Life in the Garden

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 19, 12 May 1909, Page 39

Life in the Garden

Practical Advice for Amateurs

SEEDS TO SOW THIS MONTH. Flower. — Dianthus, single and double; Gaillardia; Lupinus Arboreus; Mignonette; Pyrethrum; Sweet Peas. Vegetable.— Broad Beans; Carrot, Earliest Horn; Cabbage; Cauliflower; Lettuce, Cabbage; Onion, Brown Spanish; Radish and Mustard; Turnip, Earliest White; Peas. Early Dwarf. Roots. — Anemones, Iris, Ixias, Narcissus, Ranunculus, Gladioli (the Bride) ; Potato Onions, Eschalots, Garlic, Strawberries. Ji FLOWER ROOTS FOR PLANTING THIS MONTH. Albumins, Anemones, Crocus, Cyclamen. Freesias, Hyacinths, Ixias. Narcissus, Ranunculus? Scillas, Snowdrops, Sparaxis, Tulips. BULBS TO PLANT THIS MONTH. Anemones (St. Bridget and Single). Babianas, Crocus, Freesias, Hyacinths, (in pots, glasses or beds), Iris (Spanish). Ixias. Jonquils (single and double), Narcissus, Ranunculus Asiaticus Superbissimus, Sparaxis, Tritonias, Tulips (single and double). J* WORK TO BE DONE. Asparagus. Beds of asparagus should be given a good dressing of stable manure without delay, a top-dressing of salt or of kainit of potash will be of benefit. Fruit Trees. Where basic slag is intended for the orchard. May and .Tune are the best months to apply. Experiments have proved that this fertiliser gives the bestresults when applied to this season; 5 to 6 cwt to the acre is a fair dressing, but if the land is poor 10 cwt will not be too much. Kainit can be sown at the same time, and mixed with the slag it helps to make the sowing less unpleasant. Slag should always !>■ sown on a still day: there is great waste in sowing when it is windy. J* Garden Peas. THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG WAY OF SOWING. (j / F DEEPLY dug and liberally ma- / I nured soil is essential to sucJ I cessful pea culture, and, if possible, the ground should be turned up during the autumn, and left in a rough state until the approach of the sowing season, so that it may receive the benefits of exposure to weather. Peas are deep-rooting subjects, therefore the best results are most likely to be obtained by incorporating the manure with the soil at a good depth as the work of digging proceeds than by placing it in the trenches at the time the seed is sown, another advantage of the former method being that the roots of the plants are induced to spread a considerable distance on each side of the row in search of nourishment, whereas the latter method causes the roots to remain in the neighbourhood of the manure in the trenches, and obtain their nourishment and moisture from a comparatively small area of ground with the result that dry weather speedily has an unfavourable effect upon the plants. Peas should never be sown under or near to large trees, or drawn, unfruitful growth will be produced, and, if possible, the rows should run from north to south so that the sun will shine on both sides. Before sowing the seed, and when the soil is fairly dry and friaWe, the ground must be well raked and broken up and also lightly trodden.

The old-fashioned practice of sowing >eas in narrow V-shaped drills in the nanner shown in Fig. 1 herewith, is a uistake, and does not give the seeds a air chance to develop into strong, sturdy Hants; other common mistakes being daring the rows too closely together, ind sowing the seed too quickly, 'ketches 3 and 4 give a good idea of the lifference in the strength and condition >f the roots of properly sown peas and >eas sown too thickly. Shallow trenches, the width of an orlinarv spade, should he got out similar :o Fig. 2. and the seed be evenly distributed in the bottom, a pint of seed icing sufficient for a row about forty eet in length. The seed should l>e cov*red with line soil about one and auilf inches thick, and if the finished surface of tin* trench is a little below the natural grqiuid level as indicated by die dotted line A in Fig. 2, it will provide space for earthing the young plants is they grow. Birds are very partial to young peas, herefore. as soon as the seed is sown,

1. Wrong way. 2. The right way. 3. Result of thin sowing. 4. The plants are too crowded. several strands of black thread should be stretched up and down each row about an inch from the ground, or the rows be covered with tanned garden netting to provide protection. Mice aie often troublesome, and eat the seeds both before and after germination. As a preventive the seeds should be slightly damped and dusted with red lead before being sown, whilst trapping and poisonin’* are the only remedies after the seeds have commenced to grow. Repeated dustings of lime and soot will prevent slugs injuring the young plants.

Carter’s International Pea. The garden pea which is shown in the accompanying illustration is a new varity of great merit, Carter’s International. It received an award of merit from th" U.H.S. last year, and is the result of a cross between Carter’s well-known variety Early Morn and Duke of Albany. It is quite distinct both in shape of pod and in habit of growth. The pods are of rich green colour, containing eleven peas of excellent size and flavour. We believe this is the largest curved podded Marrow fat Pea at present in commerce. It is a second early variety, and grows 5 to 6 feet high. J* GLORIOSAS.

These very distinct flowering climbers are well worth a place in the stove. They are exceedingly showy plants, producing their elegant Howers during the latter part of the summer, and are easily

managed. They can he grown against a back wall, up the pillars. or they may he trained under the roof of a stove, out of the way of the other plants, and where the singular-looking flowers show to good advantage. It is now time to carefully repot the plants, which will have been kept through the winter in dry earth. The soil best adapted for them is a mixture of fibrous peat, light loam, good leaf mould, well-decomposed manure, and silver sand in about equal parts. It is necessary that the pots should be thoroughly well drained. When the roots are strong, they may lie put at once into the pots they are to be grown and flowered in. or they can be started in smaller ones, ami afterwards, when they have made some progress, be moved into larger ones. With sufficient room, these plants attain more size and are proportionately more effective. Full-sized roots should have 10inch pots; in the ca-e of roots that have not reached their full size, two or three roots may be put in a pot. and started in -a temperature of Oodeg. After potting, they will not. if the soil is in good order, require water until they show their growth; after this, a good moist heat is necessary, and care must be taken to keep red spider and thrip from

them. When the plants are growing fieeiy, they must be afforded abundance of water; weak liquid manure applied occasionally will be found to assist them very much, and they must be trained as they grow, or the tendril- with which each leaf is furnished at the apex will laconic so firmly fixed to other plants that it will he impossible to remove them without injury. After flowering, ami when the bulbs are quite mature, which will be ascertained by the foliage dying off entirely, the pots should be stored away on their sides in a warm place. Gloriosas are u-ually increased by divisions of the roots, but as (he roots an* very brittle and impatient of interference, the offset- -hould therefore Le carefully removed from tin* old bulbs when starting them in spring. Seeds can also he procured by artificial impregnation. therefore young plants may also be obtained in this way. (I. superha is a favourite with many, the Howerbeing of a deep orange and yellow colour. G. grand i flora i- another fine variety, having sulphur-yellow flowers. J.M.T.

MATHIOLA BICORNIS. The night smelling stork is one of the annuals that should not be forgotten, but which very often is. But. indeed, it is scarcely as well known as it ought to be. Certainly it has one drawback, which, no doubt, largely accounts for its limited cultivation. It closes its blossoms during the bright part of the day, and is only worth looking at in the evening. Then the little blossoms are very pretty, and when grown in patches of one or two dozen plants no one will see without admiring it. ami no one will approach within many yards of it without seeing it. attracted, as they will be. by its line, far-reaching odour. To smell a ro<e you must need" come into its immediate neighbourhood: to smell mathiola you need only come into a garden where it grows. A few plants will scent the garden, a sprig or two will scent the largest room, and the odour, although so powerful, is not of those that are overpowering. It is a most delightful pleasure to go into a garden In the (‘veiling where a patch or bed of this is sown. To grow it just sow it where it is to bloom.