GARDEN NOTES.

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20786, 22 April 1939, Page 20 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES.

lwS3SZßTPlfßna*iSlrHnr.iifw Seasonable Work. i vl.i»f• t. i'ZiZuSi i

(By " Nikau")

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT Sow onion, stump-rooted or horn carrot, cauliflower, turnip 'yellow cr white}, >a ge, parsley, silver beet, lettuce and broad bean. Plant leek, cabbage, cauliflower, silvi : >ot n<i >ttuce. Give leeks and ci lery . t good - iking, ure. The eirly crops may be e.uti.ed up on a Jrv day. Dig spare ground; manure it \\;th su; ,>p. . and V: r plant, tho crop? mentioned above or sow lupins .or o>:~ to turn in later as green manure. Examine vein-tables onions, potatoes and marrows in store. Gather fruit and Store it in a dry, airy place. 1. 8 tv re nserted in January and February. prround f lit-t - gging nr ploughing. The planting can be done between May and r*eptember. flowers • • pansy, viuia, polyantluis, carnation, antirrhinum and Primula Save seed ot the best French and Afr: in marudds. Gleam nasturtiums, Montbretia, aster, phlox, sweet pea, efrange cosmos, etc. Sow the i ci >1 sun mei wering sweet peas in rich soil. If the trenches are not ready, sow the seeds in boxes, and transplant the sec ilings when they are four or five inches high. The winter-flowering sweet peas should be a foot high now; stir tho nee a w tsek, an - f a general fertiliser alongside th< -'--i as soon as they are five or six inches high. Sow lawn crass Brown Top and Chewing's Fescue, with or without Crested Dog s Tail,-. Bo t I lahl . in the garden. Label the good ones while thev are in flower. Plan' bulbs and bulbous plants. Bonedust and a general garden fer■t;l,„cr W ili suit nearly all kinds, whereas natural manures will he dangerous to many. e . ■. q various hard} flowers calendula, linaria, candyer ba lly i larkspur). SOW inboxes:’ Prii.il .se, lupin, aqu leg d. •n. carnation, dlanthus, pansy viola, antirrhinum, Iceland poppj, - i ncmesia, pent- ■ - I, g panulas, gerbera, coreopsis and geum.

v'cllow of stunner and the rich green of fimnny Smith make the orchard he v irioT - ■ lien MEMORIAL PARK In spite of the dry weather, the tr< - and flow rs In Memorial Park are r« ally b< autiful. Some of the liquidamr trees ha\e bepruu to show autumn tints already. The border of perennial plants is very interesting - . Mention may be marie >f tl e 1 leniun (yellow and brown . the Michaelmas daisies, perennial yellow sunflowers, charm dahlias, statice, new Klondykc cosmos named Orange Flare, dwarf French marigold, pink nerines, delphiniums, border of blue Ageratum, salira. zinnias, canna, leonotis, erigeron, carnation, and purple petunia. It will be noticed that a number of annuals have been planted among the perennials to brighten up the border. The S bed near the. traffic bridge has been a success. An edging of a succulent plant (Echeveria) is followed by rows of two types of Alternanthera, a row of a white-leaved centaurea, and lines of begonias. In one part of the S the word Remembrance has been picked out in “golden feather” pyrethrums. Some of the other features of the park at present are: The circular bed of celosias (cockscomb); the circular bed of salvias, cannas, tithonia celosia, and the border of giant dahlias. Many of the varieties of dahlias are suitable for both exhibition and garden decoration; for example, Satan, Leonora, Croydon Glory', Jersey Beauty, Daily Mail, Darcy, Sainsbury. Chosamy, Mount Hobson, Kathleen Norris, and Mrs George Le Boutillier. Some of the native trees are especially interesting now; the Kauri with its many cones, and the litoki with its ripening fruits are examples. THE HAMILTON CHRYSANTHEMUM SHOW An account of this will appear In next week's 1 notes.

fruit-cbowino In the March issue of the “New Zealand Journal of Agriculture- there is a brief article -on the decline in the area of land in Xew Zealand flSVhfed to fruit-farming. ‘ln recent vears there has been a rt - ievoted to the culture of l ip, stone, and citrus fruits in the -Dominion. ‘•ln 1925 there nvjs a total of 3,-0-SS,S9i tree.-c a> compared with 2.4(>oios9 trcr< in 193“, representing a decrease of -' --'-t trees. On the basis ot 12" to the acre, the reduction is 5.2 io acres. "The pOnc : e i tributary causes u.. den r( ige are as follows. apl’C ■ 5 te figures being given: Negi ■■■ . I'M •• cent.; trees removed from HUM - e. hie orchards, In per cent; ground unsuitable, in per cent; uneconomic ve.eties, 10 per oent.; lark of water, i per cent; flood, 4 per cent: Mii i - oof land, 4 per oent; change d.drying. •* P er cent; disease, 1 per ’cost, i per cent, illness of owner.-*, 1 per cent. Itoih a table completing th- article by the Director of the I ticulture Division, it appears that the number of trees in registered orchards in the Hamilton district has fallen since 1925 from 80,000 to 42,000. Auckland has approximately 40**.000, Whangarei 92,000 Gisborne 33.000, Thames 58,000, Nelson 181.000. Motueka 241,000, Christchurch 234.000. Dunedin 243,000, Alexandra 1 GO.OOO, Mapua 263,000, Hastings 370,000. RENEWING OLD LAWNS In the next few weeks an effort should be made to renew old lawns. In verv had cases, it will be necessary to dig’the lawns, turning the sods upside down to kill the weeds and to bring fresh soil to the surface. After cultivating this and then levelling and manuring, the sowing with a good mixture of seed should be done. Brown Top and Chewing’s Fescue should form the basis of the mixture, and the total quantity may vary between three and six pounds to one hundred square yards , ten by ten). Lawns that are only patchy need not be dealt with so drastically. Creeping weeds and moss should be torn about with a strong rake. The next thing is to applv a lawn sand such as It pounds of sulphate of ammonia and l pound of sulphate of iron, with 12 pounds of sand added to give it bulk and make the scattering easy. Tins mixture should be used in dry weather, and at the rate of one ounce to a square yard. It should be repeated in about a month. The weeds will be killed, and the grass only browned. After a few weeks the grass will be preen again, having been fertilised by the mixture. Bare places should be dug and sown. Thin patches should he raked, then sprinkled with good soil, and then sown. The covering over the seed should be no more than one quarter of an inch deep. Ordinary lawns in fair condition should have one treatment with lawn sand, and a fortnight or so later should be given a top-dressing of a general fertiliser or superphosphate at the rate of an ounce or two per square yard. The aim must be to maintain a thick sward of grass, so that weeds will have very little chance to become established. SIGHTS OF THE WEEK Many gardens in Hamilton are still showing a wealth of bloom, notably of dahlias, Michaelmas daisies, zinnias, French marigolds dwarf and tail , and African marigolds Sunset Giant, Guinea Gold, and the ordinary kinds'. Cven the showier is a single-flowered d - pi ibh Hi tnthus oryralis'. which is still at its best. The orange-flowered cosmos called Orange Flare is also very noticeable in a few gardens. In other gardens the showiest plants arc the various amaryllises, commonly called “belladonna lilies," though they are not blips. There are the ordinary pale pinks, and also a white and a deep pink. Some of the flower stem* of the deep pink variety reach a height of four feet, and the heads, too, ar • larger than the ordinary. In some gardens chrysanthemums are showing iq—for example, in a River Hoad - irden near the new bridge. Another display in River Road is the plantati-m of pampas grass in the old Maori redoubts in Mr Valdcr’s property. Other beauties notice 1 are: The beds and borders in Memorial Park: yellow daisies in pi..k » Road; dahlias and marigolds in Ijni-ei i « - s Street fruit trees heavily laden with apples, ©ranges ns and jui s. 1 red of Delicious and Salome apples, the j