VEGETABLE GARDEN

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21244, 14 January 1939, Page 13

VEGETABLE GARDEN

RHUBARB The cultivated varieties of rhubarb are generally referred to- as Rheum hybridum, a native of Mongolia. These varieties show considerable variation from seed. It is very probable that the North American species Rheum undulatum has also been used in the production of the garden rhubarb. Rhubarb is one of the most accommodating of our garden crops, and it will grow in almost any kind of position and any kind of soil, but, like other garden plants, it responds to good treatment, and to get long, stout, tender leaf stalks of good flavour a rich, well-drained loam in an open sunny position is necessary. Rhubarb is not a fruit, and still it Is not cooked or used as a vegetable, and it has been described as a vegetable, treated by the cook as a fruit. Being such a vigorous grower, deep cultivation is necessary, and trenching three feet deep is not too much. It is also a greedy plant, and liberal manuring with farmyard manure or compost heap is necessary. This should be incorporated with the soil during the process of trenching and a good surface of mulch of manure or lawn mowings should be provided. Though It is a plant requiring an abundance of moisture during the growing season, it should also be. well drained, for it does not like stagnant water at its roots, especially when at rest. Rhubarb can be grown from seed fairly easily, but as the special varieties do not come true to character, ind there is a very decided difference In both colour, flavour, and productiveness in the various varieties, to get • them true they have to be increased by division. The roots can ce lifted now, and the crowns separated by fork or spade, the strongest celng reserved for replanting. Only single crowns, not groups of small ones, should be replanted. The others, However, which are not required for replanting, need not be lost. They can be exposed to the weather for some time and then packed fairly close together in deep boxes, a light sandy soil being used. They can then be placed under the bench in the greenhouse or in some other warm place, then covered with boxes and sacks to <eep out the light; and soon there will oe supplies of red stalks suitable for use. Crowns which have been forced ire of no further use, and should be thrown away. The crowns are planted at four feet ipart each way if space is available; put if the garden is small, three feet ipart each way will do. Plant with the crowns just a few Inches below he surface, and mark the position of tach with a stick until growth commences. | As it is not advisable to pull any eaves from the newly-planted plot he first year, it is desirable to replant aalf of the plot, say, every three years, pr to replant a fifth every year; but if well treated and liberally manured plants will continue to give good crops pf stalks for. years. A liberal mulch pf farmyard manure in the winter is very suitable, but, falling this, a mixture can be made up of 21b of superphosphate, 21b of sulphate of potash, Lib of sulphate of ammonia, and 4oz pf sulphate of iron, this being applied to the surface and lightly forked in In spring as soon as growth commences. Four ounces can be given to each plant. As rhubarb is most in demand in he spring and early summer before he bush fruits, such as green gooseperries, are available, the stalks can be picked regularly at first, but a numper of leaves should be left to mature in the late summer and autumn to puild up the crowns for the following rear. Rhubarb can be forced to provide stalks in winter and early spring lither by lifting the roots and after exposing them to the weather for some lime or by placing a barrel or box over he plants and building fresh stable nanure and leaves which will ferment ind provide heat all around and over hem. Forcing is not really necessary, 'or there is a variety, Topp’s Improved Winter, which will produce good stalks hrough the winter and early spring vilhout forcing. VEGETABES FOR AUTUMN AND WINTER The large garden, well-manned and equipped, generally makes admirable jse of its resources in order to keep up lupplies of vegetables throughout lutumn and winter; but of how many imajl gardens can the same be said? They only too often provide plenty vheh abundance is everywhere and ittld when the days of scarcity come, fet lit is in the “dead” season of the rear when a large supply of fresh 'egetMbles is most important, not only n helping to make the garden pfofitible. but in keeping the household well, ind what a wealth of variety there is o choose from. Of the Brassica tribe here are the many Kales—purple and ;reen and Cornish, all of which, if iroperly cooked, are admirable. Of ;rosser quality are the Savoy and 3russels Sprout, the Sprouting Brocofr. nd where caterpillars have spared hflr hearts, the early Cauliflowers. 3ut most gardens manage the Brassica >aH of growing well enough. It is in itlter 1 directions that they so often fall. !ife&esslonal sowing until mld-July, md th some cases later still, will keep ;oftig a planting of lettuce, than which ia vegetable is better when cooked. Vinter spinach is desirable and the picture knows young carrots are far letter than old ones. Fortunately, hte latter vegetable, unlike so many, is hprdughly gregarious in its habits, lawn thickly, it will provide successive hinnings for many months, and what s stranger, when sown thus the roots emaining small, do not get either voody or of the objectionably strong labour that grown-up carrots have, himlps may be grown in the same nay. and will go on giving young roots irtych are good enough for anybody j eat. Not so swedes and beet. They esent, .crowding, remain stunted and ecome hard. They, like the onion,

STAKING Plants growing in their natural environment usually manage, by various means, to maintain themselves in an upright position. Some climb among or scramble over trees or shrubs; others entwine themselves together or with neighbouring plants and so gain their | objective, but in general, plants of our native flora grow closely together and thereby shelter and support each other. Under cultivation, the tendency is for stems to be longer and more sappy, due, to a large extent, to the methods of cultivation and to the richer fare available. Added to this is the fact that by organised planting the plants are a considerable distance apart and so gain little or no proctetcion from winds, therefore artificial supports become necessary. The method of supplying this support must, of course, vary with the type of plant, and also the purpose for which it is grown. The purely utilitarian rows of pea sticks or bean rods are quite in keeping with the accepted order in the kitchen garden, even if the plants when staked are but a few inches in height; but in the ornamental garden, every effort must be made to place the supports as unobtrusively as is possible. Again, flowers grown mainly for cutting must be produced with straight stems at all costs. The herbaceous border can easily have its effect spoiled by unwise staking. Here, one expects, from June onwards a display of flowers neatly, but not too obviously supported. The method of placing one strong stake to each plant and looping the stems more or less tightly to it, will result in leafless stems, caused by lack of light and air. It will also ruin the natural appearance, not only of each plant, but of the whole border. A method that still has many adherents is to place three stakes to each plan or clump and to run string from stake to stake around it, retaining one L shoot per stake to be tied to the stake and so partially hide it. Plants like delphiniums usually require a stake for each flowering shoot. The stick ought to be strong without being unduly thick; bamboo or hazel sticks are best for this purpose, and they may be removed when the stems are cut back after flowering. Some gardeners have tried out a method of support which consists of placing a ring of wire-netting around each plant before it is mujh more than a foot in height. This is secured to a strong stake at the rear of each plant. As the plant grows, shoots push through the wire meshes, completely hiding the netting and producing a shapely plant. The idea is particularly effective with anthemis and plants of similar habit. Where suitable material is ttvailable, it is now the accepted practice with most gardeners to use brushwood to support nearly all plants in the herbaceous border. Birch and hazel provide the most suitable branches, but the choice must often be confined to local or home-grown material. Elm suckers and lime prunings are quite suitable, and I have used privet branches with good effect. The height and strength of the branches must, of course, depend on the height and weight of the growth to be supported. Two or three branches, placed in position early, will allow the stems to grow through them and to a great extent, hide them. The neat clipping of useless and straggling twigs will do much to improve the appearance of the staked border during the earch part of the season; and such trimmings are in themselves useful for placing among dwarf annuals in the front of the border, giving them just the light support necessary to prevent them from being flattened by heavy rains.

must be thinned betimes. The celery rows must be long and the plants well earthed-up if the crop is to suffice both as a cooked vegetable and as a salad. If a good layer of leaf-mould is put at the bottom of the trench at planting time and a complete fertiliser applied at the final earthing-up, the leafstems will be succulent, provided leafspot is kept down by dusting with soot and sulphur or by spraying with limesulphur, or Bordeaux mixture. Where the disease is serious, recourse should be had to celeraic as an alternative. The sturdier, glossier, deeper green leaves of this “turnip-rooted celery” appear to resist the disease better than celery itself. But to get good and tender roots, the plants must have generous treatment both with respect to nitrogenous fertilisers and water. Of things more often neglected, it may be asked, how many gardens supply of thinnings of that most delicious vegetable, salsify? Yet the young roots have the most delicate and delicious flavour, far more so than the old. But the old can be good, too, if the cook will remember to scrape the roots under water to stop the bleeding while removing the coarse skin. So also the leaves of chicory, if deprived of some of their bitterness by proper cooking, are among the best and most wholesome of vegetables, although, of course, the main sowing of Witloof chicory will be forced successively to give supplies of the blanched stems, throughout the winter. And so also with the cardoon, so easy to grow if raised from seeds and given plenty of water, for, like its near ally, the Globe Artichoke, the cardoon is a thirsty plant and a gross feeder to boot. And in the same category comes seakale, again the most accommodating of plants, propagated from seeds or by root cuttings and giving a plentiful supply of winter food of the very best kind. To this list of autumn and winter vegetables must be added, thougli perfunctorily, the Jerusalem Artichoke, for those that like it, although its extraordinary merit of growing anywhere and in the poorest of soils must be by no means forgotten. Supplementing these supplies for leeks and onions, carrots and beets, that have been stored, there should be no reason why autumn and winter should not be as well supplied with vegetables as the summer itself. That is easy, nevertheless it must be confessed to bridge the gap between the end of winter supplies and the beginning of the new vegetable year is a far more difficult problem

SPECIMEN ONIONS Solid specimen onions can only be grown by paying careful attention to many details, and over a long period. Practically one year’s hard work is required, for, during the autumn of the previous year, deep trenching and manuring are essential to put the ground in fit condition for so exacting a crop. The seed is sown in boxes towards the beginning of the year, and the seedlings picked out as soon as they are large enough to be handled. Plant out about the first or second week in October. Plants so treated are now growing freely in the beds, and their roots have already penetrated to a good depth. By the end of February they must be induced to penetrate at least 20 inches. To this end, the cultivator must make good use of the Dutch hoe twice each week, and so maintain a surface dust mulch about one inch in depth. Encourage the roots to permeate the soil in every direction, except towards the surface, until the end of January. The plants must never on any account be allowed to suffer from drought. A surface mulclj of rotted manure, applied early in January, will greatly reduce the labour in watering by conserving the moisture in the soil. The best time to apply this surface mulch is directly after a good rain or a thorough soaking with the watering can. If well-rotted manure cannot be obtained, lawn mowings make a satisfactory substitute. Before laying on the mulch, bonemeal or steamed boneflour should be dusted evenly over the rows at the rate of two ourices to the square yard. The manure should, of course, be kept just clear of the bulbs. In addition to other forms of feeding it has been found highly beneficial to pour in liquid manures through holes made between the rows 18 inches apart nine inches deep, with. an iron rod or pointed stick. Pigeon, fowl, sheep horse, and cow manures can all be diluted in tubs to the required strehgth. Use weak and regularly. The bending over of the tops should be carefully done and, above all, it must not be attempted too early in the season. If it is prematurely done the youngest leaves--inslde the stem—will be broken and the outer ones cracked across, with the result that new and strong inside growth will begin, and, the “necks” swell instead of becoming smaller. Bend all tops in one direction —namely, away from the sun.