Gardening Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXVI, Issue 18757, 14 April 1923, Page 7

Gardening Notes

By

“HUMUS”

AUTUMN HORTICULTURAL SHOW.! The schedule for the Wanganui Horticultural Society’s Autumn Show is now in circulation If you have not already secured one, get a copy from the hon. sec. <Mr. Verry; and see you cannot help to swell the entries.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. KITCHEN GARDEN J Seeds to ScW^-Cabbage, carrot, let-! tuce, onion, spinach, turnip. What to Plant—Cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce THE FLOWER GARDEN. Remove all spent plants such as asters, etc. Prepare beds for ten week and beauty stocks. Plant any empty beds with anemones and ranunculi. Lift and divide rhizomateous irises. Finish planting daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths. Seedsmen have still a good stock of for immediate planting. Lift and re-plant belladonna lilies immediately after flowering. When buying bulbs add a white flowered belladonna. Prepaj-e new rose beds. Send in your order for rose trees. Lift and divide herbaceous plants as they go out of flower Prune late flowering shrubs. Mulch rhododendrons and azaleas. Sow early and summer flowering sweet peas. Plant out any sweet oeas that are ready. Plant hardy annuals, Canterbury bells, Sweet Williams, etc. Thin and disbud Dahlias and clirvsanthemums. Continue to spray with arsenate of lead if caterpillars appear. Mower Garden Cinerarias.— During the past few years cinerarias have been steadily using in favour as a garden plant At the present time there are few more popular’ plants. Apart from their natural beauty, it is the time they flower that has caused them to be so largely planted. The plants are easily raised from seeds, but if a start is made now, they will not fill their proper place as winter and early spring flowering plants., and so would not be very useful, as there would be many other plants in flower at the same time. The best thing to do is to purchase a few plants, and so gain ten or twelve weeks. r I he above indicates that the pl tats should be procured at once, as the weather :s now suitable for planting Select a position that is not too windy, and where the soil is of a free character. The plants will not stand more than two or three degrees of frost, but in places where fairly sharp frosts occur they will succeed under the partial shade of trees, hedges, ur the shady side of buildings. The plants seecl freely, and these will come up on their own accord. All that is needed is to keep tlie soil loose and free of weeds, ar.d there will be an abundance of plants next season.

Seed-sowing, both in the case ground and under glass, is an important part of the present routine work. Tansies sown now will be ready fur planting out early in July in time to produce the best flowers of the year. There is really no need to sow uncer glass; a sunny position in open garden is (pate as good, or better. If the soil i.s suitable, | the seeds may be sown in a drill Blade just deep enough to cover them. I hey do not like heat, and wdl come quickly in the present temp-era care of the soil. Artificial manure would not be used in the soil seeds are sown in. whether m the open air or in boxes. It is best to hav« tlie soil on the poor side. A small amount of leaf monH or veiy old manure useful, as it encourages the seedlings to make a lot of roh>s, but does not force top-growth. PROPAGATING BY CUTTINGS. The propagation from cuttings of shrubby calceolarias, mesembryantheuiums, perpetual carnations, marguerite chrysanthemums, zondland, other pelagoniums, gazanias, lithosperm um prostratum, diplopappus, agathea collestis, cuphea platycentra, and the many other varieties and species of rockery and border plants must receive attention. For this purpose specially prepared beds are the or beneath a glass frame, carefully' making and arranging the cuttings in rows in a suitable compost of light fibrous loam and leaf mould with ah admixture and topping of silver and coarse river sand. There are many other plants that are increased by divisions such as echeverias, cerastiums, saxifragas, sedums, hencheras, aloes, lobelias, alpine, dianthus •lubretias, spirdeas, campanulas, etc. These should also be split up or divided and planted in beds similar to those prepared for cuttings. NEW LAWNS. The complexion of lawns that are in course of formation should be hurried on as quickly as possible in order to allow the surface toil to sweeten and pulverise in readiness for the final forking over and raking to produce a perfectly smooth and level surface. Have it fit for manuring and sowing the grass seeds towards the end of the month or not later than the middle of May. Much depends upon the state of the weather as to the best time for sowing the seed. As a rule April is the best month. Early sowing enables the young grass to make a good start before the cold weather sets in. Sow the manure with the grass seed or at the same,,time. Rake both well in to bury the see l and prevent small birds from taking it. VEGETABLE GROWING. As the rainy season is fast approaching the best use should be made of prepent conditions for treating all vacant land required for future cropping. Land that .’s at all spent by past crops should be well manured, deeply dug, or trenched if necessary’. Trenching invariably deepens and improves garden land, particularly vegetable gardens of limited area, where cropping is done year after year without intermission. In such cases simply digging over the surface to the depth of the spade time after time, a hard pan is formed beneath the loosened soil, into which the roots seldom penetrate. It is in such land that crops quickly suffer from the effects of dry weather. As stated in previous notes any ground that has. been broken up and is not required for

autumn cropping should be sown down in oats or some other gieen crop for digging in.

OATS FOR GREEN MANURING. A good crop c.f oats not only checks the growth of weeds but prevents the surface of the soil from being beaten and battered by the heavy winter rains. The roots, too. assist to keep the soil open and render it more easily workable when again turned over for cropping. In a climate like ours where the winters are mild and there is not sufficient frosts to keep down weeds the above is the best method of dealing with any vacant land. The crop of cats, too. if dug in adds humus to the soil and provides food for future crops. SEEDLING CROPS Young seedlings such as turnips, cabbages, cauliflowers, radishes, lettuce, and others that are just appearing above ground require careful watching to prevent the birds from pulling them cut of the soil. Where there are only small Batches to protect the best preventive is to stretch black cotton ajpng the rows keeping the cotton three or four incites above the. soil, and if sown in beds a line stretched around the borders and a few cross lines over the beds will invariably keep the plants free from the birds. In sowing larger teds a good plan is to coat the seeds with redlead prior to sowing. As soon as the crops are above ground the hoe should Ixi used to loosen the soil and kill weeds that spring up rapidly at this season. CROPS FOR PRESENT PLANTING. The present is the best time for sowing turnips, carrots, parsnips, spinach, and lettuce for winter crops. In sowing, however, an effort should be made to rotate the crops as much as possible, for tf the same kind of vegetable is grown in the same place year after year the amount of manure required to make anything like a good return is vary large, while the expense thus en tailed could be very much reduced by a careful system of rotation. It should always be the aim of the cultivator to alternate as far as possible a surface rooting crop, such as cabbage, cauliflower and other colworts, or peas, beans, etc., with a root crop, such as carrots, parsnips, beets, and other deep-rooting varieties. SOWING TURNIPS AND CARROTS. In sowing turnips two or more varieties should be sown. Some varieties mature muon more quickly than others, and by careful selection a succession of useful roots can be maintained for a longer period. Any reliable seedsman will advise ; the best varieties for this purpose. In sowing carrots too, varieties vary in time of development. Short horn, for instance, mature before intermediate, while the long-rooted take longest to mature.

PREPARING GROUND FOR TREES AND SHRUBS.

The preparation of the ground and correct planting are the secrets of successful shrub growing. Many shrubs do well under the most adverse conditions and treatment, but many ot the best need a little care or they will not do. There are many tine flowering subjects which come under the term “strrubs." It includes plants of all sizes and subjects fit for any garden. In fact a garden of nothing but shrubs could be a perfect' fairy land provided care was taken In selection and planting (says an exchange). As a rule when one speaks of shrubs, the idea is given of a lot of tall green subjects which soon outgrow their positions, and which have to be eventually cut away. In certain places tall and vigorous growing kinds are necessary but in small gardens the better and smaller growing varieties are the most useful. Shrubs once planted occupy the same ground for years, and it is therefore only a fair thing to prepare the ground well by deep digging and trenching. The usual plan is to dig a shallow hole and put in the roots qnd then complain because it will not grow. Probably if you had dug the hole and left it you would find that it remained full of water for months. It will do the same ■when the shrub is in it, and the result is the roots are standing in water, conditions under which it is impossible to have success. The preparation of the soil for shrubs should be as thorough as if it was for sweet peas. They will show equally good returns and will only need planting once instead of yeaiiy. So far as manure is concerned probably the majority wall give fair returns without it, but all the same they will give better returns with it. Undoubtedly shrubs do not receive the attention they are worthy of. Those who are thinking of planting shrubs should have a look around r.nd pick those varieties suited for their purpose, and to the positions they are to occupy. In planting, sweet fine soil should be placed firmly around the roots. The depth at which to plant Is a question which often worries amateur gardeners, and in their zeal, they often make the mistake of planting too deep. Experts advise, as a rule, shallow planting. The feeding roots are then near the surface, and so have plenty of air and the sweetest soil. After the shrubs have been planted, the soil about them should be kept well cultivated. Weeds should be removed, and the soil hoed frequently. Water and mulches should be supplied as necessary, and pruning and thinning regularly attended to. On the whole, flowering shrubs give very little trouble, especially when well started, and there is such a wonderful variety now of beautifull hardy flowering shrubs that we can have a constant succession of them in bloom.