GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 96, Issue 15359, 6 October 1923, Page 18 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

(By “Nlfcau”)

SEASONABLE WORK. Vegetables and Fruit. —Continue sowing and planting all but very tender vegetables. Though strll rather early, it may pay to make trial sowings of cucumbers, and plantings of tomatoes. Use asparagus as soon as it is ready. Plant artichokes. Mould up early potatoes, beans, peas, etc. Sow a succession of spinach, turnip, peas, lettuce, radish. Thin early crops of turnip, carrot, etc. Mulch strawberries. Spray apple trees and pear trees with arsenate of lead as soon as the petals drop. Flowers. —Set out hardy bedding plants, but leave the tenderer ones for at least another fortnight. Divide and replant coreopsis, delphinium, lobelia, golden rod, Michaelmas daisies, helenium, perennial phlox, shasta daisies, etc. Use Black Leaf 40 to kill aphides on roses. Go out slug-hunt-ing at night, as this is the season when they do most damage. Prepare chrysanthemum bed for planting within the next.three.or four weeks. Cut back bouvardiasj geraniums, and similar plants that have been hurt by frost.

SPECIAL NOTES. Leaf Curl. —This unwelcome pest is once more, making its appearance, and the' harassed gardener is wondering what remedies he can use. The only effective way of dealing with leafcurl is to -spray ; carefully in winter and early spring with Bordeaux mixture, lime-sulphur, or some other approved fungicide; in the absence of foliage, a stronger, spray may then be used, though, on the other hand, many of the lowest organisms are then hardest to kill, being in the spore stage. When the foliage has appeared and has been seen to be affected with leafcurl, we may spray again, but this is only partially preventive, while the winter sprays are almost wholly so. Where the infection seems only slight or when the number of trees concerned is small, we shall find it helpful to remove and burn all the diseased leaves. When the fruit has set, the best spray is lime-sulphur (1 to 125), as this will not russet and crack the fruit as Bordeaux sometimes does.

Black Aphis. —ln some of the local gardens the black aphis is now showing. itself on the young growths of broad beans, and of various kinds of stone-fruits. Any of the recognised insecticides may be used to kill it, the cheapest and best being Black Leaf 40. As aphides of all kinds breed at an immense rate, the reproduction being usually asexual, it is necessary to deal promptly with them. Pruning with the -Finger. —Even a cursory glance at- almost any kind of fruit tree will discover that many unwanted shoots are now being pushed out; on peach trees for example, it will be found that the lower part of the stem is crowded with shoots. All but a few of these should be rubbed off while they are still young and tender, so,that the strength of the plant may go into the the proper shoots. By careful supervision at this season, we may avoid the necessity of removing, during the winter pruning, strong shoots that crowd the centre —indeed, they should never be alldwed to develop. Roses. —Unfortunately, green-fly is appearing earlier and in greater numbers than usual, and spraying must be resorted to at once. As mentioned above, Black Leaf 40 is very good, but Katakilla, Niquas and other remedies are also good. Indeed, the leading rose-growers of the province recommend the use of plain hot water at a temperature of not more than 125 degrees F. - A little mild pruning with finger and thumb should also be done, to remove the shoots that would tend to crowd the centre. Hoeing or any other work of cultivation should be done with the greatest care, for -the shoots which would soon form good branches are now very tender and easily brushed off. For this reason it is just as well to leave the rose-bed uncultivated for a while, so as to give thejyoung growths a chance.

Soot. —None of the household soot should be lost, as it is extremely valuable in the garden. In the first place it is a good manure, and it helps to improve the colour of the foliage of practically all plants. Then again it is useful for checking the ravages of slugs; alone or mixed with lime it should be dusted frequently over the young lettuces or other plants that we wish to protect. As its chief manur ial contents are soluble, soot must be kept dry until it is to be used. For pot plants of various kinds, liquid manure made from soot is perhaps the best food and tonic that can be given. A convenient way to make the solution is to place the soot in a bag, and weight and sink the latter in a large tin or drum of rain-water (for preference). After standing for a few days, the water may be drawn off and more added; this may be repeated once or twice more, and then new soot will te required. Argentine Pea (Lathyrus pubescens). —This is perhaps the finest of all “scramblers,” as distinct from the true climbers. It is a hardy perennial, living quite well through even the hardest of the South Island winters; this it is able to do largely because of the fact that it loses most of

its top growth each autumn, and comes away again in late winter like the common “everlasting” pea. It is rather hard to establish, being slow of growth in its first year, but after it once starts it grows almost as rapidly as a passion-vine, for example. The plant seeds heavily, and the seedlings are easily started, but trouble begins when transplanting is tried. For this reason it is well to grow the seedlings in separate little paper pots, as we do with the choicest varieties of the sweet pea.

Hybrid Freesias. —During tile past season the hybrid freesias have proved themselves well worthy of being extensively planted. The cost is still rather high, ranging from four shillings to over seven shillings a dozen, hut the corms soon increase. The (large variety known as Burtoni is a great advance on the common kinds of F. refracta alba, hut there are hybrids with very much richer shades of yellow. Some of the newer kinds were well shown at the local Spring Show, although the large yellows were not yet out properly. In some gardens these are now at their best. Lobelia. —Notwithstanding the introduction of new varieties of lobelia, including whites, light blues, violet, double blues, etc., the favourite bedder of former years is still the best—that is, Crystal Palace compacta. It has beautiful dark foliage, grows compactly, and bears dark blue flowers in profusion. It is commonly used for eegings, but there should be far more

use made of it as a bedding plant to fill a whole bed. Old plants may easily bo divided, but this should bo done before much new growth is made, otherwise the resulting plants will be straggly. Seedling plants, on the other hand, are usually quite bushy and so go ahead very quickly. Gypsophlla Panlculata. —For house decoration throughout the year, there is hardly any kind of flower more useful than the perennial gypsophlla. It is grown mostly for use with vases of sweet peas, though these flowers really look best when set off by nothing but their own foliage. Gypsophilia may be readily grown from seed hut the two, or at most three, plants required in the ordinary garden may be bought as seedlings or as divisions of old clumps. Though there Is a double variety, the old single is still very suitable. There is an annual gypsophlla which grows very quickly, but for general purposes it is not as suitable as G. panlculata.