THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 20834, 24 July 1929, Page 14

THE GARDEN

WORK EOR THE WEEK

(By

J. A. McPherson).

Under Glass. Young Tomato seedlings should now be well through the ground and ready for pricking off into boxes. Commence the sowing of various hardy annuals starting with Antirrhinums and Verebnas. Bring Begonia tubers into the greenhouse and start them off in boxes of'soil, barely covering the crowns when doing so. Withhold water until they commence to shoot. Violas and Pansies are quickly raised from seed if sown at the present time. All chrysanthemums cuttings should be in- by the end of this month. When tipping out the old plants from pots or tins save the soil; it comes in handy for use when pricking off annuals provided a little fresh soil is used with it. Old plants of Streptdcarpus are beginning to show signs of shooting away. Repot them into good rich soil, splitting up the large plants into smaller sizes. The Reserve Garden. There should be quite a deal of activity in the reserve garden- at the present time. Cuttings of all flowering shrubs and native plants must be got in as soon as possible. Two inches between each cutting will be sufficient room for the first season. Then there are those cuttings which have been rooted during the previous season-, requiring lifting and lining out a foot apart this time in order to build up strong healthy shrubs. Any shrubs and herbaceous plants ready for planting out must be shifted before the spring. Go carefully over, cutting frames containing Violas and Pentstemons, remove all weeds and pinch out the leading shoot on every plant. This will help to build up strong and sturdy little plants by the time they are ready for planting out in from four to six weeks time. Essential Work. The season is advancing rapidly and as I stated a few weeks ago there is every sign of an early spring. Continue with all kinds of planting and finish pruning any trees and shrubs. It must be borne in mind that stubs which flower in the spring must not. be pruned until after the flower is finished so that any pruning to be done on such plants will only be a little thinning of branches which are unnecessarily thick or rubbing together, and perhaps a few branches that are over-growing other subjects. When pruning large limbs off trees it is necessary to make the cut as clean as possible and cover over the wound with thick clay or some tar. This prevents fungus diseases from entering the wounds until the bark has covered them up. Many examples of diseased trees are to be seen on every hand caused by the gardener leaving ragged wounds into which the spores of fungus diseases readily enter. Nectera (Coral Spot) is a good example of such a disease. It first attacks the open wound then the branch and then if not checked, the-whole tree. The Silver Leaf disease (Sterium purpureum) attacks fruit trees in- a similar manner. Finish ail trenching and digging and clear the garden of slugs. Withhold all planting if the ground becomes too sticky. Continue the planting of roses as weather permits; but do not prune either old or newly planted bushes until next month. Value of Sand. A supply of sand is essential for all gardens and is put to many uses. When sowing seeds sand is most useful in keeping the soil open and well drained. In fact it is a necessary part of all potting and seed-sow-ing soils. Sand is also used when striking cuttings, if under glass the compost containing the cuttings should be at least half sand. When lining out. hard-wood cuttings in the reserve garden, sand is mixed with the soil at the base of the trench so that the base of the cuttings can rest in it and root readily. The skilled propagator uses sand by itself with a little bottom heat from pipes to raise the most difficult plants from cuttings. It is the finest rooting medium for this class of work and cannot be dispensed with. Outside in the flower garden we use sand for layering carnations and other plants and also to open up heavy soils. When lawns near the house become muddy with constant, traffic in one particular area spread 'a liberal dressing of sand about and the result will surprise you. It does not hinder the grass and stops the mud from rising to the surface and adhering to the boots. Sand is also used when hot to pour into vessels containing flowering specimens of plants and thus assist in preserving them in their natural shapes. The fine yellow sand found in the vicinity of Invercargill is a little too “fatty” for special propagation work and I prefer the clean sharp silver sand of the beaches when- one has to use it for propagating purposes and seed sowing. House Plants. Early spring is a very good time to repot and topdress pot plants used for house decorations. Take the ordinary Asparagus as a homely example and ask ourselves does it really require repotting or merely a good topdressing. Provided the soil is sweet, and the plant is not potbound, a light top-dressing will suffice. To do this take a pointed stick and remove a little of the surface soil, replacing it with some fresh material, the composition of which will be explained a little further on. If on the other hand repotting is necessary the following preparations are essential to good growth. No plant should ever be potted into a dirty pot, so sec that both pots and crocks are scrupulously clean. Tip the plant carefully out of its pot and remove with a pointed stick some of the soil round the roots. The exact amount to remove will largely depend upon the condition of the soil. If it is very sour? remove practically all and also cut off with a sharp knife any dead roots. On the other hand if the soil is sweet and the roots strong and healthy looking only a small portion need be removed. When repotting take care that the plant will not be buried any deeper than at its previous potting except where plants have grown up above the surface soil as is the case with some Aspidistras. After the pot has been properly crocked, that is placing a few pieces of broken pot or shells in the bottom to ensure good drainage, take some of the turfy pieces of the potting soil and lay over the crocks, this will prevent the rest of the soil from falling through and blocking the drainage. Failing turfy pieces of soil, use a little moss or half decayed leaves. Take the plant and stand it in the centre of the pot at the-same time making sure it is at its right height. If too low add some soil underneath it. Finally fill in round the sides, pressing the soil down with a flat stick or the fingers, fairly firm but not hard and packed; Give the plant a good watering and stand in its usual place. A good mixture cither for repotting or topdressing can be judged from the following mixture., One tin of good sweet turf chopped up fairly finely, one quarter tin of sand, one quarter tin of leaf mould or very well rotted straw manure, one five inch pot of bone meal and if possible a five inch pot of fresh wood ashes. A little lime, say a small handful, will keep the soil sweet, (excepting for Heaths and other Ericaceous plants when lime is detrimental to their health). Mix all thoroughly together and pass through a half inch sieve, keeping the rough material which does not go. through for crocking purposes, Overpotting is the greatest mistake made by many growers, and .one often sees a little plant struggling’for existence in a large pot. What happens in such cases is this. The plants being small have not the root system to penetrate the large amount ..of soil before the soil becomes sour and soggy, the plant suffers in consequence and often the roots rot away. ' , Tender plants with their roots constantly standing in saucers of water suffer from rot at the roots.

When watering house plants give them a thorough soaking and stand to drain. Never put pot plants outside into a cold rain shower. If they require cleaning of the leaves, syringe with tepid water or sponge with a soft cloth. Healthy plants will stand feeding with weak solutions of liquid manure during summer; but never sickly one, as they have not the root system to make use of the extra nourishment. VEGETABLES Eschallots may be set out in rows twelve inches apart with six inches between the sets. . Prepare hot-beds and frames for bringing on seedlings of Lettuce and Cabbages. Plant out Rhubarb and topdress Asparagus beds with well rotted manure. A dressing of salt will-strengthen the crowns of the latter vegetable. ORGANIC MANURE (From Gardening Illustrated.) Lately we have had some inquiries as to manures which could be used as substitutes for farmyard manure. Most of our correspondents are in the position of being unable to obtain sufficient supplies of farm, yard manure and are, therefore, looking for materials which can be used in conjunction with inorganic manures. We are constantly saying in these pages that the best crops are always obtained -when the garden manurial programme includes both organic and inorganic manures. This is because organic manures, although comparatively poor in plant food, exercise great benefits on a soil from a physical standpoint. Inorganic manures are rich in plant food, but have little beneficial effect on soil texture. A few of the organic manures which arc useful as substitutes for farmyard manure, together with their modes of application, are given below:— Shoddy. The name “shoddy” is given to certain materials thrown out in manufacturing processes from wool factories, and is, in the main, made up of strands of wool which are too short to be made up into cloth by machinery. Two samples are generally available; the first is composed of the material left from the original wool and consists of wool and dirt, the second is the residue left over after tearing up old cloth and working it up into new fabrics. Such samples usually contain a proportion of cotton. The value of shoddy depends upon the wool content, the dirt and cotton are useless. The wool contains organic nitrogen, which decomposes in the soil and eventually produces nitrates. In addition to the nitrates produced the material is valuable because it supplies organic matter which is valuable for the purpose of holding moisture, keeping soil open and therefore obtaining good tilth. One drawback which sometimes occurs in the application of shoddy is that certain samples are lumpy in character. Such are extremely difficult to apply -evenly, and also lumps of shoddy decay very slowly' and are liable to open certain soil too much. The rate of application should be from lOcwts. to 20cwts. per acre or 71bs. to 141bs. per square rod, according to the percentage of ammonia present. Some difficulty has been experienced by some _ol our correspondents in working the material into the soil. It should be remembered that shoddy is largely useless applied as a top-dressing, but that it should be applied prior to digging and well worked into the soil.

Shoddy is of the greatest value on clay and silt soil, but on light sand the shoddy opens the soil too much, especially if applied late in the season. When using shoddy it is necessary to use some other manure which contains phosphate and potash, because shoddy only contains a supply of nitrogen, and if used alone the subsequent growth of crops would not. be satisfactory. To balance up the nitrogenous content of shoddy the grower should make up a mixture containing five parts of superphosphate 35 per cent., one part steamed bone-flour, and two parts sulphate of potash. The mixture should be applied at the rate of 8 cwts. per acre, sJlbs. per square yard, and 3ozs. per square yard respectively. A low-grade 5 per cent, shoddy, plus the mixture of inorganics given above, would add to the soil approximately lOOlbs. of nitrogen, lOOlbs. of potash, and 1201bs. of phosphate per acre. Castor Meal. . Another useful organic substance which is now available for garden purposes is castor meal, containing approximately 4.5 per cent, of nitrogen. Castor meal should be used at about 40cwts. per acre or 141bs. per square rod,'and, like shoddy, the castor meal should be supplemented by using the mixture of artificials given under shoddy. e Surplus Hops. This is another very attractive material, but we imagine not easy to obtain in small quantities such as are usually required for garden purposes. Applications at the rate of 20cwts. per acre should be useful in maintaining the organic content of any soil. The analysis of surplus Hops when applied at 20cwts. per acre works out at approximately 691bs. of nitrogen, 281bs. of phosphoric acid, and 571bs. of potassium oxide. To make up a good, complete manure for most soils scwts. of 35 per cent, superphosphate should be.added per acre. On light soils a further addition of lewt. per acre of sulphate of potash would be useful. Enough has been said above to indicate that, apart from farmyard manure and green manuring, it is possible to make up garden manures from various waste organic substances, which, when used at the quantities indicated and supplemented by certain inorganic manures prove most useful. AN UNCOMMON EDGING * In recent years there has been a tendency to do away with Boxwood edgings. There may be several reasons for this. Some have the idea that it harbours slugs, others object to it on the ground that it requires to be trimmed in late spring when other work is pressing, and in many districts it has the unsatisfactory habit of dying out in patches. Many other subjects have been tried with varying success. A very -uncommon and entirely reliable edging Is Cotoneaster thymaefolia. This is one of the hardiest*shrubs growing, and can be clipped to any height required, from a dwarf edging of a few inches to a hedge of 3 feet or more. It is easily propagated from cuttings inserted in autumn, and should be planted the following season 'about 4 inches apart. It will soon become established and make rapid growth. Care must be taken to have it cut hard back in order that it may form a close thick hedge. Unlike Boxwood, it may be clipped during hard weather in winter. Those who are- making new gardens or renovating old ones ought to give this beautiful grey edging a place.