THE PLANTING SEASON.

Shannon News, 7 August 1923, Page 3

THE PLANTING SEASON.

(Palmerston “Standard.”)

The best ol' the planting season begins in August lor most flowering shrubs, but lor all that it neveir does to neglect any opportunity wihen f the ground is in a fit condition'. It is better to wait until September than it is to plant shrubs in wet and cloggy ground. It is not only bad for the soil to have to tramp it when wet. Shrubs, put into ia hole with water will never do any good. The moving and planting of shruibs in the borders often becomes necessary from overcrowding, or from a wish to have have the garden different front that which has been in the past. This work should only be done whein the ground is in a fit condition to work. It very often happens that plants and trees that have been ordered some time ago come to hand before the gardener is ready. for them .and tills is a thing; that is very likely to happen in a season like the present one. The. grower has to take the. opportunity of getting them up as the weather allows. These plants will not take any harm if they are heeled in in some fairly dry corner until such time as they are wanted. Some of them will com© with their roots packed in sacking and earth and if these halve been done for some time it is better to plant them, sacking and all, than it is. to take the sacking away from their roots. Deciduous trees and plants are somewhat different, and as a rule their roots are not balled; these may be taken out in a hole large enough to take them at their fullest spread. The depth to plant will depend upon the depth that they were growing in the nursery and it is neveir wise to plant them deeper than they have been growing in the nursery. Broken and damaged roots should be carefully cut off and a little fine and fairly dry soil sprinkled amongst them. This should be trampled down, well and the rest of the soil filled in and the top left loose. The question is. often asked as to what kind of manure to use when putting the tree in. the ground. It is a mistake to use any manure when planting a tree of any kind; a little leaf mould would not do any harm, but it is® far better to have the soil in a good condition and the manure can be given when the roots of the plant are established land are in a condition to assimilate it. If manure is given U is rather more likely to do harm, than good, and wet have repeatedly seen trees that have been manured when planted die as soon as their roots reached the manure. They cannot use the stuff and it only acts as a poison on them 1 .

VEGETABLES. As soon as the weather and ground are dry enough put in- the first crop of potatoes, With this crop it is necessary to put in a certain amount of manure and it should he as strawy as possible. In fact there are soma growers who prefer straw by itself without the. manure, and they certainly seem, to get potatoes early enough for anybody. The first sets should be chosen of a size largei enough to plant without having to cut them at all. It is a, good plan to have some straw handy to cover over the plants as soon as they come up, particularly cn nights when it is likely to freeze. Pdas should be sown regularly every fortnight now. Choose a dwarf km a for sowing in August and ge.t 'a, taller growing kind to follow on with;. Ij.e ground for peas should be heavily limed. We have found that it is a good plan to sow lime in the rows with the seed and the haulms vul come a better colour and the peis themselves will be a better coloui. We were rather astonished last season to notice that in a certain part ol a field of peas that some were a muen better green than the others and on asking the reason were told that the green strip had been limed. a° tried the same thing and found that wherever lime Was used that a betiei crop resulted and the peas were a better flavour. 'Sow broad beans now and give plenty of room between the plants. This is a crop that will not stand overcrowding: Prepare the ground for onions as soon it can be walked upon and plant out a ioa\ of shallots at once;.