FARM AND GARDEN CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume II, Issue 132, 6 December 1873, Page 3

FARM AND GARDEN CALENDAR FOR DECEMBER.

[FBOiI BE ED AND EflETt’S AXiIANAC J Flo web Qaeden. —Sow annuals for autumn flowering ; remove cinerarias and other plants past flowering. Thin out annuals in the borders ; take up bulbs that have done flowering ; cut down all stems past flowering ; many herbaceous plants thus treated will give a copious autumnal bloom. Look after insects, &c. The flower garden and greenhouse ought to exhibit their highest display during tins and the next month. Kitchen and Feuit Garden. —Keep the hoe going in all parts of the garden ; it not only destroys weeds and insect broods, but purifies and enriches the soil, invigorates the crops, and enables them to resist the effects of the drought. Sow brocoli towards the close of the month; sow cabbage, cauliflower, endive, French beaus, parsley, spinach, early peas, for late cropping, and turnip. Stick pt-as and scarlet runners, first earthing them up. Sow salad herbs, plant out celery and leeks, give plenty of manure, and watering with liquid manure iu dry weather. Stop tomatoes sharply bacs ; cut sweet basil and other pot herbs for winter use; save seeds of early’ peas and others as they come to maturity. Attend to transplanting this month. Keep down weeds, destroy insects. Strawberries, cherries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, peaches, and early plums will require gathering. Water the newly planted trees with weak liquid manure in dry weather. Thin out superfluous wood ; cut ofl’ all shoots appearing below grafts and buds ; remove suckers. Where it is intended to introduce new plants in any department of the garden it is advisable to visit the nurseries during the growing season, and select the plants preferred, so that disappointment may not bo incurred by delaying the order until the moment the plants are required, when the nurserymen’s stock is partially exhausted, and the most thriving plants have been sold to early customers. Famai. —Haymaking now commences in earnest; it is better to cut a little too early than to let the grass stand till it is over-ripe, except it is required for seed, when judgment must bo exercised, as if cut too early the seed will neither yield so well to the acre nor weigh so well as it should, and if allowed to stand too long a great deal is lost.