GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR NOVEMBER.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 240, 5 November 1878, Page 3

GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR NOVEMBER.

WRITTEN EXPRESSLY FOR THE AKAROA MAIL.

Kitchen Garden,

Continue successional sowings of peas and broad beans. Should the soil be dry the time of sowing, it is a good plan "after the drills have been formed to run a potful or two of water along the bottom of each ; then sow the seeds and cover immediately. This is a much better and more natural plan than steeping seeds, and the ground will retain the moisture thus imparted better than by surface watering, whilst the germination of the seeds will be considerably accelerated. Sowings of while stone turnips, spinach, radish, lettuce, mustard and cress should be made so as to have always a supply of young and tender crops of them. Swede turnips sown now will be fit for use in winter. Although considered by some a field crop, they are an excellent winter vegetable.

Vegetable marrows, pumpkins, watermelons, and tomatoes raised in shelter may now with safety be planted out; tomatoes may be planted at the bottom of a wall or paling, to be trained against them, or in continuous lines across the garden to be ultimately supported by stakes. A good plan when bricks are to be had is to place them on the ground, and peg the plants down upon them —the heat from the bricks ripens the fruit. Keep the hoe going amongst all growing crops, to loosen the ground as well as killing- weeds.

Fruit Garden

Fruit trees, especially vines, peaches, nectarines, and some of the stronger growing plums, produce more young wood than is good for the tree at present, or favorable for fruit producing afterwards. Pinch out, therefore, all superabundant shoots, leaving the tree symmetrical and well proportioned. If good marketable fruit is desired thinning .must be done, and with no sparing hand either. It is a bitter pill to swallow, stiil it must go down, that unless something is done to improve our fruit, the name of Akaroa condemns it in any market. With the exception of those from one or two gardens, our apples are useless. Early stone fruits are what our growers should devote attention to. Already the up-country growers in Otago can beat us out of -the market -at a later season.

We have sat under our vines and fig trees so long, merely putting out our haiids to gather what bountiful nature produced without any exertion oh our part; that now we can hardly believe the fact that nature must he assisted, else everything that springs from the soil will deteriorate.

Examine raspberries, and remove all suckers with the exception of four, or at most five, of the strongest for next year-'s fruit. Give strawberries frequent liberal waterings. It will assist them in swelling their fruit. Flower Garden. Dahlias, hollyhocks, sweet peas, Brompton stocks, and other tall growing plants will now require to be staked. Attend to newly planted out verbenas, petunias, &c, so that they do not suffer for want of water. Keep all beds and borders neatlyhoed and raked ; unless that is done, it matters not how fine or rare the plants maybe, they are lost it in company of such vulgar fellows as thistles, mallows, <fee. However small the plot is, if well kept, there is always a pleasure in looking at it. Grass lawns and verges should be frequently mown. If allowed to get too long they look brown and withered after being mown.