GARDEN NOTES

Levin Daily Chronicle, 7 September 1918, Page 1

GARDEN NOTES

Thorc lias been little improvement in plant life during the past week. Most of the seeds and plants as also shrubs and tices, are waiting for warmer weather. Generally speaking X should think the season is at least four weeks behind many other seasons in recent years. Consequently, what one might "have put in his garden last year in June, .Inly, or August, would not necessarily bring the same results to-day. The beginning of September should find a decided change, and great growth, which is ncccssary to make up for the backward season. Saturday afternoon to the amateur gardener is a bit of a windfall. It is then that he puts through a few jobs which could not easily be done, either in the early morning before the rush breakfast is taken, or towards evening, when the failing light prevents the enthusiast from doing any more than a hurried look round. The preparing of the ground for vegetable crops must be pushed on. A few rows of peas can be planted I according to requirements. Plant a few rows of potatoes. Plantings of lettuce, cabbage, cauliflower, etc., should bo made. Small sowings of lettuce, radish, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, ! etc., can* be made. A litle and often should be the motto. . Make a small sowing of carrots, to pull early, also sow a row or two of spinach; it matures quickly, and any left can be dug in as a green manure. Asparagus beds should be cleaned, and if new ones arc thought of they should bo prepared at once, ready for planting at the end of the month. Plant out another batch of cabbage. Select a warm, sunny spot, and half fill the land with manure. Cabbage should move quickly. Any vegetable that is left untended gets tougli and stringy. Only by forcing the pace do wo keep the young stuff in the pink of eondition. Bed beet is worth planting. Set the seedlings out in rows ten inches apart, with six or eight inches between the plants. Little beets grow quickly when properly tended. They are a nice Kne to have on the premises. If you have no secdliugs- handy at home, a bundle of 25 can b c bought for sixpence. You might as well broadcast a packet ! of beet seed so as to be ready with j young stock for a future day. Beets 1 take very littl c handling. Any sunny bed that can be watered will do for a nursery place. Bake over the surface, water it freely, then scatter the seed. Top off with a cover of manure, and see that the soil is not allowed to, dry out. In six weeks time the young • things should be big enough for trans- h planting. _ | Buy and plant rhubarb rootg. This vegetable or fruit makes a very excel- ; lent addition to the vegetable garden. It revels in rich soil, and seems always to bo thirsty. The roots should be planted a yard apart, in rows. Keep the crown of the plant an inch or so ' below the surface, and firm the soil .around the roots so as to ensure the 'barb getting a good start. Old plants ought to be giyen a very liberal dressing with manure to help them along. Rhubarb grows readily from seed, and gets to the fruiting size in about 18 months. The young plants can be shift- , ed from the seed bod early and run out ; in rows, where they might bo allowed , to stay until next autumn, when the j linal transfer can bc effected. This is ( the time for sowing rhubarb seed. i SMALL SOWINGS AND FREQUENT. ! AU salads should be sown sparingly, I unl at periods of about every three or , four weeks instead of one big sowing, ! which results in valuable soil being oe- j cupied with woody radishes and turnips •\nd tough lettuce. ■Tuiey and sweet white turnips can bo obtained in six or- eight weeks in fair growing weather; radishes, • three or ?our weeks; young lettuces, five or six weeks; large transplanted lettuces ibout eleven weeks; mustard and cress, !wo or three weeks, according to weafher and soil. This shows the need for conomical sowings for succession. HOW TO USE THE HOE. Some gardeners waste an enormous amount of strength in hacking at the "round and doing little or no good. VVlien so used, the hoe may disturb the weeds, but as'it leaves them in clods of soil, they continue to grow and quickly run 'to seed. No hacking is required, even on the heaviest land. The movement should always bc a scraping one at first, gradually deepening and slicing into the ground as it gets nearer the feet. By the repetition of this movement the whole of the surface is eventually scraped, and the whole of the soil close underneath it is sliced through, with the result that all small weeds on the surface are cut through and killed, and all larger and deeprooted weeds are brought to the top, where they are left lying exposed to the air, and are soon withered up—of course, in dry weather, the only time when hoeing should be done. A good workman never treads on the ground which he has hood. To do that would be. to press the weeds in again.— "Garden Life." THE FLOWER GARDEN. Finish pruning the roses, and then clean and manure the beds. Clean border carnations of any diseased foliage. Beds of stocks, nomesias, etc., that are planted should have the surface hoed. Take chrysanthemum cuttings as procurable a,nd any of the earlier rooted that arc ready should be potted. Sweet peas are growing fast now, and will need attention to keeping the growths properly trained. Bulbs arc now flowering, and the hoc should bc kept going to keep the surface of the ground stirred and the weeds down. Sows seeds of astors, phlox, drummondi nomesias, and other half-hardy annuals. *If a, greenhouse or frame is not available, protect the surface from heavy rains. A few begonias and gloxinia bulbs should be brought out for starting where there is accommodation to grow them in.