GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17586, 15 December 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

SEASONABLE WORK.

(By "Nikau.") Vegetables and Fruit.—Keep the hoe going, in order to kill weeds and conserve moisture. Plant tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbages and early leeks. Sow almost all vegetables, including the tender kinds. Stake tomatoes, and train them on the one-stem system; spray them with limesulphur mixed with arsenate of lead, or apply the two sprays separately. Spray apples with arsenate of lead (iAlbs of paste to 50 gals, of water) to kill grubs of codlin moth now hatching out. Begin budding fruit trees, especially peach and nectarine. Flowers. —Plant out bedding plants in well-manured soil (but don't overdo the artificial manures). Stake gladioli, delphiniums, carnations, and even such plants as geums. Pinch out the tips of spindly plants. Sow" seeds in open garden and shade for a week until the seedlings apPut in cuttings of hydrangea, geranium, carnation, fuchsia, pentstemon, perennial phlox. NOTES. Sparc Ground. —When the broad beans, potatoes, early peas, cabbages, and cauliflowers have been used, the ground should be thoroughly worked and manured in readiness for another crop. With most people the trouble is to find room for the various vegettables, and an attempt to force each plot to bear at least two successive crops must be made. Peas and beans take much food out of the soil, but they make a return by leaving some of the nitrogen which they have drawn from the air and 'fixed' in the soil. This power of 'fixation of nitrogen' depends on the presence of myriads of bacteria which live in the nodules found on the roots of peas, beans, lupins, gorse, broom, wistaria and other pod-bearing plants. The soil in which peas have grown is, therefore, well provided with nitrogen in a form which is available to plants. After the ground has been dug and sprinkled with superphosphate, it is ready again for planting. There is still time to sow maize, marrows, and pumpkins, and to transplant cucumbers from the rows or mounds where they are too thick. Again, room must be found for turnips and lettuce to keep up a succession. Trenches for leeks must be made soon, as the planting season for them is at hand. Again, the place of a row of potatoes may be taken at once by Canadian Wonder and other dwarf beans, or bycarrots, parsnips and other winter crops. Room should he found for runners and other climbing beans along the fences. This is also an excellent time for planting tomatoes for the main crop, to take the place of the early ones when these fail in February; the present planting will last until the frosts come in April and May. As the ground in which crops have been growing is probably dry, it is -well to water it well the day before the planting or the sowing is to take place. In the country, where water is sometimes scarce, an economical V*ay of supplying moisture is to water the drill before the seed is sown; the moisture thus shut in is ready to start the seeds into growth. Newly Planted Trees. —The recent dry weather was a searching time for all trees and shrubs that were set out late. If. they arc to make satisfactory growth, they must have sufficient moisture, and here is perhaps a problem. A very satisfactory way is to lay. a mulch, of grass or even weeds

around the base of each tree, and then to give a good soaking once a week. If the mulch is two or three inches thick, it will keep in almost all the moisture, and allow it to be used by the tree. Late-planted lemon and orange trees are probably suffering most; in their case it will be well to put old sacking all round, and to keep it in place by means of three or four stakes. If the sacking reaches to the ground, it will shut out the wind as well as the sunshine, and thus greatly reduce evaporation from the soil and transpiration from the lower half of the plant. Tree ferns and other native plants will benefit from the same treatment until they are fully established. Geums. —Anyone who doubts that advances have been made in gardening during the last twenty-five years should compare the new geums with the old varieties that arc still to. be seen in some places. Many of us '(without being centenarians) can remember when the giant red variety named Mrs Bradshaw first came in. Fancy belonging to a generation 'which knew not' Mrs Bradshaw! (We must not say 'knew not Joseph,' for fear of being suspected of having political bias). Besides this remarkable variety, there is a large double yellow, very unlike the original little single 'yellow species. This large yellow, named Lady Stratbedcn, is now to be found' in a good many local gardens, but a rival, Orange Queen, is still rare. Lady Hillingdon is a canary-yellow variety that has found favour in England, because of its strong, bushy growth and its large flowers. It is said to have different parentage from the other new varieties mentioned. As there are dozens of species found native in parts of Europe, Asia, North America and even the Southern Hemisphere, it seems that the possibilities of improvement are almost endless. Geums are easily raised from seed sown in the open garden, so a stock of plants can- be quickly raised. If some of the seed ripening this month is sown at once, the seedlings will flower in late autumn. Geums are very suitable for rockeries, as they are bright and showy, and can endure dry weather. The plants will flower over a fairlylong season if most of the seed-heads are removed as soon as the flowers fade. Watsonias. —Wc should not let the Watsonias end their ilowering season without our paying them a tribute. Surely thousands of people have enjoyed the sight of the white-flowered plants in the railway yard and of the white and the pink varieties along Biver Road near the Cenotaph. Watsonias resemble gladioli in foliage, and indeed arc sometimes classed with them. One or two other varieties are now 'classed with the ixias. Like manv gladioli and ixias, the Watsonia is a native of South Africa. The two favourite species are the white, W. meriana O'Drieni, and the pink, W. rosea. The watsonias are excellent for naturalising in rough grass, as they arc well able to fight for themselves. In time to come there maybe acres of them around the edges of the lake and on the rough slopes about town. In various places, especially along River Road, there are fine clumps that were either planted or left there with garden rubbish. One species with red flowers is a weed, as it has little corms developed in clusters at various parts of the flowering, stem, and each little corm takes root when it falls on the ground. The white and the pink species, however have not this objectionable habit. Hydrangeas.—A fuller note will be written later, when these beautiful plants are more fully in flower. The present time is suitable for experimenting with solutions and chemicals to produce changes in the colour of flowers. Even experts in Europe are not sure what influences produce all the changes, but it is fairly well agreed that the presence of a good deal of iron in the soil increases the blue colouring, and even changes pinks into blues. Alum is the best chemical to use in the production of

blue shades; a solution of loz to the gallon should be'sprinkled round the plants twice a week until the heads arc fully developed. A slow way which should be adopted in winter is to dig in iron filings round the plants. It is hardly necessary to point out that the soil does not make all the difference, for in many gardens plants with white, light blue and dark blue can all be seen growing near each other. This Is also a good time to put in cuttings of hydrangeas. A sturdy shoot about eight inches long should be torn off with a heel of the older wood attached. If this cutting is stripped of the lower leaves and planted to a depth of four inches in the soil on the cool side of the house and occasionally watered, it will make a strong little plant by autumn. It may be put in a pot instead and made to flower in winter. For greenhouse decoration this method- is very suitable, and is much used now in all countries. It is usual to aim at growing only one head—a very large onc to each plant, but some people prefer a bushy plant with numerous,

though rather small flowers.