GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15353, 29 September 1923, Page 18 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

(By “Nlkau.”) SEASONABLE WORK. Vegetates and Fruit. —Continue planting and sowing, as this is the height of the season, and all but heavy soils are now in good order. Sow for a succession the quickly-ma-turing crops such as lettuce, radish, turnips, peas. Make main planting of potatoes within the next fortnight. Gut asparagus as soon as it is ready (but newly planted asparagus should Se left uncut till next spring). Spray apples and pears with Bordeaux mixture or lime-sulphur before the buds open.: Graft apple and pear trees. Stake newly-planted trees. Flowers.—When the weather is favourable,' plant' out hardy beddingplants such as antirrhinums (snapdragons), stocks, Canterbury bells, clarkias, godetias, etc. Plant gladioli. Divide and replant perennials. Save seed of best anemones. Spray roScs with an insecticide to kill green aphis. . SPECIAL NOTES. Onions.— I This is indispensable in the garden, as well as in the house, for there is something strangely incomplete In the appearance of a vegetable plot in which there are no onions. Long before there was any talk of vitamines, our grandfathers and grandmothers realised the value of “greens,” and all the good old vegetables such as onions. While insisting on the value of the onion as an article of diet, we must admit that in the ordinary garden there is not nearly enough space available to provide the onions needed by the household. As with potatoes It is not good garden practice to try to grow all one’s supply, for this, of necessity, restricts' the variety and the supply of the other vegetables. Between 300 and 500 will perhaps be

found the happy mean; spaced at the minimum distances, say 4in apart in the rows and one foot between the rows, the plants will plainly require a good deal of room. For the best bulbs, much greater distances must be allowed. Of all the many styles of onions, white, brown, straw or red, large or small, spherical, conical or disc-shaped, the most useful are the Brown Spanish and the Straw Spanish. The former of these is a wonderful keeper, but is not so large or so handsome as the Straw Spanish. For exhibition purposes we may choose larger kinds such as Giant Rocca, Ailsa Craig, or Cranstoun’s Excelsior; visitors to our last Winter Show will perhaps remember the huge specimens of the last-named variety—Excelsior. Whatever- kind of onion is selected it should be set out in September in a specially prepared bed. This should be firm underneath and.loose on top, with plenty of ashes or well-rotted turf, etc., added to the soil. Bonedust and some of the other artificial manures are also quite good for oniongrowing. An important, point to note when we are planting is that deeplyplanted onions do not bulb readily, and instead form thick necks. ' A good way is to shorten the roots a little, doing the whole bundle at once; the separate onions ,can then be dibbled In with the finger or a short stick. Lettuce. —In this country lettuce is not grown half so often or so well as it deserves, for many of us have not yet advanced beyond the stage of the immigrant who declared, when asked to have some lettuce, that she had not come so many thousand miles “to eat cabbage like a coo." As with all. salad vegetables, crispness and tenderness can be obtained only when the growth has been rapid and unchecked. With average soil, a little artificial manure, a sheltered position and moderate watering, lettuces can be made to grow wonderfully well. A point we forgot to mention is that the plants should be allowed at least eight inches every way in the rows. Lettuce transplants quite well in all but summer time; then, it should be sown where it is to remain, otherwise the plants “bolt” and formfeed-heads. A mixture of soot and lime laid alongside the rows is useful as a manure, and also as a protection against slugs The Cos varieties are rather troublesome, for they require the tops to be tied up, but the “head" lettuces such as Webb’s Wonderful, Iceberg, Cooper’s Succession, and All the Year Hound are easily grown. It is a good plan to sow a pinch of lettuce seed every three weeks, to keep up a succession. ... _ ~ Moulding up Vegetables.—Particularly at this season, many vegetables profit by judicious moulding up; peas, beans, cabbage, and similar plants all do better when moulded up, for this steadies them in the wind, keeps off excessive wet, and enables them to catch' the sunshine more directly. Potatoes are moulded up to protect the tubers from exposure to light, while celery and leeks are so treated in order to blanch them. Akebla Quinata. —For some weeks this beautiful evergreen creeper has been in full flower, and the end is not yet. The dainty foliage and the quaint little plum-coloured blooms make the plant very noticeable, especially as there are so few kinds of climbers flowering now. It may be trained over trellis, netting or even deciduous shrubs, but it needs a little protection from frost, or rather it needs a slightly sheltered. position. There is a good deal of this climber in and around Hamilton, showing that our climate suits it quite well. Exochorda Grandlflora. —The Exochorda or Pearl Bush is welcomed wherever it is known, and it grows equally well in Christchurch and in the Auckland province. For the past week the pearl bush has been at its best, rivalling the early magnolias and the azaleas, and excelling the camellias. This plant should be grown more extensively in public grounds, for it is easily kept trim and neat, and it is almost the best of the springflowering shrubs. Sometimes, when a specimen is not thriving, good results may be obtained by our treating it like an old rose, and cutting it back hard to renew the life of the bush. Our Kowhal. —For all lovers of the New Zealand bush, the months of August and September are perhaps the most interesting of all, for it is then that the kowhai and the starry clema-

tis are in full bloom. In some ways they are highly characteristic of New Zealand, but probably our most national flower is the common white manuka. The kowhai may be called a native laburnum, though it is a finer tree than the true laburnum of Europe. More use should be made of the kowhai both in public and in private gardens, for it is at least as good as most of the imported shrubs. Setting out Bedding Plants. —Once more there is need to N dccide what we shall plant and how we shall plant ii. A complete list of suitable plants would be too lengthy, hut the following may be considered:—(l) Edgings of lobelia, alternanthera, viola, red-leaved hardy begonia, orabis (white), etc.; (2) beds of aster, slock, antirrhinum, verbena, petunia, coreopsis, calliopsis, annual phlox, pansy,- salvia, geranium, French and African marigolds, zinnia; (3) for putting in clumps in the mixed border; Aquilegia (columbine), perennial phlox, coreopsis grandiflora, geum, candytuft, helenium, rudbeckia, scabiosa, caucasica, Canterbury hell, thaiictrum, poppies (Iceland and Shirley), pyrethrum (single and doubles), cosmos, calceolarias, sweet peas, clarkia, godetia, and all the plants mentioned above as suitable for beds.

Instead of the rigid, geometrical system that once was almost general, the massing system is now the favourite. This is far easier, and also enables us to obtain as good colour schemes; indeed, massing the plants allows broader effects. In the mixed border, even when the group or mass system is practised, there will still be the need, as before, to put the tallest plants in the back-ground. When a whole bed is to be replanted, it is advisable to work into it a generous sprinkling of bone-dust or a garden manure. It is also well to give the plants plenty of room, eight to ten inches being a fair distance to allow between two plants of average size.