Amateur Gardener

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 884, 9 December 1916, Page 5

Amateur Gardener

GARDEN CALENDAR. DECEMBER. Average rail.fall, 2.12 in. Under Glass. Tot off seedlings and pot on the more advanced ones. Keep cinerarias, calceolarias, primulas, and cyclamen in a cool frame, shading from hot sun, giving plenty of air day and night. Finish thinning grapes, and keep the laterals stopped. Tie up and keep tlie laterals rubbed off tomatoes. Plenty of ventilation will lie required in all greenhouses and fruithouses. Oatside. Stake and tie up all plants requiring support, and keep the garden tidy and the paths clear of weeds. Lift bulbs as soon as the foliage has turned brown, clean, and replant or store in a cool shell. Continue to sow culinary peas and French beans for succession. Another sowing of runner beans should be made. Keep up a succession of salad plants by sowing often in small quantities. Plant out broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. Cease cutting asparagus. Keep the Dutch hoe constantly at work.

The long continued dry weather has not been at all favourable for j carrying out garden work, and tinless rain comes shortly it will only be in those gardens where plenty of, water is available, that a continued supply oT vegetables and flowers can be kept up. Even where watering can be given every effort of cultivation should be made to retain as much of the soil moisture as possible in the ground by keeping down weeds, not allowing spent crops to' remain after their usefulness is past, and by keeping the surface of the! soil in a tine tilth amongst crops. Where there is no crop, the surface j of the soil should be kept loose, deep j loosening of the soil Iher is not advisable, two or three inches bcirig quite sufficient. In planting out any of the cab-1 bage tribe it is best to draw drills! where the plants are to grow and to | thoroughly water them 24 hours before the plants are put out. The roots of the plants should be put in a thick puddle composed of half soil and half well rotted manure before planting out. Treated in this way they soon get established and suffer very little check. The drills where seeds are to be sown should be well watered, but just damping the bottom of the drill will be more harmful than good. The water given must soak right down and keep the soil in a moist condition until the seedlings are well away. A pest that is sure to attack peas wherever the ground gets hot and dry is thrips. If they have already put in an appearance it is best ta syringe the plants with some good insecticide, but the best preventive measure is to syringe or water the plants overhead in the cool of the evening during hot dry weather, and to see that the plants are not short of water at the roots. The foliage and stems of peas evaporate a very large quantity of water, which is drawn from the soil, during hot weather.

The thrip insect which attacks the pea is very minute, and, individually can do very little harm, but when they are in millions, —numbers they very soon reach when they once get a start—they soon use up the sap that should go to swelling the peas in fhe pod by puncturing the skin of Ihc plant and sucking up the sap for their own benefit and increase.

A very useful and ingenious appliance for conveying water to the roots of favourite plants that require a continuous supply of moisture can very readily be made from two flower pots. A writer in the "Garden" says thai it is a device often used by Indian gardeners, but there they use a vessel called a "chatty." It is made of porous earthenware, and in the form of a large water bottle, this is sunk in the ground leaving the opening just about

BY "AOTEA"

level with the surface, it is then I Slled with water, which, percolating through Die porous walls of the,, /esse! keeps the ground moist around , it. Should rain fall the water does ; not pass through as the soil itsell be-1 ( ing wet docs not abstract the water | ( from the inside of the vessel. These j) water-vessels are not obtainable ; [ acre, but a very good, substitute can < jc made from two flower pots—say . :i 6-inch and a 5-inch pot, or any ( other size, given that one is a size , larger than the other. The larger pot i, should have the hole in the bottom |, stopped with cement, the smaller one , should then be placed mouth down ( into the mouth of the larger pot.;, and the space between the r.im of the larger pot and the sides of the U smaller pot lilted with cement. This J. will make a vessel that will hold hj water up to the drainage hole (now the top of the vessel) in the smaller |, pot. If this is sunk in the ground/ and filled with water it will • give ] out the water gradually through its porous walls. In dry, sandy soil the!

use of an appliance like this should j tend to make the "desert bloom like j .the rose" Chrysanthemums grown in pots should now be put into their flowering pots. Plants that are now in 6in pots should be potted into the Sin size, and those in 7in pots into the j 9in size These sizes for the final potting are quite large enough for ordinary purposes, and, if the potting! soil is right and the plants are fed: with liquid manure after the pots are well full of roots first-class blooms should be obtained. Potting should be finished before the end of the! month. Potting the plants into their! final pots too early is not. advisable, as the soil is liable to get "stale" j before the plants come into bloom. I Good turfy loam two parts, one part! well rotted, sweet manure, with a tin potful of soot, and a Gin potful of bonedust, to each bai rowioad of soil I and just sufficient sand to keep itj porous, will be an excellent compost to use. If it is thrown into a heap and left for two or three days before using the ingredients will become better incorporated. Put ample but not excessive drainage in the pot, one good crock over the hole j and several fair-sized pieces round: it with some smaller pieces on top] will do very well, using some of the' fibre from the turf on the top so asl to prevent the soil clogging the drain-! j age. Pot firmly using a potting slick! to firm the soil well round the sides' between the ball of the plant and; the pot. It' the plants and soil are in the right condition of nroisture! —that is, well moist but not wet, j syringing overhead will be quite sufficient watering for two or three! days after potting, and then, for a' time, care must be taken not to overwater. The new soil should be baulked up a bit round the inner rim of the pot so that the water is led through the old ball of roots. | The depression can be filled up with similar soil as soon as the roots have 1 taken to the fresh soil.

Single Roses

Single roses are now getting quite the fashion'and it is well that it is so, as there arc some very charming varieties and species that make excellent garden plants. A new addition and one that will evidently take high rank is Rosa Moyesii, a coloured plate of which is given in the "Garden" of October 21. The flowers are about 23 inches across, and, according to the plate, somewhat of the colour of Red Letter Day, a ruby crimson. After the dowering is past I the plant must still be very ornamen-1 tal as the hips are bottle shaped, and | of a rich crimson colour, and arci from two to three inches long. ■ It is said to be a vigorous, strong growing, free flowering plant, and will form a large bush 10 feet high. It was introduced into England about 1903 from Western China where it grows at an altitude of 7000 to 9000 feet so it should be perfectly hardy here. Answer to Correspondent. "A.R.S." writes:—"Enclosed you will find several lmds of roses pari tially eaten away. I don't know [whether it has been brought under | your notice before, but the roses are Isuffering from the .attacks of the brown grass beetle. It has been a | perfect curse this year, attacking ; both foliage and flowers, and I shall ' be glad to know if there is any rei niedy?" The two most useful methods of dealing with the grass-grub beetle | are; (1) Making fires of some dry j materia] that will give a bright flame jlight to which the beetles when on j the wing are attracted. They are said to fly into the flame in large numbers; (2) By poisoning their food-plants by spraying with a poisonous wash, such as arsenate of lead. This would not stop them j from eating the leaves but would i eventually poison the beetle. Neither of these methods would be of much ! use in a small garden unless it was j also carried out in the other coni tiguous gardens. By the first meth- ! od the fire would probably attract | larger numbers than usual from surI rounding gardens and the last state ! would be worse than the first. In I the second case it would not, perhaps, sulliciently protect the foliage j and buds from being eaten though ■ the insect would be killed, and, unless this was done systematically in j neighbouring gardens, the reduction j of the pest would not be of much avail. A systematic carrying out of , the two. methods throughout a disI tricl during the time the insect dies, that is, the last half of November ■and throughout December, would undoubtedly reduce the pest to small dimensions. Another plan is hand- : picking but it would be a very tedi J ous operation. The beetle commences to fly about dusk and by 9 o'clock or half past has settled down on its food plant. Roses and plums are largely favoured. After they have 1 once settled they do not rise readily again and can be picked or shak|en off the bush or tree. A plan that j I would suggest as likely to be use- ; ful that would not be difficult of application or expensive, is to spray the rose bushes with a strong solu- | tion of Quassia extract. It is inodI orous (I would suggest a carbolic i wash if it were not for the odour) I but it would have to be renewed | probably twice a week and after rain, but a little experimenting would I soon furnish data as to how to best use it. The bitter principle of the j quassia would make the foliage obi noxious to the beetle. Another is to hang a hurricane lamp over a large flat pan or dish containing about an inch of water and about one sixteenth of an inch of kerosene. The kerosene will iloat on top of the water and all beetles which fall into J it will be killed, the lamp being the attraction.