GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18820, 7 March 1931, Page 10 (Supplement)

GARDEN AND SHRUBBERY

BUSHES AND BRAMBLES FOR RESTRICTED SPACE. Lack of space prevents many amateurs growing such fruits as apples, pears, or plums, but few gardens are so small that they cannot find room for a few bushes of the smaller fruits, among which the gooseberry is most popular. This fruit is in season over a long period. Gooseberries can be picked green for tarts at an early stage of development, and they are a welcome change after a long spell of rhubarb. If amateurs grow a few gooseberries, they will invariably have better rhubarb, because there will be no necessity to pull the stalks so late in the season, and, consequently, the next year’s supplies will be much liner in quality. As a rule gooseberries are grown as bushes with a clear stem of a foot or eighteen inches, and they are planted from four to six feet apart. They may also be trained as cordons for covering wire trellises, walls, and fences, and if a few are placed on a wall with a north aspect, ripe fruits can be gathered as late as March, when they are sure to be appreciated. There are upright single, double, and triple cordons. The first are planted a foot apart, the second two feet, and the latter three feet. The gooseberry will flourish and bear fruits annually almost anywhere, but I they are best in districts where the nights are cool and where there is generally a fairly heavy rainfall. Furthermore, they enjoy a liberal rooting medium and on light sandy soils the size of the fruits will be greatly increased by an annual mulching of manure. Varieties of Gooseberries. There are red, yellow, green and white, and a large number of varieties of each colour from which to make a selections. Six good dessert varieties are: Broom Girl (yellow), Golden Gem, Ironmonger (dark red), Langley Beauty (yellow), Whitesmith, and Pitmaston Greengage. Six for general purposes would include Lancer (white), one of the largest and best gooseberries, Lancashire Lad (red), Leveller (yellow), Whinham's Industry (red), Careless (white), and London (red).

George Mellor, a 19-year-old hair dresser’s assistant, travelled from Yor to Scarborough,a distance of 42 mile; on roller skates, in 7hr sinin.