GARDEN NOTES

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24896, 8 June 1946, Page 5

GARDEN NOTES

(Specially Written for “The Press.”) [By T. D. LENNIE. F.1.H.. N.Z.]

THE FLOWER GARDEN Pruning of shrubs and hedges is now due. With most shrubs the aim should be to improve the shape—few of them need spurring as for fruit trees. Take the tops off over-tall shrubs, and where one is too thick or out of balance, remove the offending branch.

Hedges are a different proposition. They are grown mainly as a screen or to give shelter, and compact thick growth is desired. This can only be got by close attention from the time of planting, especially in side clipping to induce soft growth. The winter clipping should be more drastic than the December one. Old hedges that have got too wide may be cut hard back on one side now, especially in the case of evergreens like privet laurel, or lonicera.

Macrocarpas should not be trimmed past the green fringe, as they will not break again from the old boughs. Prune hydrangeas by thinning out some of the growths. To shorten hydrangeas indiscriminately means few flowers next summer,

Gladiolus corms in store will be helped by a dusting of naphthalene to discourage thrips and slaters. Soaking the corms in a formalin or colloidal sulphur bath is also advised.

Dahlias may be dug up if necessary, and stored in a shed, covered with soil and straw to protect from frost. It is necessary to ensure that water is drained from the stalks before storing. Prepare sites for roses, by digging in deeply generous forkfuls of compost or old manure.

While green matter may with advantage be buried in 3 trench with a lime covering, it is not advisable to be toe lavish at one time. Six inches should De the limit, where seeds are to follow shortly, or the young roots may sicken.

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN Sow early peas, broad beans, and silver beet.

Place seed potatoes to sprout in boxes under cover.

Plant early cabbage, cauliflower, and lettuce.

Lime and dig over all vacant patches. Leave green crops till next month. It is not advisable to leave dug ground in too fine a tilth Frost and weather are excellent tonics.

Rhubarb crowns should be lifted and broken up every third year. Divide with the spade into handy, sturdy crowns, and place under the hedge for a month or so without covering.

Prune gooseberry bushes, currants, and logans. All these benefit from a suitable thinning. Carrots and parsnips can now be dug, and the ground limed and dug over. This will help to exterminate wireworm and grubs. THE FRUIT GARDEN It is a mistake to leave apples and pears on the trees any longer. Pruning and spraying may now be begun. Begin with peach and nectarine trees by shortening leaders to strong side laterals. Cut out inner growths and reduce fruiting branch laterals to about four eyes. Spray these with lime sulphur at winter strength, one in 10. Pears require something of the same rudimentary pruning, but apples should be worked to produce fruiting spurs along the main branches. For those affected by scale insects and woolly aphis, a red oil spray is neded. Vines should now be cleared of leaves and soft twigs, and the vines let down from the roof for cleaning and hardening up. Prepare for the planting of fruit trees. The sites should be dug out to a depth of two to three feet and the subsoil dug over. It will benefit the trees to bury in the holes builders’ rubble, brickbats, or old tins. All fruit trees require ready access to lime matter.

NEW ZEALAND SPINACH It oftens seems to me that New Zealand spinach is not sufficiently appreciated as a winter vegetable. Although perhaps not suited to all digestions, it gives a quick growth of young shoots to make an appetising dish, and will grow anywhere. This spinach, Tetragonia expanse, is a low-growing herb found growing in seashore places from Stewart Island northwards. It is stocked by most overseas seed firms as far away as Denmark and Germany, and deserves more attention in its homeland.

ORCHARD IN LITTLE Mr E. O. Petersen’s Fruit Growing in the Home Garden (A. H. and A. W. Reed. 31 pp.). No. 13 in the publishers’ series of gardening books, deals concisely with all the familiar fruits. Something is said about the choice of varieties for desired characteristics and for local conditions of soil and climate. (One wonders when the range of apples grown in New Zealand will be bettered by dropping certain mediocre varieties from recommended lists and introducing others, which English orchardists have proved.) Cultivation, pruning, and spraying are very clearly described.