GARDEN NOTES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16797, 22 July 1920, Page 8

GARDEN NOTES.

THE VEGETABLE PATCH. As it is advisable for all deep digging to ba done soino 'weeks botora seed sowing, every opportunity should bo taken to pusli on with it. Those who v/cro fortunate enough to got this work, done ag the ground became vacant in the autumn, and sowed a crop of oats then, have now only to bum in the green crop and leave the surface rough in the meantime. Frost and weather will so act on the rough surface that clods will bo broken and the soil reduced to tho condition that is necessary to plant growth. In preparing tho vegetable garden the soil must be deeply dug. Shallow digging only courts failure of tho crops. Plants whose roots can penetrate deeply dug soil have a much bettor chance than those that are obliged to curtail tbeir growth in a shallow soil. Two or three days of hot weather dry up tho surface roots in the .shallow soil, but the roots of those plants that have gone deeply down into well-dug soil have a cool home, and also have tho great advantage of additional soil from which to obtain food.* Trie result is that they arc strong-growing, healthy plants, able to resist'drought and disease. Decayed vegetation or animal manure must non' now bo added to plots that are intended for root! crops. Manure may be buried in plots to be used for peas., beans or greens. The ground that is heavily manured for greens or peas this year will do next- season for root crops .when artificial .manures may be resorted to. Trie plots used for roots this season may be iieavily manured -for greens next season. In this way humus is supplied to tli,c whole garden regularly. , Seed potatoes for the early crop should be obtained as soon as possible and placed in boxes or on tho floor sprout end up in the light to sprout. Until strong green sprouts have formed it- is no advantage to put them in the ground. As soon as they are ready they should bo planted and given a dressing or bone dust or superphosphate, with which blood manure can be mixed. Of tho early sorts, Robin Adair seems most popular in this district. Broad beans, turnips, early carrot and onions can be put jn now. Pens can also be sown, but slugs and birds arc active. Later, when growth is more rapid, the pens have a bettor chance. Two kinds of peas should be sown, a dwarf and a taller kind, Tire dwjrf variety will come first into use, the taller variety a week or a fortnight later, according to the variety. The next sowing should he made as soop as those first sown break through tie ground. Where a constant succession haS to be provided this rule for sowing should bo followed throughout tho season. Naturally, the first sowing is usually a little longer coming through than latgr sowings, tho ground being cold at this season. Later, tho plants arc well through tho ground in fourtoqji days, so that there should be two sow,ings each month. The large typos of onions should ho planted 'as soon aspossible. 'Flic largest bulbs are obtained oy sowing in autumn jindstransplanting in spring. Large, bulbs can bo got by sowing in spring, but they do not usually finish well, they require a longer season of growth. If -onions, weighing three pounds .each, are wanted, they should be planted twelve inches apart. The soil for onions; whethef it be for seeding or transnlanting, should b.o made very firm. The plot' should pre-ferably-have been dug over some time ago, giving it time to settle down, and also to get the benefit of aeration, which, as it is termed, sweetens it. When it is brought_ into use it .will probably require pointing over; this should be ; as shallow as can be, just deep enough to cover weeds. At this stage fertilisers should he applied, before pointing over, so that the fertilisers are covered, but not deeply.