WORK IN THE GARDEN

Southland Times, Issue 24439, 20 May 1941, Page 10

WORK IN THE GARDEN

By

RIWHI

SUMMARY OF MAY PROGRAMME

GLASSHOUSE AND FRAME The display of show chrysanthemums will be nearly over, but the decoratives and singles will be in bloom for quite a while. Give every care to them, removing spent blooms and giving careful attention to watering. When flowering is over cut the plants back to within, a foot of the ground level and place them in a cool frame so that they may provide vigorous young shoots to be used for cuttings. These should be taken early in June and struck in a compost of leaf mould and gritty sand.

Cinerarias and cylamen will be coming into the greenhouse, and opportunity should be taken at the change over to spring clean as the chrysanthemums go out. Bulbs potted for forcing should be given plenty of light but no heat, as the time for actual forcing has not yet arrived. Aim at keeping them firm and vigorous in growth, for only thus will the subsequent blooms be of first quality. Freesias may be given extra heat as they will be coming into bloom very shortly.

THE FLOWER GARDEN It is late for planting wallflowers, but well-grown specimens will still bloom quite satisfactorily in the spring.

Other biennials such as sweet William and Canterbury bells should be got in as soon as possible. Plantings of Iceland poppies will provide cut blooms for early spring.

All beds and borders that are vacant, should be deeply cultivated and manured and left to weather until spring. This work should be completed before the shortest day as conditions after that date are so changeable and cold. Hasten to get gladioli corms into the shelter of a frost proof shed. The stems should be cut about 3 inches above the corm once the foliage has dried off. In most parts of Southland sweet peas sown in autumn can be wintered quite well out-of-doors. If seed has not been sown the work can be done now by placing one seed in each of a number of three inch pots filled with a light porous compost. Care should be taken to chip all seeds before sowing. After preparing the soil thoroughly shrubs, trees and rose bushes may be planted. Early planting before the end of May has very definite advantages. May is quite a good month for replanting the herbaceous border and if this work is not done in May it should be left till August. Dig in a dressing of well-rotted manure or old compost, and later on a further dressing of burnt lime should be applied over the surface.

Growth on roses should be shortened back, but the bushes should not be pruned. Climbers and ramblers may be pruned at any time.

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN The further warm conditions are left behind the more necessary it is to take every opportunity of loosening the face soil along rows of spring cabbage, broad beans, leeks, spinach, spring onions and lettuce. These crops will respond wonderfully to swell, welldrained conditions during the winter months, and, having retained 'their vigour will make early growth in spring.

Sow seeds of cabbage, cauliflower and lettuce under glass. Plants reared under favourable conditions will be most valuable for early spring plantings.

Root crops such as carrots, swedes and beet should be dug and stored so as to free the ground for digging. Parsnips are better left in the ground. Potato digging if not already done should be considered as urgent. As with the flower garden it is most desirable that all vacant plots should be deeply dug before conditions make this work impossible till the spring. All refuse and remains should be dug in or used on the compost heap. The thorough preparation of all soil to be used for the cultivation of vegetables next season is the A B C of vegetable gardening.

THE FRUIT GARDEN Pruning can be started with the fall of the leaf and the sooner all small fruits are pruned and the beds pointed over and manured as necessary, the better. Planting of young trees can be done at any time after the ground has been prepared by double digging, manuring, and liming. In selecting varieties for planting due regard should be paid to a number of factors. The most obvious is of course a preference as far as the eating qualities of the fruit are concerned. It is recognized, however, that certain climatic and soil conditions are favourable as the opposite to certain varieties, and it is always wise to consider advice given by the local nurseryman or by growers who have experience in the district. DAHLIAS The closing season has been a most successful one for growers of this ever popular flower, and now comes the task of caring for the tubers during the winter months. Once frost has cut down the plants they can be cut off a foot above ground level, and when dealing with named varieties tags should be attached at this stage so that there is no confusion later on.

Lifting should be done with great care as damaged tubers will decay during the dormant period. Use a fork striking in quite nine inches away from the main stems and lifting with the left hand while using the fork as a lever with the right. The roots should have all soil shaken from them and may if necessary be washed. They can then be laid in some sunny position to ripen, being covered at night in case of frost. This ripening off period is most important for on it depends the keeping quality of the tubers. After a fortnight’s time the tubers can be placed in boxes of dry sand in a frost-proof shed. The roots should be inspected before this is done as it is hopeless to attempt to store roots that are already shrivelling or decaying. If possible several later inspections should be made and decay may be arrested by cutting away portions from which it might spread. Where a valuable variety is seriously threatened it is possible to start a piece of root into growth under heat, and to maintain growth till spring when the plant may be further propagated from cuttings.

Dahlia beds should be deeply dug to at least two feet and manured now. Alter this work has been completed a h , eavy , to P- dr essing of burnt lime should be applied. Early digging is essential to success in the following season. GLADIOLI BULBLETS

The tiny corms found in clusters round the mature ones can be made use of if it is desired to increase the stock of any given variety. The bulblets when they reach flowering size in two seasons’ time will be true to type and every bit as good as the original stock. They must, of course, be grown on in nursery rows until they are of flowering size, and for the first winter they

will need to be stored in sand rather than in the usual way, for, being so small, it is quite possible for them to dry out before spring planting time arrives.