Garden Notes.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 28 August 1912, Page 5

Garden Notes.

The gardekebs motto,— " Work on, hope on, and be ye sure Self help is noble schooling, We do our best and leave the rest, To God Almighty's ruling " Let us approach the work of our garden with a cheerful, hopeful, spirit doing if possible, a little work every day; not. too much, but .sufficient to make progress, Now the days are longer get at it in the eaily morning, I before the ordinary day's work begins. We must take a deep and iutelligent interest in our work if we would grow specimens suitable for exhibition There's some fun, top, in beating the other fellow who is doing his level best to beat you. But even very ordinary care and attention will often produce extraordinary results. The weather is now tip top for garden operations and no time should be lost in getting in potatoes, peas for succession, parsnips, carrots, lettuce, radish, white stone or snowball turnips. Prepare all empty plots by digging and working and when planning out. Why not try a small bed of artichokes. They are splendid croppers and come into use in the winter when most needed. Plant the tubers and treat as for potatoes, but do not lift the crop, only as required for use. Egyptian beet :—Turnip rooted. Try these on lacd used last year for a green crop. At more than one show visited last year the only beet shown was turnip rooted and in every case the roots were much too large and coarse, and showing white markings all through the flesh suggesting the idea of sly flirtations with the mangel The true variety should be a very deep red throughout and not more than 3£ or 4 inches in diameter, with one small tap root. Dig carefully and boil the whole plant which preserves colour. To: avoid stringiness, keep the ground loose and free from weeds. In dry hot weather spend a few minutes to night round that onion bed after dark with a lime can. In the flower garden, dahlias may be planted out for early flowering, 01 seed may be sown now to bloom in the autumn. If it is desired to have dahlias for showing during February do not plant them till November. Tuberous Begonias, a very haudsome bedding plant, may be started in pots ready for planting out later. Liliums and gladioli should be planted, and any hardy or half hardy annuals may be sown now. Cuttings may be taken of pansy and lobelia choosing the small young shoots also all varieties of geraniums. Make the soil fine and add sand or shell or any sharp material. All cuttings root best in sandy soil. Secure a bag of shell lime as soon as convenient; it is useful for many purposes in the garden and for some plants absolutely necessary. Slugs, are troublesome among all young plants .and frequent dusting with lime helps. Old Ebony.

[Erratum. —Through a typographical jumble in this column last week an inset editorial note was so mixed up as to make it unintelligible. It should have read that a back-blocker planted his carrot seed at the bottom instead of thd top of the prepared hole of "earth and manure.]