Gardening Notes

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 204, 31 August 1935, Page 14

Gardening Notes

(BY

ALKANET).

WORK FOR THE WEEK THE FLOWER GARDEN. With improved weather conditions the work of planting can be continued Beds of Anemones and Ranunculi should have the surface stirred. Hand weeding is necesary. The weeds take roof if left on the surface. Cuttings of Perpetual Carnations can be taken. Any early rooted cuttings should be potted or planted out. Rose planting is still in order, but do not delay any longer than necessary. Rose beds should be manured and dug. and the plants sprayed and pruned. Chrysanthemum cuttings can be taken off. A sandy soil, moisture, and a little shade are required. Pansies and Violas can be planted. A light soil with plenty of humus is required. Sowings of annuals can be made now. Almost any of the hardy annuals can be sown. Evergreen shrubs and trees can be planted. These include Rhododendrons and Ericas. finish the cleaning up and forking over the soil between shrubs. THE GREENHOUSE. Watch for insec. 1 - pasts. A fumigating every ten days or so is a good preventative of an attack. Avoid a cold draught, but give as much ventilation as plants will stand. A moist, buoyant atmosphere should be maintained, but do not have a saturated one, as this causes a lot of condensed moisture to fall at night. Sow according to requirements, but not more than can be handled as soon as ready for transplanting. THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. Success)onal sowings of Peas should be made. If ground is wet low on surface and draw soil over seed. Potato planting can be done *aow. The sets should be stood in boxes to sprout before planting. Remains of winter crops should be cleaned off and ground prepared for ano*her crop. Continue to cultivate the ground. An ftrtra forking or digging will benefit the next crop. Cabbage and Cauliflowers can be planted to suit requirements. New Asparagus beds should be prepared at once. Planting can be done nex*; month. Established Asparagus beds should be topdressed with manure, seaweed o- rich compost. A hotbed for Kumaras, Marrows, Cucumbers, Tomatoes, is very useful just now. Add plenty of old leaves to the ipanure for a hatbed. They give a more steady heat, which lasts much longer. L’ft and replant the herb bed. Make sowings of any of the annual softs. Sow Parsnips, Carrots, Beet, Lettuce, Radish. THE FRUIT GARDEN. Manure and prune Citrus trees. Often a thinning out of the centre improves the tree. Spray Peach and other stone fruits with Bordeaux Already the buds are beginning to move Any farther planting of fruit trees, including Citrus fruits, should be done now. If a fruit tree is on?y a home for pests, cut it out.

GROW UNCOMMON VEGETABLES MOVELTISS FOB THE GARDEN Those who have a garden and grow most, if not all, their vegetables, like to have someth, ig out of the common occasionally. Of course, some of these, “uncommon'’ vegetables are not everybody’s choice, probably that is the reason of their being uncommon. However, here are a few sorts that arc worth trying. The cost of seed is not great, and even if they are not equal to the cabbage at least it is interesting to grow them. Aubergines, or egg plants, are both ortiamental and useful. Their quaint little fruits are, ccording to variety, either egg-shaped or resembling snial marrows, and they can be obtained in two colours, white and purple. 8 iced and fried in butter, they are absolutely delicious: or they may be stuffed with various mixtures and then cooked. Aubergines are »best grown entirely under glass, but grown on a warm soil in a sheltered position they will do well. Their fruits will be ready for picking from early February onwards. Capsicums, or peppers, are also interesting, and need similar treatment to tomatoes. Browu butch boans, kaffir beans, Japanese beans and marbled prague beans may a l be new to you, but they make excellent eating. Grow them like the ordinary dwarf or kidney bean, but do not harvest the pods. Let them go ahead until the beans inside size op. then harvest, shell out and cook in the usual way. whilst still quite fresh. Although looking rather like celery, ind being grown in a similar fashion, Jardoons have a flavour all their own. The blanched leaves may be eaten in salads and are also very useful the making of soups and stews. Celeriac, or the turnip rooted celery, as it is sometimes called, is grown for the sake of its celery favoured Dulb or tuber, no blanching being accessary. It has to be cooked before jnting, either hot or co d. with salads .ike beet. Chinese artichokes are a welcome change from the more tomnan Jerusalem variety. In fact, they have a number of good points to recommend them; they do not spread like Jerusalem artichokes, they grow hardly as tall as a potato plant, they giv a good yield, their tubers may be left in the ground until required or dug and clamped, and may be eaten cooked or raw. And their flavourwell many people say they are the nicest vegetable grown. Corn salad, or lambs lettuce, is a useful little plant for adding variry t> the salad bowl. You ear the leaves and young growths. Couve tronchuda. or Portugal cabbage, makes a delicious dish when cooked like seakale, the leaves having large, white mid ribs. The old-fashioned vegetable good King Henry, with its romantic name, is not grown nearly so much a.’ it deserves to be. In the early part of the year it is quite a respectable substitute for Mpinach, while the shoots are frequently used instead of asparagus. It has the added advantage of being a perennial which wTI last for many years. Kohl Rabi, midway between a cabbage and a turnip, to look at, is chiefly grown f* r its bulbous —]t is especially valuable in dry reasons when turnips are usually Lot and fibrous. Grow in the same way aturnips. Potato onions are useful if you wish to harvest ripe onions at the beginning of December. The rather odd looking bulbs should be planted in July. The smaller bulbs will develop into single large ones, while those that are large at planting will split up into little ones. Salsify should be much better known on account of its rich and distinctive flavour. It is grown for its roots, and requires the same treatment as carrots. There is nothing nicer than small pieces of boiled salsify rolled in batter and fried. Ur it may be boiled and served

with white sauce, like carrots, or. after boiling, dipped into a beaten egg and browned in the oven. Scorzonera is another root vegetable somewhat re sembling salsify, but a little hardier It is also grown in the same way as carrots. Seakale beet is a dual purpose vegei table; the silvery white stalks and mid ! ribs' can be served as seakale, while the remainder of the foliage may be used instead of spinach. Spinach beet is similar to the above, but particularly useful in that it continues to produce a constant supply of spinach throughout the autumn and winter when the ordinary kind is exhausted, fresh leaves appearing soon after one lot is cut. New Zealand spinach is a native, and is the best hot weather vegetable grown. Two or three plants will keep a family going, each plant covering a square yard or more, and you can can cut the young shoots ns fast as they grow. Soak the seeds before sowing, and sow in November The pods of sugar peas are cooked and e.-iten entire like dwarf beans. picked when young and tender, they have a very pleasing sweet flavour. Grow them in the same wav as ordinary peas. ■ URGENT ORCHARD TASKS PLANTING AND SPRAYING Wet weather has delayed the planting of fruit trees in many cases; with improved conditions the work should bo completed as soon as possible. The j lator the planting is left the great jr the check to the young tree. ; As a general rule, late spring plantI ing is not considered to be q’it’e as good planting in the autumn. As many were unable to get their planting done at that time it will be better tj complete it at once. There arc ex'options however, to any rule, and with evergreen fruit trees such as citrus, the present is quite a good time to plant and is even better than during ‘he wet, cold winter months. The ground will be warming up each week a.> the son becomes stronger, and ’he roots wib soon take hold of the new sod. The rules for planting 'noui.J be fauiv well known, but it. may be as well to mention again that young trees do not appreciate manures buried in the holes at the time of planting. Artificial manures used in this way may be very harmful. Cases are frequently brought to notice of young trees that have died, apparently as the result of placing fertilisers round the roots at planting. For the first year manure? am best applied as a mulch and laid on, when the weather becomes warm. If a mulch i s to be applied to established trees, remember that the roots come out beyond the spread of Ihe branches, and that it is not much use putting a small ring of manure around the stem. From now on the fruit-grower wJI need to have the sprayer .•out inu-il I v in use. Spraying should be looked upon as routine work, ami not some thing to be used as a last resource. It is far better to prevent a trouble than to check it after a great deal of damage has been done. Most of the fungoid diseases that attack fruit trees cannot De *killed. They are controlled by a protective coating of fungicide, which is spay *d on before the disease is expect 1 to ap pear. On the other hand, tree- suffering from the attacks of inx* :£ pests should be sprayed as soon as these are seen. Insect pests of the sucking type, such as aphides (greenfly) can be controlled by means of nicotine insecticides or contact sprays in which in most cases it is necessary to wet the insect in order to effect a kill. Leaf-eating pests such a c caterpillars controlled by the use of a poison spray, of which the one in most general use is arsenate of lead—which

should not bp allowed to touch other crops intended for immediate use—or by insecticides containing the nonpoisonous derris. The majority of sprays as purchased from the vendors require mixing with water only, ami in the absence of personal experience as tn the strength to apply, the maker’s directions should be followed. Observation of the results will give valuable data as to whether it. is advisable to use a stronger err weaker strength. Do not expect one type of spfay to cure all the ills to which fruit trees are subject. The, all-in-one spray has not yet been invented. GIANT DAISIES FROM SEED The old-fashioned double daisies have a cheerful effect in the garden during the spring and early summer months, while a great deal of sentiment clusters round them. The largeflowered strain is not nearly so well known as it ought to be, for the flowers are effective. In mild winters thev commence blooming in autumn and keep up a display as the weather gets warm in spring. The blooms are of large size. The plants themselves aiu altogether’ more vigorous than the older forms. Several varieties are. obtainable, either separate or in mixlures. so that the desired effect may be produced the first year from seed, or, rather, the first time they bloom. The leading colours are dark red. rose ami white. If planted i:i any prominent position where summer-flowering subjects must be grown, transplant them »o a cool or half-shady position at. the ; end of October or beginning of November, where thev will not be in the way. This may be in the shade of a fruit tree or amongst bushes where the necessary amount of space is available. Owing to the small size of the seedlings at first, the best plan to sow the seed in boxes. They are then not likely to be hoed up and are loss liable to be ’mole.'led by slugs.