THE HOME GARDEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 53, Issue 3813, 25 September 1936, Page 10

THE HOME GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Tulips are now coming Into bud; weed carefully and gently cultivate the soil. Disbud carnations if you want good individual blooms. ' - ' Bearded irises are making rapid growth; a little superphosphate pricked into the soil will help them now. Seedlings of all hardy annuals can now be planted out. Plant gladioli corms at fornightly intervals. ■, Waterlilies can now be planted out. Watch roses for the appearance of aphis. Spray with nicotine sulphate when the blight is observed. Propagate chrysanthemums from suckers when they are three or four inches high. Hydrangeas are now becoming active. If you have not already done so, remove the thinnest shoots. Plant out antirrhinums, nemesia, violas, pansies, stocks and carnations. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Continue to plant cabbage and cauliflower. Sow peas at fortnightly intervals. Sow turnips, carrots, parsnips, spinach, onions, beet, radishes. Rhubarb can be planted now. Make another sowing of potatoes and earth up earlier crops. Sow tomatoes under glass for early crops. Earth up growing cabbage and cauliflower. Make a first sowing of dwarf beans later in the month. Sow broad beans and onions. Cabbage that are well forward will benefit by a light application of nitrate of soda. Plant out cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, rhubarb and garlic. Sow lettuce and transplant when big enough to handle. SPRING SOWN SEEDLINGS. HOW iff HELP THEM ALONG. The soil of a seed bed soon cakes and when the seedlings come tlirough they often bear on the seed leaves small lumps of soil. To counteract the caking, stir with a hand fork as soon as you safely can. This will probably dislodge the lumps on the seed leaves. If it doesn’t watering with water through a rosed can will do so. To get growth through the critical stage as soon as possible, there is nothing better than weekly sprinklings of weathered soot. If these are stirred in the operation covers the double job of stimulating and keeping the soil open. Thinning is a most important attention. When congestion is allowed, the main stems of the seedlings spindle end the seedlings are malformed if they do not entirely collapse. To give an example that applies in principle throughout, first thin your elarkias to groups of three at 6in.« apart, secondly remove the intermediate groups, and finally reduce the threes in the groups that remain to one. s" Choose showery weather or water the day before each thinning. The thinnings will transplant quite well if you have a suitable place for them, and are careful to lift without much root breaking. - ' A";" * LAWN ROLLING HINTS. You can start the regular rolling of your lawn on the first genial day. The early rollings are important, so do the job thoroughly. Roll up and down the lawn and then across it. Particular care must be employed when rolling a recently sown lawn. Never roll a young lawn when it is at all wet. Be careful in the turning of a roller when you reach the lawn’s edge. If ycu drag the roller round carelessly, the turf will be badly scarred. With a tennis court, remember that frequent rollings with a light rdller ere better than occasional work with a heavy roller. Bo not leave a roller standing on the lawn; always keep it moving,- and when the job is finished at once run the roller off the turf. VEGETABLE SEEDS MAKE GERMINATION EASIER. Soaking the seed of early peas in water is practised by some growers, hut often it means loss, the seed decaying before the partially germinated embryo assumes contact with the stiß rather cold soil. - Second early and main crop peas can be soaked with advantage if the soil is dry at the time of sowing. Carrot seeds are rather oily. They stick together and even distribution is prevented. The job is much easier if you mix them with an equal quantity of fine sand, and then tap the mixture from a folded sheet of white paper. ' ' *> Sprinkling a little riddled leaf mould in the drill before sowing encourages quick germination and more vigorous early rooting with carrots. To prepare soil either for broadcasting or drill sowings, fork it Ift deep after digging and following a light shower when lumps will always break

easier. Next, rake vigorously and roughly level off. GROW CLARKIAS. FOR MASSED EFFECTS. Clarkias are the most elegant hardy annuals grown. The long stems are clothed with flowers from top to bottom—Uie small egg shaped leaves being scarcely visible at flowering time. Choose a sunny site and when digging 12 in deep, incorporate witii each square yard half a pailful of well lotted stable manure and 4 ozs of wood ash and 2 ozs of sulphate of potash. Potash, which, incidentally, wood ashes contain also, is a fine tonic, and it keeps the stems from kinking, which without it they are inclined to do. After making the soil fine and firm sow thinly on the surface and cover with light raking or, if you are using drills, make these -jin to lin deep. Clarkias grow 18in to 2ft tall, making them ideal for clumps at the middle of the mixed border, and for separate sunny beds. They also make a bonny picture in a narrow pathside border, or in the higher pockets of the rockery. During the germination and early seedling stages, water regularly if the weather is dry, otherwise the tap root, which plays a prominent part in successful clarkia growth, dies at the tip and the plants are dependent on a not efficient output of weak side shoots. Watch thinning carefully. The final distance will probably be 1 foot. This is the average spread of clarkias, but we don’t care to tie you to it. Whether the plants finish at 9in or 15in spacing, see to it that they are never overcrowded, and all will be well. Thin on three different occasions, each time getting in before congestion arises. MICHAELMAS DAISIES. CHECK OVERCROWDING NOW. An examination of Michaelmas daisies which were not divided last autumn will show that the clumps are throwing up a positive crowd of young shoots. In many instances a few of these shoots will be found to have pushed out into the surrounding soil, well away from the parent clump. Also, they will have developed to a greater extent than their more crowded fellows. This little habit enables you not only to propogate some of your choicer varieties while leaving the parent roots undisturbed, but to produce, from these little rooted shoots, plans which will be a revelation to you in flowering capability. Carefully remove the soil from around each of the shoots, thus exposing the suckerous stem which joins the growth to the parent clump. From this spring strong young roots. Cut cleanly through the stem at such a point as will leave sufficient of these roots on the sucker. This is the method adopted in growing those magnificent one-stem-med standard Michaelmas daisies which are such a feature of the displays in big parks and gardens. The rooted suckers should be planted out singly in their flowering positions.