THE AMATEUR GARDENER

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2028, 14 August 1920, Page 3

THE AMATEUR GARDENER

GARDEN CALENDAR. AUGUST. Average rainfall, 1.85 in. Under Clan. Prepare tuberous begonias for potting. Sow half-hardy annuals and perennials, also begonias and gloxinias. Give plenty of ventilation in greenhouse and frames on all favourable occasions. Increase stock of bedding plants by cuttings. Insert cuttings o f chrysanthemums. Outride. Get all alterations and extensions completed. Complete the pruning of fruit trees, End prune peaches and nectarines. Get the Ainter spraying of fruit trees finished. Finish the planting of fruit trees. Prune roses. Topdress and repair lawns. Sow sweet peas, culinary peas, broad beans, lettuce, radish, and spinach on warm borders. Early potatoes may be planted in a sheltered and warm position in small quantity. Prepare hot-beds for cucumbers, melons, and seed sowing. VEGETABLE GARDEN. The rains have made the ground an retentive soils rather wet for forking just at present, but as soon as it dries sufficiently to stand treading on without packing a start should be marie to get a few early vegetables forward. Culinary peas should be sown for succession and a row of broad beans put in if not already done. Aulumnsown cabbage and cauliflower should be planted out. It is a good plan when planting any of the cabbage iribe to plant in shallow drills, drawing the ridge of soil up on the side jiost subject to wind, as a very small mound of soil will protect the plant ind also conserve soil warmth. Seeds of an early hearting variety of cabbage, also of a main crop variety mould be sown on a bed of fine, rich soil. In hot, enclosed gardens summer cauliflowers are not often a success, but where they are required some seed of early London and Veltch's Autumn Giant may be sown. To get good cauliflowers, the ground must be rich and moist and the plants must have no check frpm start to finish. Where leeks are required over a long season a small pinch of Loudon Flag or Musselburgh may be put in now. It is too early lo sow the main

crop yet, as it would run to seed rather early. The quickest turnip to Tome to useful size is Early Milan but its duality is not nearly as good as the round white varieties, so only a very small quantity should be sown. If some seed of Early Snow ball is sown at the same time it will give a succession. Spinach is a vegetable that is not grown nearly as much as its merits deserve. In this

climate, except on very cool, moist soils, it is not a summer vegetable, as whenever hot, dry weather occurs spinach runs to seed at once. Where the soil is light and porous it may be sown at once. Victoria and the longstanding round-seeded are the best varieties to sow. The bulbs of shallots and garlic

may be planted now. They require a rich, well-worked soil, and the bulbs should be pressed into the soil for three-parts of their depth. Plant eight apart in rows 12 inches apart. Manv people prefer the shallot to the onion, as it is not so strongly flavoured. There is a very large

growing variety, the Russian shallot, but the ordinary kind is the best for general purposes. No vegetable garden that lacks an asparagus bed can be said to be complete. There is no other culinary vegetable that can take its place and it is appreciated by most people. Yet in most amateur gardens it is absent. No doubt the chief reasons are that it is thought to require an excessive amount of labour and knowledge to make a satisfactory asparagus bed. Then there is the long wait for it to come into use. There certainly is no way to obviate a two years' wait before cutting any of the produce for use if the bed is to become established and strong, but the labour and skill required to make and plant an asparagus bed is not much greater than is required to make and plant a rhubarb bed. The soil of a very proportion of the Christchurch district is excellently suited for

[By"AOTEA/a

growing asparagus, and where it is not specially suited it is not difficult to bring it into good condition for the purpose. The chief requirements for growing good asparagus over a lengthy period is a deep, rich, porous root run. Where the soil is naturally moist it is of considerable advantage but stagnant moisture is fatal, as where water lies during the winter the roots will rot, so that drainage is essential. When preparing a bed the ground should be dug three spades deep, working into the lower spit plentv of half-rotted, strawy stahle manure. Horse manure is much the best on heavy or retentive soils, as the manure from cows is inclined to hold too much moisture during wet weather, but on sandy, porous soils cow manure may be used with advantage. Dig the rougher portion of the manure into the lower part of the bed, reserving the finer portion for the top spit. In clayev soils anything that tends to permanently render the soil more porous, without making it too much like a sieve, such as, road scrapings or coarse sand will be beneficial, as, where the soil is not naturally .moist, copious waterings may be required during dry, hot weather. The work of preparation should be done at least a month or six weeks previous to planting ,so that the soil may settle.

Although a-porous soil suits asparagus best it does not follow that it should be loose. It is just the reverse. A good, firm bed gives much the best and firmest heads. It is onlv the soil above the crowns that should be of a looser tilth. Where asparagus is grown on a large scale, such as in market gardens, the practice is now becoming general to plant in single rows and cultivate the soil between the rows. No doubt a larger amount of produce and thicker shoots are got by this means, but it is not suited for the ordinary garden. The most economical aiid generally useful plan is to form a bed or beds live feet wide which will be sullicient to grow three Tews of plants. It does : iiot at all follow that because a head of asparagus is twice the diameter of another head that the larger is the better. In fact, I think it is the opposite and that the finer flavour and the larger proportion of digestible matter is contained in the medium-sized produce. After marking out the bed five feet wide, draw a deep drill down the centre. It should be drawn out partially to both sides so as to leave a ridge down the centre about four inches below the surface. The roots should be carefully placed across this ridge with the crown on the ridge, putting the plants from 15 inches to 18 inches apart. When the drill is filled in the crown should be three inches below the surface. Similar drills should be taken out 18 inches distant on each side of the central drill. This will leave a margin of 12 inches between the outside rows and the edge of the 5-foot bed. The best time to plant asparagus is during September, when the young j erowth is about two inches-long. This has two advantages; the first is, that crowns that form plump, 1 strong buds can be selected. The second is, that there is almost a certainty that every planl will grow. This cannot be depended upon when dormant roots are planted. Before planting, the roots should be carefully looked over and any damaged or rotting part cut away with a sharp knife, as decay spreads rapidly in the fleshy roots if it once gets a start. When the bed is finished the surface should be slightly lower in tin; middle of the bed than the outside so that rain may soak in instead of running oil' as it will, if the surface is convex. A light mulching of strawy manure should be spread over the bed, and the young tarowth should be tied to light stakes or some light twiggy sticks put about it so as to preserve it from being bioken. The better the growth is preserved ppri matured the stronger the resulting crowns will lie and the shorter the time until good heads are produced.