THE HOME GARDEN

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3892, 21 April 1937, Page 10

THE HOME GARDEN

WORK FOR THE WEEK. All spring flowering bulbs should be planted as soon as possible. Overhaul the herbaceous border. Sow mignonette, Iceland poppies and calendulas. Now is the time to plant liliums. Prepare the soil for planting of shrubs. Sow seed of hardy annuals. Lift gladioli as the foliage turns yellow. Sow and plant anemones for winter flowers. Take cuttings of pansies and violas. Green fly is very prevalent just now. Spray at the first sign of this pest. Use nicotine sulphate. Sow antirrhinums, aubretia, calendulas, calliopsis, pansies, sweet peas. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Now is the time to apply a manure mulch to th<e rhubarb plants. Harvest marrows and pumpkins as soon as they mature. Weed the plots intended for early sowing. .Plots not intended to be used for some time should now be sown down in green crops for digging in. Thin out all seedling crops. Prepare soil for planting out strawberries. Manure and trench vacant plots in readiness for future cropping. Earth up growing cabbage and cauliflower. TIMELY TOPICS. NOTES, NEWS AND VIEWS. Newly bought plants which cannot be planted within a day or so should be stood upright against a sheltering fence, with their roots covered with sacks or matting. The first stage in the herbaceous border overhauling programme, is the cutting back of all top growth. Then

comes the pricking over of the soil, the provision of slug guards (rings of ashes) for plants for which the pests have a particular liking, and finally the spreading of a top dressing of rotted manure.

Good drainage is one of the special requirements of red hot poker plants —secured by putting a pailful of rubble into the planting holo. The plants must be set on a mound of soil so that the roots may trail downward. BIRDS LOVE BERRIES. HOW TO PROTECT YOUR SHRUBS. It behoves every gardener to take some defensive measures against the attacks of birds upon berried shrubs. In the case of a wall shrub a simple move is to stretch three strands of stout black thread across the whole of the growth. Have the top strand about a foot above and somewhat in front of the shrub, the second about 18in lower and a foot in front of the branches. Unless you are protecting very tall specimens a third strand placed lower down will be sufficient. Birds approaching the shrubs fly blindly into the strands and are frightened away. GLADIOLI. PREPARE THE SOIL NOW. If you like to grow gladioli really well, it will pay you to prepare the soil now. When you leave the preparation until near planting time in September, roots arc a long time in pushing into the newly treated soil, with the result that the leaf sheath gets a lead on the roots. This has an unbalancing effect on growth throughout the season, for when there are more leaves than the roots can sup-

ply, the former .must go short of essential needs.

Gladioli root deeply. You can often trace their roots 2ft down. This means that if you are to get handsome, towering spikes you must mock trench. Start by taking out the usuc.’ two step trenches at one end of the border. Make the top trench 3ft wide, the bottom 18in, both Ift deep. Thus you separate the two layers and make it impossible to confuse them as you dig in 18in wide strips.

With each square yard of bottom spit mix half a pailful of littery stable manure and 3 ozs of quarter inch bones. The latter supply phosphates to the plant, a fertiliser which they must have if the leaf sheaths are to remain bolt upright to the end of the season. Unless they do that there will be some spike defects. Break up the bottom spit finely.

With each square yard of top spit incorporate half a pailful of well decayed stable manure, 2 ozs of bone meal, and 6 ozs of wood ashes. Leave this spit fairly rough for the elements to ameliorate.

Choose a position free from cold draughts. This is specially urgent for the late flowering kinds, though advisable for ail. The interrupted spike, one of the great gladioli difficulties, can be attributed as much to temperalure fluctuations as anything else.

A site raised fin above its surroundings is an advantage, while a light position is essential. Gladioli are not worth growing in the shade. HARDY ANNUALS. CARE OF SEEDLINGS. Hardy annual seeds which were sown in late summer or early autumn should be well up now The. seedlings need thinning just sufficiently to leave them standing apart. But severe thinning out should Ire avoided, because the ravages of pests and the weather will further reduce the plants. Dust the plants with old soot when slugs threaten, and put fresh soot on the soil around and between them as a deterrent. Stick small sprigs of evergreen bushes or trees alongside the rows of plants to take the deadly "nip” out of the bitter winds.

If you are going to transplant these autumn sown annuals to other parts cf the garden, now is the time to make the first preparations of the planting sites, even though the transplanting will not be done until spring. Dig these two spade blades deep and work in some manure or wood ashes.

Remember to choose a suitable planting site. Annuals must have full light and air. Planted in the shade, no matter how generously the soil has been enriched, they will surely be disappointing when the summer comes.

CUTTINGS. HOW THEY FORM ROOTS. When cuttings are inserted you take certain protective measures. Whether it be a calceolaria in a cold frame, or a geranium in the greenhouse propagator, you maintain a fairly close atmosphere for a time and keep down superfluous moisture. A few days after insertion you notice that the leaves flag. This cannot be due to dryness at the roots, or draughts, as you are watchful on those important, points. No, it is due tc the formation of a callus at the bottom of the cut stem. It is Nature’s way of healing the wound you inflicted when preparing the cuttings. You ran do nothing to prevent this temporary drooping, which is a healthy and normal sign. As soon as the callus is formed, roots begin to push out of it into the moist soil. They are equipped with

food absorptive powers from the start. Immediately after the food they take in has passed through the necessary changes, new leaves begin to form, indicating that the cutting has become a rooted plant.

In spring and summer, when changes tqke place rapidly, this happy stage is reached in about three weeks. At this slower season a month to five weeks may elapse before you can venture to admit air and treat your cuttings and independent plants.

,Of course there are rougher indications. If, for example, you tug an un rooted cutting, it will come out of the soil, but a rooted plant will resist your pull, often breaking before leaving the soil. When you meet with reistance you can assume that roots are the cause of it. But'that is a risky wav to treat a delicate plant; many a callused cutting has been ruined by it, and many a rooted one broken. So rely on the sign method described above. LAWN UPKEEP. NEED OF HUMUS. In these days many lawns are kept going almost wholly on artificial manures. These artificials are very valuable. Prepared as a balanced dressing a.nd put on at the right , time and in the right way, you can produce a splendid turf with them.

But it must also be pointed out that these add no humus to the soil —-that magic stuff which keeps the texture right, encourages the formation of innumerable fibrous roots, and tillers or branches which make that closely knit sward that every lawn proud gardener desires to have.

For this reason we don’t advise you to rely on artificials all the time. Every third autumn dress your lawn with an inch layer of an equal part mixture of finely riddled soil and well decayed stable manure. If you have wood ashes by you, mix 6 ozs to 8 ozs with each pailful. This fine old fashioned mulch will very soon wash in, add food and supply humus. SHRUB LABELS. HOW TO USE THEM. The thin “tag” labels supplied on new shrubs, roses and so on by the nurserymen soon become illegible. They should, therefore, be replaced without delay, for one cannot do without labels and hope to remember the names of all the varieties of plants in the garden.

When supplying new wood or metal labels, avoid the practice of attaching it to the shrub by means of a wire running round the stem or a main branch.

This fastener is apt to be overlook ed, and as the branch or stem in

creases in thickness the wire grow into the bark and cuts off the suppl; of sap.

The best method is to fasten a labe Io a nearby wall or to push it into tin ground in front of the tree or shrub. If the shrub is staked, the label can of course, be attached to the stake.