GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14601, 26 February 1921, Page 13 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES

(By Nikau.)

"Here are sweet peas, on tiptoe for a night; With wings of gentle flush o'er delicate white, And taper fingers ratchinir at all thincs, To bind them all about with tiny rings." —Keats. SEASONABLE WORK. Vegetables and Fruit.—Keep the surrace soil constantly stirred- Mulch late peas, runner beans, rhubarb, etc. Train tomatoes and spray with Bordeaux (4-4-40) or Jib of powder to 10 gallons of water, or lime-sulphur (1 part of the fluid to 50 or even 100 of water). Sow carrots, spinach, lettuce, silver beet, mustard, cress, cabbage and cauliflower. Prepare ground for autumn sowing of onions. Water thoroughly leeks, celery, lettuce, and runners once a week. Bud fruit trees. Plant out sliver beet, cabbage, leeks and celery.

Flowers.—Sow in the open border all kinds of hardy annuals, biennials and perennials. Make an early sowing of sweet peas (winter flowering) and prepare for the main planting. Stake cosmeas, dahlias, Michaelmas daisies, golden rod and all tall plants. Finish layering carnations. Collect seedsPlant out early bulbs, frecsias, anemones, etc. Mulch azaleas, rhododendrons and roses.

SPECIAL NOTES. Artificial Manures. —-The following notes taken from "Amateur Gardening" should prove useful to those gardeners who realise that their soil needs enriching, but who cannot decide what manure should lie used. Any manure which is said to be nitrogenous promotes growth and leafproduction. Phosphates tell most in fruit, flowers and seeds, while potash is a necessity to all plants for their general health and well-being. All plants need nitrogen, phosphates and potash, and,, generally speaking, only one manure 'from each section is required. Artificials always need the backing of at least a little natural manure, unless the soil Is rich in humus and already very fertile. Basic Slag.—A fine, Hour-like powder, consisting of lime and phosphates; top-dressed on land, or lightly forked in at the rate of 4 to 8 ounces per square yard. Kainit-—A fertiliser which yields potash; applied at the rate of 4ozs per yard to vacant soil. A tine potash manure for light soils and for fruit crops; it lias a certain insecticidal and fungicidal action. (Note: Basic, slag and Kainit arc still hard to obtain in N.ZO

For early spring application there are hone manures, potash and dried blood ("blood and bone"). Bone manures are rich in phosphates, but nlso contain a little lime and nitrogen. Bather slow-acting, toil lasting in effects. Apply in winter -at 3 to 4 ounces per yard, and fork in lightly. The sulphate or muriate of potash both supply the very important potasli requirements of plants. Fork in at Ihc rate of about loz per yard. Uriel blood fertilisers are richly nitrogenous, and should be mixed with the upper spits that they may decompose into plan! foods. A stibrt time before cropping, apply some of the following:—Superphosphates, wood ashes, fish guano, sulphate of ammonia, soot or nitrolimThe "supers" should be dry and powdery, with at least 35 per cent, soluble phosphate (2 lo 4ozs per sq.

yard). Wood ashes are rich In potash compounds; scatter on the surfaoe and hoe in at leisure. Fish guano is a phosphatio powder which also contains ammonia and a little potash (2ozs per sq. yard). Sulphate of ammonia is the best nitrogenous or growth-urging fertiliser (loz per sq. yard). Soot may be applied before cropping, but It has an Insectlcidal effeot when applied to the seedlings; as much as one pound per square yard may be used. Nltrolim acts like sulphate of ammonia (loz per sq. yard). During growth the following may bo applied as top-dressings to be hoed in ligdtlv:— Nitrate of soda (quick-act-ing, loz per yd), nitrate of lime (like nitrate of soda, but is even more soluble), saltpetre and nitrate of ammonia (for liquid manures, Joz to gallon), phosphate of potash (expensive, but a rich plant food, Joz or less to the gallon of water). "Supers," wood ashes, fish guano, sulphate of ammonia, soot and nitrolim may all be applied to plants during growth, but, as with all strong manures, they must not be used in excess or be allowed to hurt the foliage. Runner Beans. —In the cottage garden these are easily the most profitable vegetable grown—potatoes not excepted- To secure the best results, however, it is necessary to give the plants a good deal of attention in such a dry month as February usually is. To begin with the seed should have been sown In a well-manured trench made as \ carefully as if for sweet peas. Mem- ! bers of the bean family are indeed able to take supplies of njtrogen from the air, but they must obtain their phosphates and their potash from the soil. As soon as the plants have be&un to form pods, care should be taken to remove these as soon as they are of a usable size; the end and aim of the plant's existence is to perpetuate itself by farming seed, and it will not rest until it has fulfilled its purpose. Thorough waterings once a week will also prove effective In maintaining a supply of pods; in this way runners may be had in plenty until the frosts come. Plants for a Shady Garden.— Many of the old gardens of the district are now filled with shrubs and trees, so that it is difficult to grow the usual kinds of herbaceous plants under such conditions. The following brief list might easily be added to, but it should serve the purpose of showing that there are quite a number of plants which will thrive in partial shade, and some even in deep shade. First ami foremost are the lilies, including such I handsome species as auratum, and speciosum, followed by the various ; kinds of belladonna. Then come the ! columbines (aquilcgias), and many ! kinds of campanula. Others are fox- j gloves, Japanese wind flower (anemone J Japonlca), paeonles. lily of the valley, some kinds of irises, doronicum (a single yellow daisy, flowers in spring), ! snowdrops, crocus, wood hyacinths j (sclllas), daffodils, tulips, helleboreis j (winter rose), Michaelmas daisies (such as ericoides), honesty, hypericums, niootianas, primroses, Solomon's Sea], ferns of all kinds (where plenty of moisture is provided). If a creeper Is wanted for the shady side of the house what is better than the "Scotch flame-creeper," known to many gardeners as Tropaeolum speciosum? The common Virginian creeper will also succeed under similar conditions. Azaleas and Kalmias are probably the best shrubs to grow in the shade, but they must be allowed plenty of air, and a fair amount of lisht. In aefdition to these, there are large numbers of native trees and plants which will j thrive in partial shade. Clematis, | "five-finger" (panax) and lancewood J are the first to come to mind. Foreign shrubs that will grow in the shade of larger trees are: Auouba ("Japanese laurel"),' barberry (several species), laurel, dogwood, ivy (shrubby and climbing kinds), privet, rhododendron, damson plum, butcher's broom . Ruscus aculeatus) and snowberry.

Further Gardening Terms. —"Espalier" and "cordon" are terms applied to fruit trees which are trained in a special fashion along a wall or wire fence; cordons having only one stem or axis. "Heeling in" is the temporary laying in the ground of the routs of plants which are to remain there until the proper quarters are prepared. A "corm" is a solid bulb, like that of the crocus or gladiolus. A "stolon" is a shoot coming from the root, as in the case of couch-grass. "Corolla" is a term including all the petals of a _flo\ver. "Flagging" Is drooping, caused by injury or want of moisture. "Gumming"' is a pouring out of the sap of trees, especially stone fruits; usually it is caused h.v a fungoid disease, but Ffonietimcs it is simply "bleeding" due to an injury. "Inarching" is the grafting together of the branches or stems of two plants while they are both growing on their own roots (thus it Is quite distinct from grafting and budd/ig). "Larva" is the grub or worm-like stage of insects; it develops into the pupa or chrysalis which in turn develops into the "imago" or perfect insect. "Mulch" Is a term for covering the surface of the ground with manure (or with fine soil) to keep in moisture. "Raceme" Is a bunch of flowers, such as those of the Wistaria. "Scion" Is a shoot intended for a graft. "Spore" is the reproductive body of flowcrless plants such as the fern or fungi; it corresponds to the seeds of nowering plants. "Tap root" is the main root which goes down into the subsoil. A "self" is a bloom of one colour only, as, for example, a pure red or a pure white carnation. "Rust" when applied to plants means a fuxigoid disease which gives the leaves x rusty appearance.