GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR MAY.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 391, 2 May 1879, Page 2

GARDEN MEMORANDA FOR MAY.

WRITTEN EXPRESSLY TOR THE AKAROA MAIL

Flower Garden. This department is still interesting, the crysanthemurn, queen of autumn flowers, is now making our borders gay with their many colored flowers. If a little attention has been paid to arranging the plants as to height and color, no flower is more attractive at this season. Plant bulbs of crocus, narcissus, hyacinth, jonquil, tulip, &c. Choice trees and shrubs such as rhododendron, lauristinas, cypress, laurel cedar, and pine trees may now be planted. There are many of our native shrubs, such as matipos, which are deserving of more attention than there is generally bestowed on them. Kitchen Garden.

This is the first month of winter, and a favorable time for making any alterations, such as the forming and gravelling of paths, and the preparing for and planting of live fences, which succeed best when planted as early in the season as the plants can be moved with safety. Plant thorn, six inches apart; holly, twelve inches; privet, sweetbriar, and broom, nine inches. Thorn hedge rows that have had one year's growth, if strong, should now be cut down close to the ground. The cutting down tends to thicken them at the root, and the growth will be for years after more vigorous. Plant rhubarb, asparagus, and seakale, in deep rich ground, clear away the ripened haulm of asparagus, fork over the bed loosening it well, then apply six or eight inches of fresh seaweed, and cover with sis inches of well rotted stable manure. Give rhubarb plenty of manure, it will pay for it next season. Plant cabbage and cauliflower, sow peas and beans in warm sheltered places. Manure and dig all unoccopied ground so that it may have the benefit of the winter's frost. Keep weeds down by every possible means. Fruit Garden. Get ground in readiness for the planting of fruit trees and bushes, it is not advisable in trenching ground to bring the subsoil to the surface, but it must be well loosened to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet, trees planted this month will succeed better than those planted later in the season. Pruning may be done when the trees and bushes have shed their leaves—not before.