GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21200, 24 August 1940, Page 14 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES

SEASONABLE WORK

(By “Nikau”)

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT Plant cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce, silver beet (Swiss chard and perpetual spinach are varieties of this), herbs (thyme, mint, sage, chives, etc.), onion, beetroot, artichoke, rhubarb, asparagus and early potatoes. Sow radish, lettuce, peas, carrot, parsnip, turnip, silver beet, leek, parsley, mustard and cress. Sow tomato and celery seed in boxes, and keep these in a frame or greenhouse, or on a sunny verandah. Examine vegetables and fruit in store. Onions that are sprouting should be separated from the good ones and used at once. Earth up early peas and broad beans, after scattering a little superphosphate or general fertiliser around them. Finish planting fruit trees: this month is the best time to plant lemon and orange trees, but protection against frost will be needed until October. Stretch .some scrim or hessian around tlie plants (held in place by three stakes), and also give some protection overhead on cold nights. This is the best time to spray apple and pear trees with lime-sulphur (1 in 20) or Bordeaux (lib. to 8 gals.) before the buds open. If the flowers of peach and nectarine have opened, wait a fortnight and spray with lime-sulphur (1 in 100). FLOWERS Label bulbs while they are in flower. Sow petunia and lobelia in boxes, and keep them in a frame or on a sunny verandah. The seed is very small, and should hardly be covered. A good way is to moisten the soil and a few hours afterwards to sow the seed. Then press it into the soil and cover with thick brown paper. In a few days the seed will germinate and the paper must be removed. The soil can be watered with a can provided with a fine rose. The writer has frequently raised lobelia plants by covering the seed lightly with soil and shading it for a few days. Finish pruning hydrangeas; thin out the shoots and shorten slightly those which are left. Put in cuttings of hydrangeas and many other kinds of shrubs. Stir the soil around bedding-plants, but do not work closely enough to damage the. roots. Plant calendula, Iceland poppy, polyanthus, sweet pea, viola, pansy, nemesia, antirrhinum, carnation, stock, Livingstone daisy and lupin. Take cuttings of chrysanthemums and plant them in a nursery bed which is well drained and sunny. Give them an occasional watering in the morning until they cease to flag and droop. Sow lawns if the soil was well prepared, otherwise put in potatoes and sow the grass seed in March or April. The best grasses are brown top, crested dogstail and Chewing’s fescue. Plant ornamental trees and shrubs and stake them securely at once. Plant hardy climbers of all kinds. A selection is given below.

SUCKERS At this time of the year, when pruning is being done, a careful Watch for suckers should be kept. In Hie case of standard roses, this is of Very great importance; the writer has *een neglected standards which have teen ruined by suckers and by growths from the stem below the •* head.” Lilacs, elm s, ash trees, gnd other trees grown as standards tnay be spoilt likewise. To remove the sucker, it is often necessary to lay bare the root and cut the sucker gway clean from its base. Prunus fcnd other trees budded on cherryplums stocks often send up suckers when the roots have been injured by |he spade or plough-share. Quince fuckers may appear at the base of pear trees and certain shrubs which fre sometimes budded on quince Blocks. In many cases the suckers prove more vigorous than the trees proper, and should be completely removed. SPECIES OF CLIMBERS For covering unsightly fences, walls, stumps and clay banks, what can be more beautiful than tastefully chosen climbers? Some should be planted for their bright flowers, others for their autumn tints, and others still for their shining evergreen foliage. If our town were almost frostless, like Auckland, Thames, and Tauranga, we could grow the flowering climber Solanum Wcndlandii, which is covered for months with magnificent trusses of bluish-mauve flowers. In sheltered places, as on the western river bank in Hamilton, we can grow Bougainvillea, whicn bears quaint rose-purple flowers or practs. # Out of the dozens of kinds of hardy Climbers available we may select the following: Akebia quainata (suitable for trellis and netting, has pcented. plum-coloured flowers and five-leafleted leaves); Ampelopsis {Virginian and other creepers which colour brilliantly in autumn before the leaves fall—A. Veitchii Vitis inconstans is perhaps the best); various £ignonias and Tecomas (mostly with trumpet or tubular flowers or orange and yellow shades), suitable for covering fences, pergolas and trees; clematis (suitable for trellis, netting, trees, stumps, etc.); Ficus minima (a Jival of Ampelopsis in clinging to Wood and stone); Gelsemium (yellow feented flowers borne in winter and spring); Lonicera (various beautiful and harmless kinds of honeysuckle, suitable for trellis, especially L. Hildebrandiana from Burma); various jasmines (including the yellowflowered variety, L. nudiflorum. which has just been in flower); various Kennedyas and Hardenbergias {suitable for trellis and netting, esgcially Hardenbergia comptoniana); •gentine pea (simply indispensable, cause it bears armfuls of lovely "blue flowers from August to Novem-

ber); Mandevilla (for trellis and netting. has scented, snow-white trumpet blooms); various Solanums (such as S. jasminoides, so suitable for covering a trellis or netting); various species of Wistaria (long and short bunches, single and double, white, lavender, etc.); Tropaeolum speciosum (Scotch flame creeper, has lovely scarlet flowers but needs a cool aspect in this province). The enthusiast will grow many other climbers, such as Bomaria. Billardiera, Phaseolus Caracalla (frosttender), Thunbergia Gibsonii (also frost-tender), and Lapageria. The reader has seen all of these growing in Hamilton gardens that were well sheltered. In the planting of climbers many points arise. One is to prepare the soil well (widely and deeply). Another is to set them out a little from the wall or fence, so that they can collect at least some of the rain that should fall on them. Then the matters of sunshine, wind, and frost have to be considered. Most kinds of Clematis, for example, prefer to have the lower part of their stems in shade. It is therefore advisable to plant them on the shady side of the trellis, and to let the stems work their way through to the sunshine as they climb. No mention of roses was made. It should be pointed out that ramblers are more troublesome than other climbing roses, and flower for only a short time each year. On the other hand, many of the so-called “ climbing ” roses keep flowering from October to April. There are some climbers which are far too vigorous for the small garden. Such arc the ordinary honeysuckle, hops, Dolichos, Polygonum, moth-plant (Physianthus or Araujia), ordinary everlasting pea, and also the Chinese gooseberry. On the other hand, room should be found for the ordinary passion-fruit. Two dainty climbers that are often forgotten are Smilax and the fineleaved asparagus (A. plumosus), which thrive beside a sunny wall or fence in the Waikato. It must be remembered that sweet peas are climbers, and should have an honoured place in every flower garden, so should the scarlet runner in the vegetable garden, for it is both ornamental and useful, and makes a good screen.

TO SAVE SPACE A way to save space with fruit trees is to plant some of them along a wall or fence. . These should be of a special shape, but an ordinary young tree can be adapted by the removal of one or two branches, so that the tree can be kept close to the wall. Apple trees are very suitable, as they stand the close pruning very well. Peach trees in this province are hard to manage on a wall, because they grow too fast, and they do not respond to spur pruning.