GARDEN NOTES
-9 (By "Kowhai.") PAEONIES. During recent years tho paeony has been so improved Hint now tho hybrids are amoDg our most beautiful flowers. Nearly everyone, knows tho old pink or dark-red. varieties that wero at one time a feature of nearly every cottage garden, but only, those who have been really interested realise tho beauty and variety of the paeony of the present day. The single varieties are wonderfully beautiful, and both double and single may bo had now in almost evory conceivable shade. In addition to tho herbaceous varieties there is also the tree paeony. This is a flowering shrub of great beauty, and should bo more popular than it is. Planted in a sheltered position, in woll-ilug, well-manured soil, it docs remarkably well. Pnconies aro not fond of being moved, and often fail to flower the first, senson after removal. This'is especially tho enso if they are moved during the earty part of spring, for then they arc' making their fibrous roots. As; they make, fibrous roots only opco a yenr, during spring, it is easily understood how. disastrous it is to move the plants at such an important time. During tho autumn pneonies • make. their main or basal shoots, and removal should take place before the plants have completed- this process. Onco planted, they may bo left for a number of years, and will produce every season many beautiful flowers. But before planting the ground must be very thoroughly prepared. Remember that you will not hare a chance of. improving tho soil for a long time, and so do it thoroughly at tho beginning. It is as well to remove the top soil and thoroughly break up the subsoil. Mix with it some well-rotted manure and some bonctfust. Replaco tho top soil and mix with it also some well-rotted manure and some bonedust. Pneonies grow equally well in sun or' in shade; they are splendid for helping to fill up shadv corners or gardens shaded by trees. The plants should be given a rich mulch of well-rotted. manure and decayed leaves every autumn, and during autumn, winter, and early spring the ground should frequent!v lie saturated with liquid manure. This is tho .-period of greatest root aotivitv of pneonies. and it is thon that food in the shape of liquid manure is of the greatest help to them. PREPARING THE GROUND FOE : .TREES AND SHRUBS. . It is in prepai'ing the- ground ■• and planting, more than in anything else, that the secret of successful shrubgrowing lies. Before planting.a Shrub one should consider how long it is, going to bo in that same place. Some shrubs go on growing in the 6ame spot' for very many years. How necessary then to prepare the ground well beforehand! It is the one golden opportunity of really attending to the soil that is to nourish for an indefinite'time the iuture plant. If only, too, more people would realise how intensely grateful for good treatment plants are. A well-planted, welltreated flowering shrub repays u? with a wealth of beautiful blossoms season after season. The plant is healthy, too, and a real pleasure to its. owner. A shrub : stuck carelessly into unprepared ground is handicapped for life. The roots at the ve-ry outset have a terrible struggle to" supply nutriment to the plant. What wonder, then, • that the shrub is poor, stunted, a prey to ill-health and a producer of insignificant blooms? In preparing the ground for shrubs it is always advisable; to trench from 11 to 2 feet deep. Even shallow rooters. iippreciato deeply-dug ground. In heavy soils this is. especially necessary, for shrubs dislike being in ground that holds cold, stagnant water in winter, just as much as we dislike having our feet shut up
in cold, wet boots. Tho addition of manure to the soil for shrubs is, as a rule, unnecessary. ■ Deep -diggina necessarj': drainage, 'flji<l the addition, in.some cases, of good leaf-mould or peat and a little sand, arathegeneral needs of flowering shrnbs in the garden. If rcaniir» is used it should be well-rotted, and should be kept m the bottom spit. Finely-worked, sweet soil is what the roots require in tfa ß top spit. In digging, teen- tho top soil to the top.- If the subsoil is brought up on top it is not so acceptable to the newly-planted roots, and often gives them a bad start. la planting, sweet fane soil should bo planted firraiy round the roots. The depth at which to plant is a question that often worries amateur gardeners, and in their zeal, they often make % mistake of planting too deep. Experts advise, as a rule shallow planting. The feeding roots are then near the surface, and so have plenty of air and the sweetest soil. After the shrubs have been planted, the soil about them should be kept well cultivated. Weeds should be removed, and the soil hoed frequently. Water and mulches should be supplied as necessary, and pruning and thinning regularly attended to. On the whole, flowering shrubs give very little trouble, especially when well started, and there is such a wonderful varioty now of beautiful hardy flowering shrubs that we can havo a constaut succession of them in bloom. LIFTING GLADIOLI. ' Gladioli cornis that havo not j already been lifted should be attended' to at once. Spread thorn out on the floor of a shed for a day or two to dry. Any dry earth may thon be shaken from the corms, the loaves should be cut off, and the corms stored in paper-bags till planting time. Gladioli deteriorate if the conns are left in the ground season after season. , VEGETABLES. Preparations for early spring should be going on apaco in overy vegetable garden. Tho soil is in fine condition for working, and trenching should be pushed on with before winter sets in. .Welldecayed vegetablo rubbish should bo worked into the second spit. Vegetables love to send tbeir roots down into docayed vegetable matter. Thpso who can get an old "stack bottom," havo fine stuff for burying in the vegetable garden. Where the ground is not wanted for some time, the surface soil may- bo left rough for the weather to sweeten. Peas, broad beans, carrots, onions, and turnips may all be sown. Early varieties of cabbages and cauliflower may bo sown if plants are not available. , The seeds may be sown straight into tho drills to ayoid.tho check that plants aro subject to when transplanted. '. If tho seeds of cabbage and cauliflower aro to be sown in (he (kills, the sail should bo made very firm, and two seeds should bo sown at intervals of one foot. Later, surplus seedlings may be pulled up and transplanted. Cabbages, etc., that aro being sown or planted out now, should bo in drills three feet apart. For the noxt two months the ground between tho drills should bo turned over and over, time after time, and plenty of manure and decayed vegetable rubbish should be dug deeply, into it. After a time, as the cabbage plants are carthod up with this onrichod soil, a shallow tronch will be formed between the rows. Go on working into this trench plenty of-decayed vegetable rubbish and manure, and then about the middle of July, or carlior in mild districts, plant your early potatoes there. How thoy will lovo the thoroughlyworked and manured ground betweou the rows of cabbages! The cabbages, too, will keep them warm and sholtored from frost. Early in spring, as tho cabbages, etc., aro cut for use, tho sweet, rich soil that was earthing them up will bo turned back to earth-up tho potatoes. JSoert I add that you will got "something like a crop of early potatoes? Since the recent heavy, rain, slugs are out in armies. ' During one short night wholo plants as if by magic. There is nothing for it but a dai.y slughunt. If thoy are dropped into a small pail of salt water they wiU ho no further trouble. _. Woeds aro growing vory quieh-ij. -uig in those that aro still young; pull up nntl burn those that are forming seed. Collect and rot down, rubbish, leaves, and woeds for digging into tho so 1 foi mulching. Burn sucl. things as docks hedge-trimmings, or weeds that aro in seed, and scatter, tho ash o,er tho vegetablo garden. Waste nothing.
"Gardon Notes" next week will conlain seasonable notes about r Preparing aster-beds, Prurtus Hume, and vegetables.
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Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3082, 12 May 1917, Page 15
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1,408GARDEN NOTES Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3082, 12 May 1917, Page 15
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