GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15016, 12 August 1922, Page 15 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES

SEASONABLE WORK. (By “Nikau.") Vegetables and Fruit. —Digging and clearing up should be completed preparatory to making a fine seed bed. Plant, prune and spray fruit trees. Plant rhubarb, shallots, potato onions, herbs. Sow dwarf pears and broad beans. Sow in a box in a frame a pinch of tomato seed, and protect well on cold nights. Flowers.— Tidy up the borders and dig into them as much stable manure and compost as passible. Finish rosepruning. Sow in boxes seeds of all kinds of hardy plants. Put in rose cuttings.

SPECIAL NOTES.

(Waking a Hot Bed. —Wherever a load to two of stable manure can be obtained, the making of a hot bed is well worth while. For raising hallhardy and tender plaids from seeds, and cuttings, the lmt bed is invaluable, since the bottom heat thus provided often makes all the difference between success and failure. Hot beds are often made on the surface of the ground, but in a welldrained piece of soil better results arc obtained by excavating lo a depth of a foot and then building up the bed; in this way the heat is kept in better. Whatever method is followed, it is wise to have the bed projecting all round by at least one foot beyond the frame. A handy size for the latter is five feet by three feet. The manure should he fresh, as old, decomposed stuff lias given out all the heat it over had. A thick layer of manure is required, anything less than one foot being useless, while three feet is not too much. For the first week after obtaining the manure, we should turn it once every two days; after that it must be trodden tightly and covered with a layer of three |o six inches of soil. This may be used as a seed bed, but it is far better Lo sow in boxes and place these on top of the soil, as the seedlings will then run less risk of being overheated or of being attacked by insect pests. It may seem at first sight that a hot bed is a waste of goo,d manure, but this is not ready so, for next year, when fully decomposed, it is in the best possible condition for garden use.

In view of the difficulty commonly experienced in oblaining stable manure, we would do well to consider possible substitutes. Cow manure is an excellent one, but it must not be used fresh; dry lumps should be taken, moistened with water, and then worked in with the rolling grass, leaves or oilier vegetable product which is lo lake the place of litter For this purpose large quantities of fresh lawn trimmings will prove quite useful. A lightly-packed bed will heat soonest, but on the other hand it will also cool soonest; tight packing is the chief factor in the maintenance of a lasting and steady heat. Rhubarb. —The following note on rhubarb is taken from the latest, issue of Ihe New Zealand Journal of Agriculture. New beds of summer rhubarb siiould.be planted at once. Bets arc usually" old clumps chopped up, one nr two good crowns being sulficienl fo,r one set. Plant about 2ft. Gin. apart, in rows 3ft. from centre to centre of lire sets. The crowns should he barely covered with s'oil. Tlie produce should ire taken the first year, all growlh being left to die down. This enables the plants to produce a good spring and early summer crop the following season. Commercial growers have made a number of changes in their practice, the latest being intended to eliminate the barren year. To understand this it is ueces-

sary to know that the commercial | grower has to depend on the early crop to make his money, because that crop commands the best price. For this reason -ids methods are adapted to the strengthening of the early crop. The purpose of the leaves in Hie life of the plant is to make roots and crowns. A good crop of leaves, and , consequently stalks, can be got only I by allowing the previous crop to die j down on Hie plants, lienee only the early crops arc taken, and robbing the | plant ceases after that; pulling ceases ; ly the end of December or a little: later.

It was formerly the custom to lift cld clumps during winter, cut them up and replant in early spring, pull no stalks the first year, Lake the early crop during the next two years, and then lift again. The latest plan is to take the early crop, lift the clumps towards the end of November or early in December, cut up the clumps and replant at 'once. The sets become reestablished quickly, strengthen up during summer and autumn, and produce a crop the following spring—there being thus no barren year. Stable manure is considered indispensable. Tlie best time to apply it is early summer, after pulling has ceased. Applied as a mulch, it grfiatly influences growth, and builds up strong crowns If it is worked into the s'oil during winter o.r early spring, it holds water like so many sponges, makes the soil cold, and delays growth. Therefore it is not good practice to so apply it, as the value 'of (he crop greatly depends on getting in early. Lemons.—All gardeners who dream of growing oranges and lemons (and who do not?) should give weight to the claims of lemons in particular. Except for the homely apple, no more useful fruit than the lemon can be grown here. Though the tree is semi-tropical, it succeeds perfectly in all parts of the Waikato wherever there is a little shelter from the worst frosts.

The soil should be well-drained, warm, and fairly rich; deep cultivation before planting is another factor. The planting should not be done in the mid-winter, but rather in August or September, and care must be taken to avoid deep planting. As lemons grow great masses of fibrous roots, near (lie surface, just as oranges do, plenty of manure should be given in the form of top-dressings or mulches, the surface being stirred with a hoe or a rake. There are several varieties to he had, especially the Lisbon and the Eureka, but Ihe Lisbon will usually prove the best. Diseases of Citrus Fruits.—Like other kinds of fruit trees, citrus fruits are attacked by fungoid and insect pests, most of the local trees, however, being quite healthy. Red and sooty scale may be controlled by the use of red oil in November and December, while brown rot and rust may be controlled by the use 'of 6-4-40 Bordeaux, or lime sulphur (1 to 25 of water).

New Zealand Plants In Britain. — The two following notes taken from a recent issue of “Amateur Gardening,” should be interesting insofar as they show us how our native plants are appreciated abroad. Clianthus Puniceus. —This magnificent climber (growing- t 0 the height of Oft.) has many names. The Glory Pea of New Zealand; Kowhai (the Maori name), the parrot-beak flower, and the lobster-claw flower, are some of them; and at this lime there are few plants that can vie with it in colour and iloriferousness.

It is nearly hardy in the south and west districts, and it only needs the protection of a spare frame-light from December till April, to flower in prolusion in May and June, every node producing a ling raceme of blossoms in carmine, 4ln. long, and curiously like a claw in shape. Belonging to the order Leguminoseae, it is, perhaps, the finest of them all in point of size, and it produces seeds like small beans, hut not edible, probably poisonous. It grows quickly from seed, but a rooted cutting will flower before a seedling, and a slip with a slight heel of the older wood, taken in June or July, will root readily if covered from the first with a tumbler, to thoroughly exclude the air. If allowed to droop, it will fail, but if kept close until growth is active, the glass may be gradually removed (first at night, and then in shade); the plant will grow quickly, and can be shifted from a small pot to a 6in size in October, and the plant can be put in against a sunny wall the following June. It is a very thirsty plant, and must be well watered in dry summer weather.

The Autumnal frosts, unless very severe, do not appear to affect the foliage, but flower buds appear in January, and aflcr that time any severe chill (especially that of a snowy time) may prove suddenly fatal unless a frame light is fixed over the plant. But it is worth this slight protection, for its glorious colour throughout the spring.

It is specially suitable for a border under a verandah, if ample supplies of water can be supplied, with occasional top-dressings. Sophora Tetraptcra.—This New Zealand plant, growing to about lOin. on a sunny wall, blossoms well in the south-west of Britain, and is somelimes called i'lle New Zealand Laburnum, on account of the handsome pendulous racemes of bloom which it produces in May. It is not, however, quite so hardy as liie s'ophora from the Neilgherries (S. heptaphyila), a deciduous shrub, oi' small tree, with flowers in October; both have yellow blossoms of the papilionaceous type, and are decidedly decorative in the garden. The variety S, tetraptcra microphylla has larger blossoms than those of the type, and is equally hardy; it may be safely planted in a sheltered spot, without the help of a wall, hut needs abundant sunshine to ripen its growths. Both are, deciduous, Iml they start fresh growth early in spring.