GARDENING NOTES

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6141, 26 September 1945, Page 6

GARDENING NOTES

WORK FOR THE WEEK Flower Garden This is flower seed sowing time, and women gardeners will be able to sow their favourites with all confidence, whether they are annuals for the summer display or perennials for the following season. Soil should be worked finely, so as not to cake on top; position open and sheltered, but not too dry- or hot; seed just covered and sown thinly. Observe these "-points and success should follow. Asters, stocks, marigolds, zinnias, cosmas, calendula, linaria, kachia, clarkia, larkspur, sweet peas, lupins, nemesia, mignonette, and nasturtiums are suggestions for the annuals’ section. Looking ahead, it is wise now to sow Iceland poppy, polyanthus, primrose, violas, gaillardias, pansies, carnations, delphiniums, and hollyhocks as basic needs for the perennial border next season. In boxes of jnoist satidy soil under glass sow cineraria, caleolaria, petunia, lobelia, salvia, cyclamen, primula. Put twiggy sticks to young sw T eet pea plants starting to run up. Bedding plants can be put out. Reserve space for later supplies of aster, marigolds, zinnias, petunias, etc., which take longer to produce. Prepare ground for chrysanthemums. These, with dahlias and delphiniums, can be increased by breaking up old clumps. Plant gladiolus, gerberas, azalea, and hydrangeas. Watch. for signs of mildew on rose foliage. Spray collodial sulphur. Lawn cutting is by now a routine. Where bare patches or hollows exist, fill over with good screened soil and resow. Fork cr rake over the border between • plants. They will do much better with the surface loosened. Vegetable Garden All root vegetables—beet, carrot, onion, parsnip, turnip, etc.—should be sown at once. Sow a row of Greenfeast or Onward peas when the first sown is through the ground. Salads should not be forgotten:— lettuce, radish, endive, parsley and cress. French beans and runner beans, sweet corn, marrows, and pumpkin can now be sown. Plant plenty of potatoes; Aucklander or Sutton’s Supreme, Arran

Banner, Inverness Favourite, and King Edward are recommended. Sow leeks, celery, cabbage, cauliflower, and kohlrabi for planting out in summer. As early potatoes show through, dust with manure and earth over as a frost protection. It is important to hand work rows of vegetable seedlings. Fruit Garden When stone fruit blossoms have fallen, spray with lime sulphur at one in 100. This will help to check spores of fruit rot and leaf curl. Apples may still be pruned and sprayed with red oil at one; in 20. The strawberry bed should be weeded. Give plants a good dusting of blood and bone manure and cover all the spaces between with clean straw’. Uncommon Vegetables Though it is not wise to neglect the proved regular vegetables, there are some not so well known but recommended for variety. For instance, though celery is hard to grow well, there is the turnip-rooted celeriac, which grows a good-sized root with no more trouble than does turnip, and both root and leaves are usable in winter. Kohl rabi sown in October will develop good roots for the following winter. This is much grown in northern Europe. Sweet corn is fast besoming a popular vegetable and is both wholesome and appetising. Endive, treated like lettuce, makes an excellent addition to the salad bowl, while the perennial leek can also be mentioned. This is planted out singly and multiplies itself to produce plenty of good-sized sticks and other young ones to carry on the stock. Cydonias For Spring Beauty Few plants hold their age-old popularity like the old-fashioned japonicas, and, given a chance, they furnish, either as a fence climber or on the open border, a charm all their own. Attention by hybridists has given us some wonderful intermediate shades of salmon, orange, scarlet, and red, while perhaps the best of all is that wonderful large open red, raised by Mrs Deans and called Riccartoni. Falconet Charlotte is a lovely deep salmon. Alarm, a bright scarlet, Maulei, orange scarlet, Winter Cheer, early red, are some of the best. As they flower on the old wood, it is wise to trim them well back after flowering and remove suckers which usually come so freely from the base.