THE HOME GARDEN

Waipa Post, Volume 48, Issue 3471, 26 May 1934, Page 3

THE HOME GARDEN

WORK FOR THE .WEEK. THE FLOWER GARDEN. ( Sow, aubretia, aquilegias, candytuft, Califomian poppy, hollyhock, perennial lupins, wallflowers. Plant out seedlings of antirrhinums, cinerarias, geums, Iceland poppies, polyanthus. Lift and divide all herbaceous'perennials. Plant up any spring-flowering bulbs which are still on hand. As most of these have now begun to sprout, care must be exercised in planting. If soil is still inclined to be sticky, line the drills on holes with sand. Flowering shrubs may now be planted, provided conditions are right. The site should be prepared in advance. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Sow broad beans, early carrots, onions, parsnips, spinach, silver beet, garden swedes, and turnips. Plant out seedlings of broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, _andjSavojr. Dig - ‘bvef"alf"uhdccupied plots' and ' incorporate such humus-giving materials 'as vegetable refuse, leaves ' 'lawn clippings, and straw. Apply lime to all soils that havenot had a dressing for some time. PRUNING PLUM TREES. - HOW TO DO IT. ‘lt is important to bear in mind, whep you come to pru : ne your plum trees, that they will not tolerate hard pruning. Where plums are concerned, hard pruning is almost as bad as no pruning at all. ' No obviously badly placed, crowded or. diseased wood must be left on the -.trees. But beyond that only the . 'lightest pruning is needed. Do no : more branch cutting that is absolutely necessary. It is safer to amputate big branches in spring or summer, rather than during mid-winter. : If odd branches must come out now, i owing to serious overcrowding or disease, be sure to seal over the saw cut—and all other large pruning cuts ; \—with antiseptic paint-.

"Starting on. any plum tree, the first thing to do is to cut any dead and ■diseased wood there is.

Next ply the pruning knife among : the crowded, spindly shoots choking the middle of the tree and the fruiting these to within three or four buds of their base.

There is no need to cut back all the side the branciibs, as you would on an apple tree. Nor is ther.a need to cut back' the-leader, shoots hard. Very long. !gad,er shoots need just a light tapping, and the stocky twiggy side shoots can-be left alone.

Of course, with a young tree’you will. n;eed to prune a little harder, for there is the .making and. shaping to see to. Here all but the shortest side, shoots can be shortened to within two or three buds of their base and the leaders have to be shortened by nearly half their length. TONIC FOR FERNS. Guana water is a splendid tonic for maidenhair ferns in winter. It helps the plants to maintain their vitality during a very trying period when they are liable to be exposed to draughts and other harmful influences. The guano water will also prevent the fronds of the ferns from turning brawn, and dying off. Ho not give strong guano water, and do' not treat the plants very often. A strong solution of it diluted with twelve to fifteen times its bulk of watec is about right.

Give a small quantity of the dilute guano water to the soil in which the ferns are growing about once a fortnight- Be sure you do not allow the guano water to touch the fronds themselves and only just' moisten the Soil.

(By M.H.W.)

TO CREATE HUMUS. VALUABLE AIDS. The special value of farmlyard manure is that it. is a convenient soui’ce of humus. And humus (really decaying organic material) is an essential ingredient of all fertile soils. Now while there is not quite so much need for stable manure in flower beds and borders (it must be admitted that the roses love it), the grower of flowers cannot conveniently adopt the practice of green manuring, which is one of the best ways of eking out a shortage of farmyard manure that is open to the grower of vegetables. He cannot conveniently grow lupins, oats or mustard specially for digging in. But he may dig in green annual weeds such, as chickweed or groundsel, and all the grasses save couch, for they will make useful humus. Any beds not filled with spring bloomers may be treated thus now and you may safely turn in the remains of annual weeds when you are forking over the herbaceous border. There are other substitutes ' that may be exploited. Here are some of the best of them. You simply cannot go wrong with leafmould, no matter what the soil or what the plant. For some things, such as all the spring-flowering bulbs and Lily-of-thc-Valley, it is even better than the best stable manure.

We hope therefore, you have a good stock of leaves which, after a few turnings during the winter, will ,be ready for digging in in spring. Leaf-mould from, the heap made in the previous year is excellent stuff for working into your herbaceous border or the new beds you arc makingnow. There’s not much nutriment in lawn mowings, but they will give ‘humps. To make them richer mix with bone dust. SHRUBS FROM CUTTINGS. PROPAGATE THEM NOW. A considerable number of our most showy and popular leaf-losing shrubs can be increased by cuttings inserted now on a border out of doors. Unlike most evergreen shrubs which require glass protection to keep the leaves from, withering until cuttings have rooted, leaf-losing shrub cuttings can be inserted in almost any odd corner in the garden. Prepare a bgd of sandy soil by mixing builder’s grit, or sand, freely ' with' the garden mould. Those who propagate plants extensively by cuttings are fully aware of the value of a porous, grittjjf soil for the purpose, and how much quicker and better the cuttings root in this than in heavy, close and wet ground. The best growth,' or wood, of the shrubs to make cuttings is the strong, ripened, new shoots made during the past spring and summer. This new growth is preferable, but rather than have short cuttings use branches consisting of two season’s growths. The I'-st length for mow. outdoor shrub cuttings is from 12 to 18 inches, preferably with rx thin heel, or base, of old wood. Failing this, have a node at the base of each cutting (a node is the point of attachment of leaves to the branches), removing the leaves when preparing the cuttings.

As it is usual and desirable vo allow the cuttings to remain where inserted for a full year so that they are well rooted, a fair amount of space should be given between each cutting when inserted. A little discretion may be used between large and small cuttings, but a good average spacing of cuttings of subjects like Forsythia and flowering currant is 12 inches between the rows of cuttings, and 6 inches between each cutting.

So that the cuttings may be insert-

cd at an even depth of 5 or G inches, make a narrow trench of soil to this depth, rather than dibble in the cuttings individually with a pointed stick. The trench method also allows the operator to sec that the base of each cutting rests in a little gritty sand. Fill in the trench with soil when the cuttings are in position and tread moderately firm.

The following flowering shrubs for small gardens are readily grown from cuttings: Mock Oranges, or Philadelphus, the Flowering Currants, Ribes, Forsythias, Diervilla or Weigela, Tamarix pentadnra, Cotoneasters Simonsii, frigida and horizentalis, Spiraeas and Deutzia. BULBOUS IRISES. FOR CUTTING PURPOSES. The brightly-coloured Spanish, English and Dutch irises are excellent for massing in beds or borders, or in the front of bays in the shrubbery. Or you may, if you want flowers for cutting-, plant in reserve beds for that purpose. Anyway, in these bulbous irises you will get something that in appearance is right out of the beaten track of spring flowering bulbs. These bulbous irises are not exacting in thfeir requirerrtehts. ■ They will ..grow in almost any soil, providing that it is deeply dug and ffleely enriched with leaf mould or rotted hotbed stuff beforehand. But they must have sun, and so a sheltered, sunny position should be given them. You can plant now bulbs Sin. deep and flin. apart each way, and once they arc planted you can let them stay there for three or four years. By the end of that time they will have made so many side or off-set bulbs that they will be getting crowded and lifting, separating and replanting are desirable. FRUIT BUDS. HOW TO DISTINGUISH THEM. It is important to understand the type of buds on fruit trees before serious pruning is undertaken. If you cannot distinguish between fruit buds and wood buds you may seriously damage a tree by injudicious pruning;. Generally speaking, the wood buds, from which new woody twigs are produced, are thin and conical in shape. In apples and pears they are small and pointed. The fruit buds are blunter, more plump, and of larger size. In cherries and plums, however, both kinds of buds are similar in appearance in winter, and it is only in spring, when they begin to develop, that the stouter, blunter, and more globular character of the fruit buds ■show themselves.

Fruit buds are formed from wood buds, and to the uninitiated some difficulty lies in distinguishing the buds in the intermediate stage. This type of bud, though pointed like the ordinary wood bud of the current year’s growth, is rather plump, and the fact that it contains an unchanged growing point is revealed in spring, when it fails to produce flowers. For the time being- it is a dormant bud, in the intermediate stage toward a flower bud, and under suitable conditions becomes one.

Apple and pear trees produce fruit buds upon spurs and rarely upon long shoots which are only one season old. A few varieties of apple, however, such as Ccx’s Orange Pippin, Robston Pippin, and Irish Peach, smetimes produce fruit buds freely on the long shoots of last season. It is important to remember this when pruning these varieties. The fruit spurs, upon which fruit buds are borne most frequently, are readily recognised by the large number of ring-like scars which mark the place where the bud scales have fallen off last year. The'wood bud which has changed into a fruit bud pn the flowering axis usually grows out in an obtuse angle, and the old spurs have the zig-zagged appearance.

DELAYED PLANTING

HOW TO PROTECT PLANTS.

Even now there are many days when the weather is just right for planting. There is a slight mildness about the atmosphere; the cold wind which might nip the roots has dropped; the sky is overcast, or the sun is not so powerful—as it still may be at mid-day—as to dry up the roots. Unfortunately, the weather may be right, but the soil wrong. Planting cannot, and should not, be carried out when the soil is hard or frostbound, when it is so sticky, that it clings to spade and boots, and gets pasted up on the slightest pressure; and when it is quite dust dry. The soil is ideal when it is midway between the two last states.

But. of course, numbers of readers will have their new shrubs and trees and plants delivered when planting circumstances arc all unfavourable. The chief point then is to know what to do with the plants until conditions improve.

If is only a matter of a few hours, or a couple of days at the most, put the p’ants in a frost-proof shed, still in their packing, and cover them with a few handfuls of straw or some old sacks.

Don’t on any account follow this plan, though, if there it any likelihood

of the waiting period developing into a week or more, for fermentation may set up in the bound-up roots. If plants or shrubs arrive in pots, the same course can be adopted. The heeling-in method is the only wise one to adopt when planting is delayed for any length of time. What you do is to take out a trench in which the plants can be stood closely, side by side, and their roots freed of the nurseryman’s packing, a matter of 3 or din. below the surface. The soil should not be too wet, nor frost-bound.

Taking no special pains, throw the soil in roughly around the roots. Make sure though, that all roots are quite covered from the air. Finally, tread the surface very firmly. If you leave the soil loose, the heeled-in subjects are just as likely to get frost-bitten as if exposed, while the soil will also dry out too quickly. Plants and shrubs in pots can he heeled-in. by simply burying the pots jUot to hide their rims in the ground.