FARM AND GARDENING

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 10 April 1914, Page 6

FARM AND GARDENING

APRIL

[Corresponding with October in

Great Britain]

Kitchen Garvex. — Continue to plant cabbage, Savoy, celery, leeks, and lettuce for succession. Tie up a few endive and lettuce every fortnight to blanch. Mustard, cress, raddish, and prickly spinach sow according to requirements. Carrots and turnips, sow for winter and spring use. Sow cabbage and cauliflower. Unions, thin. Give a liberal supply of manure water to celery previous to moulding up. Mould up cabbage, cauliflower, leeks, etc. Attend to gathering fruit of egg-plant and chilies. Pumpkins and. pie-melons, gather and store away in a dry, airy place. Cucumbers, rock and watermelons will be over for the season. Clear away the old- vines, and have the ground thoroughly dug or trenched it necessary, and manured, in readiness foi cropping. Attend to gathering all crops as they come to maturity, especially onions and ' late-planted potatoes. Clear away all rubbish, a& it not only looks unsightly,, but forms a harbour fcr insects. Dig and trench all vacant ground. Sow with oats oi mustard any land not intended for cropping until spring.

Plower Gabden. • -All^ annuals past flowering should be cleared off. Sowi a few hardy\kinda of early flowering. Lift layers of carnations, etc., and plant either in a bed together or where intended to remain. PJant out antirrhinums, pansies. penstemons, etc. Plant the main stock of anemones, hyacinths, irises, narcissi. tulips, crocuses, etc., for early flowering. The foliage of all perennial plants should be cut away as it decays, and all plants ought to be marked or labelled to indicate their whereabouts. Spaces will be left through lifting tender plants and the decay of others ; a few hyacinths, tulips, ixias, etc., can be put in to fill their places, and they, in their turn, can be removed when the)*- have done flowering to make room for the border plants for another season. Let the border have a good bed and dressing of manure, and dig or trench it in at the same time. See that the whereabouts of all summer bulbs and tubers is properly marked. The OfcciiAUD. —All digging aud trenching of ground intended for a new or an extension of an old orchard should be finished this month. Ee~" move raspberry suckers that are not wanted, and make strawberry plantations if not done L.st month. Tie up trees and long shoots against at> proaching winter winds; remove tendrils and laterals from vines. Continue to collect apples and other fruit as they become fit to pull. Handle them gently, and mark the. good and inferior sorts-1 that you may cut back the latter and graft with the former. Late keeping pears and apples should be stored where the exhalations from the earlier ripening sorts will not reach them. Air may be admitted when the outside temperature is about equal to that inside the fruit-house. When air warmer than that inside the fruit-room is admitted, it causes moisture to gather on the fruit, which has the effect of* making it mould and rot. Gooseberries and currants may be propagated by cuttings towards the end of the month. Take care to remove all buds from the lower part of gooseberry cuttings as high as three inches above the depth they are inserted in the soil. Look well to your figs that they become not' over-ripe, dnd your grapes, and if you want a bunch of .the latter to keep fresh for a while, cut it with a little of the wood. Cape gooseberries require looking after ; gather the fruit before it falls off, and spread out to dry before husking. Look well to all drains and water-courses of every kind, wet weather is fast approaching, , Farm.—Finish sowing all grasses as early as possible in the month. This is a good month to sow Algerian oats ; two bushels seed to the acre sown now will give good results, and will allow being fed off once or twice before shutting for crop. Then oats may be sown'froin now till September. Ewes put to rams this month will latnb in September. Lift all potatoes, and if not sold immediately put into good pits. Now thai the blight is here, it is advisable to keep in the bags for a • short time, and re-pick before pitting. | Clean out drains and water-courses. i