GARDEN NOTES

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21242, 12 October 1940, Page 14 (Supplement)

GARDEN NOTES

SEASONABLE WORK

VEGETABLES Plant potato (main crop), tomato (« choke, asparagus, onion, lettuce (and its relatives, Swiss Chare virious herbs. Sow peas every weeks and 1 crops need rich soil. Make the first sowing of sweet corn : few weeks until mid-December. Sow plenty of carrot, parsnip, leek, vegetables that are appreciated There is still time to sow tomatoes frames if a greenhouse is not ai Stake all varieties of peas, as this h the pods clean and healthy. Thin the early crops of carrot, beeti beet and lettuce. As soon as the petals have fallen fror arsenate of lead (1 oz. to 3 gals moth. Graft fruit-trees, ornamental trees a] FLOW After another fortnight it will be c Iceland poppies run to seed. Aj plants, so that seed from them good. Also mark the best polyanthus, anen is quite likely that only one po enough for seed-saving. Examine the ties and stakes of stand roses and other climbers. In the daytime search the haunts < plants such as arum lilies, v. atso and conduct hunts by torch-ligh plants it is advisable to buy sc Slugout, etc. In the open garden a wide range of i transplanted or to stay where th In boxes, sow the more tender kind French and African marigolds, i should be protected from frost ; Divide and replant perennials such golden rod and scarlet lobelia purple foliage). Give liquid manure to roses once a Divide dahlias as soon as the growtl A LESSON WE ARE LEARNING ( For the following article we are I Indebted to an August issue of Ama* j teur Gardening. It has a lesson for i us, too, even in our favoured land, j Incidentally it may be pointed out j that this is the first year that New Zealand had no need to import onions. “The great effort of the new army of war-time allotment-holders is producing results which provide food for thought as well as digestion. Indeed, it is teaching a lesson which, it is sincerely to be hoped, will be learned so well that it will have farreaching results, greatly to the benefit of our future. The great up- j heaval which has so upset our calm, j easy-running lives has compelled us j to rely more than ever we have done , upon our own resources instead of t depending very largely, as we cer- j tainly have done, upon importation : of foodstuffs from other countries. We are learning that we can grow ! for ourselves a great deal that we | have been quite content to allow [ foreign countries to grow for us. | “It was not always thus. Years ; ago, when a larger proportion of our ! people lived in country villages, and the means of transport was the carrier’s cart, every cottager had his garden in which to grow both vegetables and fruits to keep his family fed. It was migration to towns and cities, huddling together in crowded streets of houses where there was no room for gardens, that started the change-over in our habits. With more money to spend, we were provided with novel attractions and amusements to while away leisure, and we lost the will and desire as well as the convenient opportunity, to cultivate the earth to grow our own food. Ceased Cultivation and Purchased “The foreigner saw his opportunity to make money out of England by growing for us the foodcrops we i were giving up growing for our- j selves. To point to just one instance, ! there are the familiar onion men j who have been coming over from ! Brittany for years in their thousands, i penetrating even to the scattered ! villages to sell enough onions to keep j themselves and their families until | the next year’s crops are ready. We j are learning again, this year, that we I can grow our own onions and can keep in England the money that went both to Brittany and Spain to pay for crops which foreigners had grown for us. French intensive gardeners have made fortunes growing early carrots, turnips, cauliflowers and lettuces, protecting their crops with glass because the English will pay high prices for these things in winter. Our own market growers are doing this for us now, and there are many ! amateurs who are finding that they, j too, can grow winter salads with no j more costly protection than that which the French growers have to use. Our amateurs are finding also that there is quite as much interest in that occupation as continuous visits to cinemas and dog races. In fairness to our allotmenteers it must be said many of them would have been food-growers years ago had there been such facilities as there are today. We remember well j enough that during our previous war j there was just the same sort of en- 1 thusiasm and activity, and allotments flourished everywhere, but we remember, also, how bitter was the disappointment of many who. when they had gained sufficient knowledge of horticulture to do things really j well, lost their allotments because the promoters of some building scheme secured the ground. That kind of thing put a spoke in the wheel of home food production, and the country drifted back to reliance upon the onion hawker, the French gardener and any importer of foreign produce. “It is going to be a matter of vital importance that there shall be no repetition of that relapse after this war. Let us make no mistake about it. however brilliant may be our ultimate victory, we are not going to recapture the easy, happy-go-lucky

(By “Nikau”)

AND FRUIT (an early planting), rhubarb, artie, cabbage, cauliflower, silver beet d and perpetual spinach), and lettuce every four weeks. Both now and successive sowings every r. , beetroot, turnip, swede and other i by the household. ; (to be raised on verandahs or in ivailable). helps them to grow and also keeps troot, parsnip, turnip, swede, silver •m apple and pear trees, spray with Is.), to check the attacks of codlin and shrubs during this month. VERS advisable to let some of the best is a preliminary, root out the worst * cannot be mixed with that of the mones and ranunculi for seed. It alyanthus plant out of ten is good iard roses, also the ties of climbing of snails, especially broad-leaved onias, belladonnas and agapanthus, it on a few evenings. For special ome slug-killer such as Slugene, annuals may be sown, either to be hey are raised. ds such as lobelia, petunia, phlox, salvia and carnation. The boxes and heavy rain. as helenium. Michaelmas daisies, (the tall herbaceous kind with week, after a watering, ths are a few inches long. ARTICHOKES I On the Continent of Europe artii chokes are greatly appreciated, but , they are insufficiently appreciated in ; New Zealand. In view of the fact j that they are far healthier (freer from blights and pests) than potatoes and heavier croppers than potatoes. they should be grown very extensively. The one drawback is that the tubers are somewhat rugged, and harder to prepare for the table than potatoes are. This is the best tibe to plant artichokes. Tubers about half the size of seed potatoes need no cutting, but any that are larger than a pul- • let’s egg should be cut. The rows i should be three or four feet apart, | and the plants a little over a foot , apart in the row. The tubers should be set about four inches deep, j Under these conditions a good crop j can be expected, especially if the • soil is a rather heavy loam. When > the plants are about nine. inches i high, they can be moulded up, as \ for potatoes. They will require no i attention except weeding until winter, when some of the tubers can be j lifted for immediate use. The others should be left until required, because they shrivel if kept long out of the ground. ENGLAND IN WAR TIME • A perusal of English gardening journals discovers that in August there were gardens in all parts of England (even in Kent) that were being thrown open to the public at a small charge for charities. This was as usual, and the correspondence columns were still discussing the usual topics, such as the merits of the various types of potato “seed”— large v. small, English v. Scotch, cut v. uncut, etc. Some features, however, are new, and show the influence of war time, j One is the production of a lantern j which may be used in spite of the “black out” regulations. It is based ! on the principle of the miner’s safety i lamp, and gives only a rather weak i light which is cast downwards. For j this lamp the moderate charge of | Is 9d is made. Special attention is being paid to i the saving of fruit and vegetables Iby bottling and drying. It is also recommended that exhibitions of vegetables be altered in such a way that the competitor does not have to take up a whole row (and waste some) in his search for the best roots. Rather a puzzle for the show officials! An amusing little note appears in one issue. The editor has been taken to task for recommending the use of paper collars for blanching celery. An indignant correspondent j declares this is a waste of paper in i war time. The editor sticks to his ! guns, and in a trenchant note (forgive the pun!) he says he will continue to advocate the use of paper if thereby an excellent, health-giv-ing crop can be grown. It is very heartening to find that the issues of the papers are not only printed as usual, but arrive safely here on the other side of the world within five or six weeks, in spite of | the Blitzkrieg. For example, a jouri nal issued in London on August 17 I was received here before the end of I September. conditions we had learned to take so much for granted. For long years to come it is going to be imperative ! that we avoid sending money abroad that can be kept hi this country, and we can do a bit in that direction by still further extending instead of allowing any relaxation of present efforts in the production of food crops. “It should have to be because of . more vitally important requirements | that any land now under allotment j culture is to be forfeited at the war’s I I end, and where the evacuation is un- ; j avoidable other suitable accommoda- : j tion should be found. A self-reliant ■ j nation will be in a better position > | than one that is deoendent upon the ■ foreigner for onions.”

AIRCRAFT FACTORY HIT LONDON. Oct 11 The larna Fokker aircraft factory in Holland was aqain tombed by :hs Royal Air Force last nmh' and a hugs fire engulfed one of the big building*. CLAIMS REJECTED VICH Y GOVERNMENT’S REPLY BANGKOK. Oct. 11 The Vichy Government’s rejection of Thailand’s territorial claims is officially announced. It is added that Thailand ,s considering the next move. WASHINGTON. Oct. 11 It is disclosed that the United discourage Tnailand from a Japanese OIL SUPPLIES ATTACKED CRIPPLING NAZI MACHINE . LONDON. Oct. 11 Widespread damage is believed to have been caused by British raiders last night to oil stores of vital importance to the German war machine. Seven German oil plants were heavily attacked by separate raiding forces. The plants have a combined annual output capacity of nearly 1,500,000 metric tons. One of the heaviest blows was struck at the Rhenania Ossag mineral oil plant at Grasbrook near Hamburg which produces high grade lubricant and has an annual output capacity of 400,000 metric tons. Eight large fires were counted in the factory area. Numerous direct hits with high explosives are reported to have been scored on the great Hanover refinery Gewerschaft Deutsche Erdol. Parachute flares were used at Merseburge, near Leuna to locate an important hydro-generation plant, producing nearly 500,000 metric tons of benzine yearly. The mineral oil works at Reisholz, which were repeatedly bombed by relays for nearly 2\ hours, has an annual output capacity of 05,000 metric tors of fuel and lubricating products, great fires, several being visible over 60 miles away, blazed in the works area. In the Cherbourg operations over 10C0 high explosives and incendiary bombs were dropped in 3’, hours. PRISONERS IN GERMANY o BERLIN, Oct. 11 The Berlin news agency states that British war prisoners total 1550 officers and 35,500 non-commisisoned officers and men. SWEDISH SHIP SUNK LONDON, Oct. 11 The Swedish consulate in Dublin has notified the Swedish owners that the ship Siljan was torpedoed 350 miles westward of Ireland on September 29. A lifeboat with the captain and 8 members of the crew landed at Dingle on October 5, after being without food for three davs. The other 18 members of the crew are still missing. ELLERSLIE RACES Hunters’ Steeplechase: 7—7 KinMe, 9.7 (W. McKinnon), 1; 2—2 Pyrenees, 9.13 (J. H. Mcßae), 2; 5—4 Britiah Sovereign, 9.11 (F. E. Baker) 3. Scr.: Te Ronga, Conflagration. The winner paid close on a quarter of a century on the win machine. Love Lilt, Gar Vaals and Leighton Buzzard fell. The Welcome Stakes: Nuna, 8.0 (H. Long) and Pay Roll, 8.0 (W. J. Broughton), dcad-heat for first; Prince Plato, 8.5 (J. Sargent) 3. All started. OTAKI EVENTS Pahiko Hack Handicap: 2—2 Eupatrid (Kelly), 1; 5—3 Valiant Lady Mudford), 2; 9—lo Newbury Queen (Redstone) 3. All Started. DUNEDIN RACES Air Force Handicap: I—l Dorla (A. Messervy), 1; I —2 Don’t Forget (W. F. Ellis), 2; 4—4 Lord Nuffield (Jennings), 3. All started. Churchill Handicap: 3—3 The Raker (W. F. kills), 1: B—s Straightdell (L. W. Hare), 2; 4—6 ‘ Swordstick (Corlterbuck), 3. All started. NEW BRIGHTON TROTS Challenge Stakes: 3—2 Peter’s Find (G. Mitchell), 1; 4—4 Surprise Potts (M. R. Edwards), 2; I—3 Shadow Maid (J. Bryce, jun.), 3. All started. Neck, length. Times, 2.47, 2.47 1-5, 2.47 2-5. Avon Handicap: 3—2 Kilray (R. B. Berry), 1; 4—5 Great Blaze (B. Kidd), coupled with Philario, 2; I—3 Willowbank (D. C. Watte), 3. Scr.: Lady Carol, Happy Locanda and Zincalf.