IN THE GARDEN.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19146, 1 November 1927, Page 6

IN THE GARDEN.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS Shirlev.—Top bands 7011 sew round the stems of the apple trees are railed grease-bands, and arc put there to trap the wingless moths of such insects as the leaf-roller. The bands are made of pieces of sacking tied firmly round the stem, and then smeared with a thick, sticky crease, such as axle grcaec. When the wingless egg-laden moth crawls up the stem to get to the foliage and fruit to deposit it cannot get past the grease. Many moths are captured and killed by this means. If necessary the bands must, bo kept sticky by fresh applications.

WORK FOR THE WEEK. (SFECIALLT TBITTES FOB TH7. TRESS.) (By J. T. Sinclair.) VEGETABLES. Salad Crops— In hot, summer, weather, these crops are of more importance than is generally realised. Every fortnight a little seed ot. lettuce,' radish, mustard, and cress, and onions Uf yon aro particularly fond ot the last) should be sown, and you will then always have some succulent plants to pull. * All the. seeds mentioned should be sown in shallow drills, about an inch deep, and covered with fine soil. The border where the crops are grown should be one with fine, deeplyworked soil. For small families only a short drill is necessary for the lettuce radish and onions, but more of thfrnislrd-and cress will probably be used, and longer drills will bo requi. Ed If vou are pinched lor room, use the same ground over and oyer again, and as soon as on©, crop is cleared ott, fork over, and sow again, and change the crops when it can be managed; tor instance, the mustard and cress can ue orown whore the radishes wore, _n»iU the lettuce where the onions, were. 1 ins method always gives a slight rotation. When the soil is dry, it is not much uso sowing the seeds, for they will not germinate until rain comes, and i" such cases the crops are oiten "woody," or run to seed premature!} .■ and lack that delicious enspness so necessarv in them.. One can get over that difficulty by watering the bottom of the drills previous to sowing tlie seeds This will hasten ixermmation, and tho young plants will grow quickly in the hot sunshine, and will deve op fully if not stinted of water, provided the surface soil is frequently stirred with the hoe. The onions, mustard, and cress, and radishes, can be sown fairly thickly, as they will be thinned for use almost from the first. Ihe lettuce should be'sown thinly, or. there will be manv plant- to throw away, tor tho plants do not transplant well during hot, dry weather, and they need sufficient space between thpm to allow for proper development. Whether Cos or cabbage varieties are sown is all a matter of taste. Peas.— Successional crops of peas wi 1 require staking, and this crop, too, will he benefited by root waterings and surface mulchings during dry weather. Tf beasiire desired during January and February. another sowing may "ie made,- selecting main crop varieties, and placing the rows at sufficient distance apart so that they will not bo unduly shaded.

FRUIT. Thinning Fruit. —It will be found that 'the best of culture, so far as working the soil, manuring, and pruning, will be of little avail towards securing the finest fruits unless they are thinned on. tb,^.trees. A tree that is laden with fruit becomes exhausted, and'cannot possibly bring them all to perfection. Moreover, as we have pointed out before, a tree that is allowed to carry an enormous crop one year will invariably miss the.nest, for it is too exhausted to carry on year after year. Healthy trees of stone fruit have a habit of setting their: fruit in clusters, and that is quite all right 'n the case of cherries, .because the trees are soon relieved of their crop, but with peaches, nectarines, and apricots, clusters-of fruit should.not be tolerated. -The'final thinning should not take place until stoning is-finished, because before that some of the fruit will be sure to drop off. Of course,.when the crop is light, no thinning need be done.

Gooseberries. —When picking terries in their green state for stewing or pies, it is a. mistake to strip some bushes entirely aiid allow others to carry their full crop. Tt is much better, to take some fruit from all the plants, so that the berries left will improve in size and quality, and when they'are picked for des-fiert they will be much finer than when the full, load is left on.

FLOWERS. Dahlias. —These struck from cuttings can now be planted. Plants in'pots should be carefully removed so' that the ball of soil comes away .whole. It is an easy operation if it is carried out properly. The pot should be taken in the-right hand, the plant placed through between the second, and third fingers of the left hand aud turued upside dowu. The rim of the pot should be tapped lightly against the edge of a bos and the plant," with its ball of soil intact, will »lip out, resting linnly on tile left hand. See that the hole that is to receive it \is large enough to hold it comfortably. Make it with a trowel and loosen the surrounding soil. Let it be deep .enough to hide completely the whole of the pot soil. Plant firmly. After the. ball of soil has been placed in position, fill in the vacant spaco with fine soil and press - the collar of the plant down hard.. The professional gardener uses the handle of his trowel for the purpose of making the soil round the plant firm, and the amateur will find it ia good :plan to copy his example. When planting has been completed, give a good watering to settle the plants in their places and to stimulate the roots. Chrysanthemums.—There is no lack of subjects for late summer and early autumn seasons, and while some arc decaying others come on to take their place. But during late autumn our borders have often very little colour in them. To give tone to the garden during the fall of. the leaf there is no'thing better than the chrysanthemum. If planted out any time during this month and the points of the shoots pinched out about the middle of December, a brilliant display will Ik; secured at a time when few or no flowers are to be had. Needless to say, we are referring to late flowering kinds. Pruning Flowering Shrubs. —There is no doubt that the chief attractions of many of our suburban gardens are the flowering shrubs. All the spring and winter-blooming hardy shrubs should now be looked over with a view to thinning out old worn-out branches. Most of these flower chiefly on the young shoots produced last year. In pruning tho first thing to do is to cut all weak shoots, which, if unremoved, crowd and weaken the strong ones, much to their detriment. Cut away also main branches that are ill-fur-nished with young laterals needed to keep up a supply of flowering shoots for nest season's display. Tho cutting, away of these is essential to tho maintaining of" an annual supply of young shoots in.every part of the tree. Without a regular and .well-balanced distribution "f these the full beauty of the plant ci flowering time-is impaired.

[ ._. NOVEL 'LAWN. TREATMENT. (From "Weekly Scotsman.") Hitherto the treatment of lawns generally has followed stereotyped lines. In most cases, especially in villa and other small gardens, mowing and roling constitutes the whole of the work in the summer half of the year, and nothing is done during the other half. But lawns, wholly composed as they arc of plants, require, besides mowing and rolling, feeding and other attentions, just like other vegetable organisms, in order to keep them in good condition. The constant mowing to which they are subjected in the growing season removes a, great deal of organicmatter which, under natural conditions, would decay and furnish humus for the nourishment of the grasses, just as the leaves of the trees in .1 forest fall and rot on the ground aud thus form a suitable soil, not only for the tree seeds to germinate in which they fall, but for tiic nourishment of the parent plants as well. But all lawns are not treated in this way. Many of them receive a great deal of attention, and this is more especially true of those devoted to games such as bowling, tennis, golf, and cricket, as well as of those which form part of the gardens and pleasure grounds of the great mansions and other public and private buildings throughout the country. And there is nothing which adds more to the dignity of a fine, massive edifice than a great sweep of wellkept velvety turf relieved by suitably placed groups of shrubs aud floral arrangements. Such lawns as those involve a very great amount of labour 111 their upkeep. But even the smaller lawn involves a certain amount of labour in keeping it in order, for besides the mowing of it iu the growing season there is the eradication of weeds and other incidental operations to atterid to. Anything, therefore, which will lessen the manual labour involved in the upkeep of lawns, and at the same time will improve them, is to be gladly welcomed, aud there seems to be an immediate prospect of what may be looked upon as a complete revolution in lawn treatment, and which will greatly reduce the labour of upkeep.

The Acid Soil. Hitherto in our treatment of lawns \vc have worked under the belief that over acidity of the soil was detrimental to grasses generally, and that it was necessary to neutralise this acidity by applications of lime, basic slag, and other phosphatic manures, before \vc could have healthy growth of the grasses. There alway* has been a difficulty about this kind of treatment, as by the employment of phosphatic fertilisers, such as bone preparations, superphosphate, basic slag, etc., the growth of clover was greatly stimulated, and as this was very objectionable, especially in bowling greens, great care had to be exercised in applying these chemical fertilisers.

Some experiments which have been madu in the United States and Canada within the last few years have, however, completely upset old ideas about this matter. Instead of over-acidity of the soil being injurious, as we have so long believed, it seems to be absolutely necessary for the welfare of the finer grasses, which, of course, must form the matrix in any good turf, and in order to bring this acid condition about dressings of sulphate of ammonia(or ammonium phosphate) are applied and watered into th. soil at short intervals during the growing season. The applications are at 'the rate of 51b per 1000 square feet 'of turf, or about Joz to the superficial yard, and they are repeated at fortnightly intervals from September onwards. Beforc'it is distributed, the sulphate is mixed'with about .'■twice..Lts hulk of;4,sand, and -otic of the essential details in connexion ,with its application is that it must be watered in after it is put on.

I English Tests. The American experiments are being tested this season on the Stoke Pages Golf Links, Bucks, and, so far, ..they seem to corroborate the results obtained in the United States experiments. ' They : were started in spring of this year, and one of the results has been to show that on a treated plot, not only was the grass greatly improved, but in two months 50 per cent, of the weeds had completely disappeared, while in an untreated plot, used as a control, the weeds had increased. • The treatment is quite simple, and the cost of the fertiliser should be more than balanced by the saving in labour in weeding, besides much less disturbance of the turf by the operation's involved in their extraction.