GARDEN CALENDER. DECEMBER.

Dunstan Times, Issue 294, 13 December 1867, Page 3

GARDEN CALENDER. DECEMBER.

Kitchen' Garden 7 .—How unlike the same month in the Home Country ! Wo have aim 'dance of green Peas, new Potatoes, and Strawberries, and are enjoying the perfume of the Hose, the Honey-suckle, and the Sweet Briar. This is a busy month in the garden : vegetables are growing vigorously, root, crops require thinning, Peas and Beans staking, and, above all, weeding; and hoeing has to be attended to. Peas, sow ? also French Beans and Pamn rs, Turnip, early Horn Carrot, Lettuce and Padish. Early varieties of the Potatoe may still be planted. A slight top dressing of stable manure mired with sand v ill be nc-fit Onion and Leek beds if the growth be at all backward ; and in the oven 1 of dry weather, wa ter with weak guam or manure water. (M-----ery will bo improved by the same treatmanh Fruit Garde'- 7 .—The little Cherry-eat-ing birds are busy nibbling (l.e fruit as it

begins to color. ’ Wo would like to know bow to protect our trees from the depredati jus of thes epretty little intruders : they are so small that the nets used to protect Cherries in Britain are no use here. Train ed trees now require eying or nailing. Slight frosts, which occasionally occur this month are apt to blister the leaves of Peach and Nectarine trees. A temporary copping of scrub, to project about afoot over the top of the wall or fence on which they are trained, will protect them. Pinch the tops off the strongest growing shoots of young fruit trees, to equalize the growth, and induce a bushy habit. Heraove all suckers as they make their appearance below grafts lately put on, and pinch the tops off their main shoots when they have pushed tavo nr three inches. This will induce the growth of lateral shoots, and in some measure prevent them from being injured by wind. Floiver Garden.—See that Dahliahs and Hollyhocks are well secured to s'a'-c*, and encourage growth by frequent waterings with liquid manure. Lilian, Phloxes, &c. will require stakes ; and Verbenas, Potnneas, and other trailing plants, pegging down. Stake Sweet Peas, Canary Creeper, and Convolvulus Major. Sec that annuals are not too thick, anil let all thinning be lone whilst the plants are young YoumFuschias now making ranid growth should be encouraged by shifting into larger sized pots, and watering twice a-week with weak gu mo water.