down the greenfly. Plant out dahlias and chrysanthemums from cuttings. Tie climbers into position before they become too entangled. Rhododendrons and azaleas should have the seed pods picked off. A mulch at the roots will encourage growth. Pot cm cyclamen, begonias and gloxinias as they fill their pots with roots. Make a sowing of schizanthns to flower in the autumn; put in cuttings of winter-flowering begonias. Sow primula sinensis foir the first hatch of next winter's bloom. Seeds of most hardy perennials may now be sown in cool positions. Hydrangeas showing their flower buds will benefit by the application of manure water. Rock garden plants benefit from pruning when the flower season is over. Use the shoots ton- cuttings and insert in sandy soil. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN'. Sow onions, mustard, cress and lettuce lor summer salads. Plant out the main crops of tomatoes, using well-liaidened plants. Sow runner, French and butter beans for succession • Plant out later crops of potatoes ; earth up and spray earlier crops. Pinch out the tops of early peas in flower; the pods will then fill more quickly. Sow spinach between rows of peas or between celery trenches, and keep the hoe going among the seedling crops C’eleiry fly will soon be active. Dust the plants with old soot and lime, or spray with nicotine sulphate. liras .els sprouts that have been pricked out may be planted in the permanent positions. This crop requires a long season of growth.

FOR POOR. LAND. PLANTS THAT ARE SUITABLE. It is a boon to be able to select something that will grow in a poor or sunbaked place where peirhaps there is a very thin layer of soil overlying rock, or that will furnish a bank exposed to blazing sunshine. The eschscholtzias do much better in poor soil than in rich, and are worth x>lanting for that reason. When new subjects are being selected this outstanding characteristic should not be sacrificed. At least some of the failures are due to trying to make the blooms larger and finer by liberal treatment. A case in point was a garden in which some sickly i>lants were growing in a bed. while close by were one or • two X>atches smothered with the ver-milion-coloured blossoms. These latter were stray xAants from seed accidentally drox>ped on the path, and this gave the clue to the failure of the idants in the bed. The Sea Holly is a lovely plant not seen in many gardens. In many cases it has rotted away after planting. Rich soil again was its undoing. It is a x>lant for those who have to make the best of a loose, sandy soil. The lielianthemums never flower l>ettei than when growing on a sunbaked soil, and seldom suffer in winter when thus grown. Bur with feeding, the growth becomes soft and sappy, and winter conditions finish them. Ma ny of the brightest and best of the alpine dianthus will flower only when completely exhausted in a hungry soil, but in soft humusglutted soil they rot away without showing the beauty of their flowers. Dwarf nasturtiums are frequently a source of disappointment, making tremendous growth of foliage but few flowers. Clive these a bit of harsh, stony soil, or a dry sun-baked bank, and they will make tight, hard growth, with small leaves, but will flower abundantly. NOVEL DECORATION. The tall varieties of godetias are among the most charming subjects for house decoration and should be incnluded when sowing hardy annuals in the borders. The spikes will oi>en flower after flower for three weeks when in water. For novel decoration it is a -good plan to imll whole plants up by the roots and place them in ornamental pots ot water. The flowers are so perfectly spaced on the stems that they seem to arrange themselves. The pale pink shades wnill be found the best for indoor decoration. SALAD CROPS. CONTINTOUS SUPPLV. One of the chief problems ot the gardener in a dry season, is the provision of a continuous supply of crisp salad crops. To obtain succulent growth, the plants must be grown quickly. and without any check. This is comparatively simple in spring, when the growth is rapid, but to maintain similar growing conditions during a dry summer necessitates extra preparation of the soil. This may be done in three ways—by manuring, by watering and by hoeing—but all three are complementary to each other, and are not alternative. Organic manure has an undoubted advantage over artificials ivecause it has the power of absorbing and holding moisture. On light soils in particular, a good supply should be dug into ground intended to carry summer salad crops, lettuce are inclined to turn yellow in dry weather, and small doses of nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia deepen. the colour of the leaves. The obvious remedy for lack of rain is the watering can, with hoeing as a necessary corollary to preserve the moisture in the soil. When once

started. watering should be continued regularly in the absence of rain. A thorough watering followed by a surface hoeing may be sufficient for several days, and will counteract} this tendency and be of more benefit than driblets poured every evening on a caked soil surface.

Growth can be checked in other ways, notably by root disturbance. Although it is a good plan to sow the earliest batches of lettuce in beds and transplant them, it is wiser not to attempt to move them in summer, but- to sow in the position where they are to mature and thin out the seedlings. This is not an extravagant method if the seed is sown thinly, in small quantities at a time, making a sowing every ten days or so. The plants will" then come to maturity in successive batches. OLD-TIME FLOWERS. RETURNING FAVOUR. Old-time f avourites rarely seen now are the Hen and Chickens daisy, Beilis pefennis prolificus, which is very quaint, each flower being surrounded with a ring of smaller flowers. The prickly strawberry (fragaria vesca fructa hispida) was found by John Tradescant in a garcler. at Plymouth, and has been known for many years as the Plymouth Strawberry. The -fruit set with bristles which turn crimson as ripening proceeds. The “pretty maids all in a row 77 m Contrary Marys garden were saxifraga granulata flore pleno. The flowers are like diminutive double stocks. ‘‘Bouncing Bet," or ‘Goodbye to Summer. is the doubleflowerecl soapwort. Saponaria officinalis flore pleno. QUALITY IX ROSES. APPLYING LIQUID MANURE. Roses are now growing freely. To secure the good quality of blooms so much desired it is necessary to be unremitting in those little attentions which, though apparently trivial in themselves, mean so much to the welfare of the plants. There is no-

thing better for giving a fillip to the production of good blooms than the timely application of manure water. Half a bushel of manure to a barrel of water will make a good mixture. “Weak and often' 7 should be the guiding principle in application. Blood manure is also a good fertiliser. Five pounds of blood manure to a barrel of water is an appropriate strength. After mixing permit tho manure to settle, then draw off the greater part of the water, using the manure in the same manner twice again, five pounds thus malting three mixtures. Over-crowding is a grave defect. V here the young shoots are obviously tocT numerous, it is an excellent practice to remove a number of them early in the season. If the strongest growths are well placed. * then naturally the weaker ones will be sacrificed It is not sufficient to think ot these details once or twice during the season. Tho keen rosarian will be on the look-out constantly and. as a rule, he will always find some little point that calls lor attention. Wood ashes and l>one meal forked into the bed alternately will be <>t much value. It is not * wise to dig much between the plants except to work lightly for the application or fertilisers. Even then a hoe is better unless the soil is of so heavy a texture that the use of tin* hoe is precluded. On certain varieties there is only cue terminal bud on- each growth, but on far the greater number small buds will appear close to the larger ones. It tin-* blooms arc* required lor exhibition the small buds should be removed as naturally they take a certain amount of sustenance, and the main bloom will develop better and will be of finer quality if it receives all the nourishment. Of late years _ there has been a great increase in the number ot "’hat are termed garden roses, as distinct from exhibition kinds. Our gardens are all the richer for their presence. Not only do those roses produce an enormous number of blooms <*i every imaginable ihadi but also they maintain "the disph v over a lengthy period. These varieties are not as a rule disbudded, but are allowed to produce their blooms in quantity. Although they are hot U P to the standard of so-ealled exhibition blooms they will be a joy to the owner for many months. ANC lENT MIGNONETTE. Lord Bacon, in his essay on “'Gardens, 7 says that because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air ‘‘whence it goes and comes, like the warbling of music, than in the hand, therefore nothing is more fit for the delight than to know something of the flowers that do boot perfume the air. 7 ’ Among the simplest and sweetest of flowers is the fragrant mignonette. It is a native of Egypt, and was introduced into France about the middle of the 18th century where it at once became very popular under the name of mignonette or “little darling. 77 It was not long before it became almost as popular in England. One writer, describing London in 1790. writes that even in the lanes and alleys were seen small boxes and pots in which the fragrant plant was growing. In France at the present time the plant is cultivated in 1 urge quantities for use in the manufacture of perfumes. WHEN TO SOW. AND WHAI’ TO SOW. The following seeds may be sown during November: Asparagus, runner beans, dwarf beans, beet, borecole. brussels sprout,- broccoli’, cab- [ )a S e > sweet corn, celery, cucumber, herbs, kolil rabi. leek, parsley, parsnip, pea. pumpkin, radish. rhubarb, savoy cabbage, salsify, spinach. squash, swede. turnip. Plant potato.