GARDENING NOTES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 66, Issue 5596, 24 March 1943, Page 4

GARDENING NOTES

WORK FOR THE WEEK VEGETABLES Autumn is the time to lay the foundation if you wish to be successful with vegetables next season. All vacant plots should be dug deeply and if manure is needed incorporate it at the time of digging. When the soil lies cold in winter it is a good plan to plant the early crops in raised beds. This permits better drainage and aeration to take place.

Sow cabbage seed to supply plants for spring supplies. Plant winter cabbage and broccoli. Lift and store second early potatoes.

Beet and carrots should be lifted and stored as soon as they mature. These crops do not improve in quality if they are left in the ground during the winter.

Make a sowing of parsley. This will come in for winter use. Sow lettuce in well-prepared soil to stand through the winter. These should be given a well-drained position. Plant out cabbages for spring use. Sow onions to stand through the winter. Sow prickly seeded spinach, turnips, short-horn carrots, and turnip-rooted beet.

Keep celery thriving by frequent, applications of water and liquid manure. Make sowings of all vegetables used for salad purposes. Gather and destroy all diseased plants and foli-

age. Earth up the early crops of celery. FLOWERS Prepare now for spring effect by planting out daffodils, anemones, tulips, ranunculus, hyancinths, crocuses, iris reticulata, early flowering gladioli, grape hyancinths, and snowdrops. Sow sweetpeas now if you wish to make a display early next season. The ground must be deeply dug and well manured, making sure to mix plenty in the bottom spit. Blood and bone meal worked through the soil is also helpful. A position facing due north and away from cold winds is best. Sweetpeas will do no good in shaded positions. Plant now to make a display in spring of polyanthus. Primroses, violas, and pansies all do best in rich soil. Aubrietia if planted now will make a bright effect during the spring months. Plant all classes of carnations now. Give them sunny positions and sharp drainage. Plant now Iceland poppies, aquilegias, and sweet williams. Cuttings of pansies, violas, calceolarias, and other perennials strike freely if planted now.

Plant paeony roses now. These plants do best in rich soil. Japanese and bearded iris may be planted now.

Get the ground ready in which to plant roses. The more the soil is cultivated before the plants go in the more fertile it will be. It is much easier to cultivate before Than after I planting. Gypsophila may be planted now. Remove all spent blooms and withered foliage. These give the garden an untidy appearance. Use the hoe ] frequently, multitudes of seedling weeds are appearing. CARE OF SHRUBS Autumn is the time for a general clean up in the garden. In so doing be careful not to disturb the roots of shrubs by deep cultivation. Any root disturbance is bound to have a detrimental effect on the health and flowering of these plants. Many surface rooting plants such as rhododendrons, azaleas, heaths, boronias, lilacs, etc., should never have their roots disturbed. Quite a number of dead leaves collect under the lower branches of the rhododendrons and azaleas; oh no

account remove these as in time they decay and feed the surface roots. If these leaves look untidy just cover them with a dressing of soil; this will hasten their decay and turn them into plant food.