GARDEN NOTES

Taranaki Daily News, 18 July 1933, Page 13

GARDEN NOTES

THE WEEK’S WORK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. Prepare and plant new rose beds. Prune roses. Collect and burn prunings. Plant lilies. Put a little sand at the base of the hole to assist in drainage. Prune evergreen trees and shrubs. Plant trees and shrubs. Hand weed anemones, ranunculi, etc. Fork or hoe over the ground between the rows. Planting, except of the very hardy subjects, should be held over till end of month. * Prepare ground and plant hedges. Alterations to the ground can be made. Prepare lawns for spring sowing. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Prepare ground for potato planting. Peas can be sown. Choose a warm, well-drained position. Plant shallots, potato onions and garlic. Sowings of lettuce can be made in a warm position. A planting of broad beans can be made. Early cabbage can be sown. Prepare ground for spring crops. Clear off all spent crops. The remains of root crops can be lifted and stored. Clean asparagus beds. Apply a dressing of seaweed and manure. Keep onions weeded. Prepare ground for planting. THE GREENHOUSE. \ Ventilate carefully to foster the heat but avoid forcing. Get pots cleaned, boxes mended, labels prepared for spring work. Collect all fallen or yellow leaves. Allow nothing to remain that induces mildew. Do not overwater; give sufficient, but allow for dull days and a moist atmosphere. THE FRUIT GARDEN. Plant gooseberries and currants. Prepare ground for planting fruit trees. Raspberries and logan berries should be trained to their supports. Prune outdoor vines. The general pruning of fruit trees can be commenced. SPINACH. X More of this quickly maturing vegetable should be grown; not only is it quick maturing, but the medicinal value of spinach is sufficient to warrant its inclusion in every garden. It requires a good , soil so that it grows quickly. The position should be open and warm and the seed sown thinly. As soon as the ■seedlings have made the second or third rough leaf the plants should be thinned out, and the thinnings can be used for cooking purposes. Picking should be commenced as soon as the foliage is a fair size, and should never be left until it begins to have a yellowish tint. Spinach is so easily grown and the seed so cheap that it should be sown as a catch crop between such things as peas and crops that need space but are a fair time in maturing. What is left of the spinach can always be dug in as a soiling crop. Sulphate of ammonia at the rate of ioz per yard run of row should be applied when seed is sown, and another sprinkling given when seedlings have made the first rough leaf. Do not let the sulphate touch the plants. CASCADE CHRYSANTHEMUMS. A correspondent, writing in the “Gardening Illustrated,” says: This new section of chrysanthemums if of great decorative value when grown in pots for greenhouse or room decoration. To those who prefer the more natural small flowered, single type this strain will make a special appeal.. The singleflowered strain can be easily raised from seed. Sown in early August, picked out when large enough, and potted on when required they make good-sized plants by flowering time. The usual compost for chrysanthemums is quite suitable. The special training consists in reducing the plant to one or two leading shoots at an early stage. The shoot or shoots are then trained up a bamboo stake, fixed at an angle of 45 degrees, sloping backwards. All laterals are stopped at about two or three leaves, and stopped again as required to make bushy lateral growth, the leader is allowed to grow on, being tied to the bamboo stake as growth proceeds. Stopping is discontinued as soon as buds appear, and the plants will then be anything from four to eight feet long. When buds commence to appear, the stakes should be removed and the pots placed on a shelf or pedestal, the plants being gently allowed to take up a hanging or cascade position. It is advisable to fix the ends of the longest shoot to some support, to prevent it from swaying and getting damaged. This type may also, be grown in an ordinary bush form without any training or stopping whatever, and it makes an excellent decorative plant. SWEET PEAS. Quite early in the life of the sweet pea the question of affording the plants the necessary support has to be considered. One of the best materials for the purpose is twiggy tea-tree. This is usually obtainable, and if pieces about a foot long are cut they wilr*be found ideal for supporting and protecting the young plants. Two or three pieces should be stuck in around each plant, so that the tendrils can reach and cling to it. At the same time it should not be so thick as to prevent the plants having free head room. Small twiggy branches of any kind will do, even the old stems of herbaceous plants can be used if there is nothing else available. ROSES. HOW TO PREPARE THE GROUND. The season for planting roses is here. There may be new plants to set out, or perhaps the old bed has not been satisfactory. If the latter, then the best thing to do is to find out why these plants have not done well. The best place to begin is the soil. If this has not been properly dug and manured it will not be necessary to go any further. Take all the plants out and heel them in close at hand where they will be out of the way, and then get to work on the bed. It will not hurt the roses to lift them now if they are heeled in at once. Begin on the bed by taking out a strip of the top soil and wheeling it to the far end; this strip should be about 30 inches wide, and the length of the bed across, and will be as deep as the top soil goes. Shovel up the crumbs and take them away too. Most probably the subsoil will be clay that is quite hard and dry, and this is where the mischief began. Even with a warm, dry season the subsoil, if it is properly treated and drained, will be moist. This has been proved over - and over again to be a fact. To make a really good bed, take out another foot of clay and barrow it away, and then break up another foot underneath and mix plenty of old compost and coarse bonedust with it, forking the two- together. On top of this either put the earth that will be taken off the next strip or get some good turfy loam. In this case the

turf can be used green. Chop the turves up into pieces three or four inches square, and as the filling up proceeds mix in more turf and bonedust. Fill in so that the bed when finished is quite eight inches above the surrounding level. This allows for it to consolidate and still be above the ordinary level, and, after allowing a short time for the earth to settle, the bushes may be replanted. I BEAUTIFUL BORDER FOR FEW SHILLINGS. Perhaps you - have grown tired of looking at the same old plants in that border, and you would like a change; or maybe you have been thinking of making a new herbaceous border. But perhaps neither of these wishes can be fulfilled on account of the cost of new plants. You could raise the required plants from seed, however. The seed of most perennial plants can be purchased in packets costing only a few pence each. They will include some of the finest of all hardy plants—geums, pyrethums, delphiniums, lupins, aquilegias, perennial gypsophila (paniculate), hollyhocks, and many others. Seed of these, sown outdoors now or in light soil in boxes (either outdoors or in a cold frame), will come up and will bloom next year. The seed bed makes only one demand—its surface must be fine and crumbly. If you cannot get your soil into that condition by forking, hoeing, and raking—if, for example, it is clay-like—make the sowing not on the border, but in a shallow box filled with sifted good soil mixed with plenty of sand. In that the seedlings will come up splendidly. Transplant them to the open about 6in apart in ground dug at least a foot deep. Transplant them while quite small, and firm them with your fingers. If the ground is hard on the surface or pasty, first rake into it some sand. Fresh soot or lime sprinkled on the ground will keep the slugs and snails away, and watering in really dry weather will encourage steady and constant growth. These transplanted seedlings should be in full sun. It is amazing the growth they make in deeply dug and manured ground. LILIUM SPECIOSUM. Lilium lancifolium, or speciosum, as It is generally known, comes under the heading of easily grown liliums. They will grow well in any garden soil providing that the drainage is good; that is to say, tha£ no moisture must be allowed to lie about the roots for a sufficient period for it to become stagnant. As a general rule, any of these plants thrive best in positions where they are partially shaded from the full heat of the mid-day sun, and also sheltered from the wind in the spring. If the soil is of a clayey nature the addition of some sand and leaf mould is advisable to lighten it. Thoroughly break up the clay beneath the surface soil, and mix some of the sand and leaf mould with it, doing the same with the surface earth when replacing it. Plant the bulbs as soon as the soil is in a suitable condition to work. LAVENDER. The propagation of this shrub should now receive attention, as young plants will probably be required to fill up gaps <in existing beds or rows of lavender, or to plant new ones. Lavender is in great demand, yet it is not seen so often as one would thifik. Every garden should have a few plants of lavender, if only to supply the material for making a few sachets of dried lavender flowers to put amongst clothes in cupboards or boxes. Lavender requires a hot, rather dry position; one where the soil is inclined to be stony and rather poor suits it well. If given a damp position or too rich soil it goes off with disease. The cuttings can be made from pieces pulled off, and the rough ends trimmed with a knife. Almost any size piece will grow, and they should be put in firmly where the plants are to grow. There are several kinds of lavender, but the best for perfume is the Old English variety. EARLY SPRING FLOWERS. Anemones, ranunculi, freesias, daffodils are looking exceptionally healthy, for the cold spell, although it has checked growth, has apparently suited the plants, and has caused a hardening of the tissues of the leaves, with the result that, although plants are smaller in stature, they are more sturdy and firm. The chief requirement at the present is to have soil stirred around the plants so as to keep down -weeds and insects. Hand weeding is absolutely essential with the anemone, for the foliage comes through the soil and becomes so mixed up with . any weeds that are growing that hand weeding is the only possible' means of cleaning an anemono bed, and even then it is difficult to do it without damaging some of the leaves. The method of hand Weeding amongst the plants, and then turning over with the spade the soil between* the rows, and by that means burying the weeds, is recommended. This is also the method adopted between rows of bulbs, primroses, etc.