GARDEN NOTES.

Shannon News, 13 September 1927, Page 4

GARDEN NOTES.

SPRING IN THE GARDEN. The busy rush of spring work is with us again, and from the gardeners point of view how important this same work is. On what we sow and plant depends the future success of our beds and borders. With warmer days seeds are germinating more freely and sowings may be/made of most flowering annuals in boxes. Such tilings as asters, zinnias, ainarauthus, and celosia which require a fair amount of warmth are best left a few weeks longer. There, are so many desirable subjects which we want to find room for and owners of small plots have often great difficulty in making their decisions. There are gardeners and gardeners, some love colour and flowers of brilliant hues are selected, others revel in all the softer tones and in the end with continual planning and struggling for the w'anted effect our garden is really ourselves, and betrays our personality. For this reason advice on colour sehenfes is not always acceptable, some love the combination of our beautifui, stately delphiniums associated with small arches of pale pink rambler roses, another will crave to own a wall covered with Virginian creeper, fronting this, masses of the white tobacco plant, finished with a wide edging-of lobelia. The effect of this combination is certainly beautiful, the vivid colouring of the- Virginian creeper shows the w r hite flowers off to perfection, while the searching blue of the lobelia stretches its keen line in fine contrast to* the waxen lily-like beauty of the tobacco flowers, in the cool of the evening tobacco plants give their perfume and raise their white faces to the sky, during the heat of the day they fold into a pathetic buff of despair. All gardeners should keep a small diary where notes can be jotted down of those things which from observation, bloom and blend well together. The effect of a border is spoilt for colour effect if one part of it has finished blooming before the other commences. Personally, 1 much prefer to plant those varieties which have a long bloom ing period such as bonfire salvias, zinnias, phlox drummondi, marigolds, antirrhinums, iceland poppies, scliizanthus, and eschscholtzias. There are so many beautiful colours of the latter that a

whole bed devoted to their culture is a

, wonderful sight, the lovely satiny '*• blooms viewed in the sunlight are glorious.

To return to routine work, the beds and borders are calling for immediate

attention, weeds have grown apace throughout the wet spell, but these perforce must wait awhile, while we fill seed boxes with sifted loamy soil where seeds are sown to refill and brighten the borders throughout the summer and autumn months. While these are germinating and developing into sturdy plants, every available nook and corner should be hoed in readiness. The au-tumn-sown sweet peas are growing rapidly, make another sowing now for later blooming, one cannot have too many of these charmingly scented annuals. The Vegetable Garden. At favourable opportunities noe all ground and work as finely as possible where it is intended to make sowings of carrots ,turnips, etc. Row a few seeds of marrows and cucumbers f-or early use. These suffer from transplanting, but a good idea is to sow a seed or t\i*o in discarded bird’s nests. When the plants are showing a few rougn leaves; they may be placed in their permanent, quarters, suffering no check, the nests may be tightly packed in a seed box for convenience. Bow a few seeds of lc-ttuce every few weeks for suecessional crops., Hoe all growing crops as soon as possible. Prepare pumpkin and marrow beds, digging in a generous supply of manure. Violets, and. Their Culture.

Violets, beloved of all, exquisitely perfumed. llo\y we love the first, sh/ bloom which always seems to smell sweeter than those which follow. In the sick room a bunch of these favourites bring h'ope and cheer, with thoughts of spring-time and the garden. In the garden a few clumps, or a row, dotted with blooms is enough to fill the air with fragrance and one never grows tired of these shy blue flowers, so heavily laden with delicious scent. At the present time all varieties are blooming profusely down to the lowgrowing doubles. These are not so highly, scented as some singles and have much smaller leaves, they are well suited for the rock garden, where they are seen at their best in a suitable nook,the delicate tendrils roaming at will among the rocks. Here, too, they are easier to, keep guarded from slugs, which are fond of nibbling at the halfopened buds. The parma violet is the most-sought after with its pretty blooms of mauve. Among the singles thers is the shy white violet, which loves to hide its purity among its luxuriant foliage, these are highly fragrant. Others are ' quite reddish tinted, and some again have stolen their colouring from the sky. Not so well known is the sulphur yellow variety, and newer still are the dainty vieu rose ones, the colouring of theso is unique, the blooms are small, but exceptionally dainty. The * large blue singles are more

'generally cultivated, and are grown extensively for market purposes. There i f ,, are many beautiful forms of, these \.' - some varying in shape and depth of jv'j , colouring. in'The writer's favourite among them is

‘ ‘ Kitchener, ’ ’ this variety has many good points. The quality of the blooms is all that could be desired, the large size of which in nowise detracts from its fragrance. This violet commences to bloom in the late autumn, provides a few blooms all though the winter months, and in" spring, is a veritable sheet of blue. The flowers are very noticeable as they stand on long stems well above the foliage which is very low growing, while t!Te plants are blooming. Culture. Regarding the culture of me violet much depends on whether they are grown for ordinary garden purposes, or for market. They are not really particular as-to soil and will grow and bloom both in shade and sunshine, even on clay and chalky soils the violet wdJI thrive, but for market purposes, the first thing to .take into consideration is how to get them early. The earliest violets are the best paying violets and even in the home garden the early blooms are highly prized.

This means that the violet bed must be provided with good drainage, where the clay is close it would be advisable to remove a spade depth of it replacing with something of a loamy nature, roadside turfings are splendid for the pur-

pose. The finest flowers are to bo had on oenply-workeo. loams, which have been liberally dressed with farmyard riianure at the rate of 40 tons to the acre beingallowed. One thing’ is important, the manure must be evenly incorporated with the soil, or one plant will look extremely well, while its neighbour is left behind. Wood ashes and leaf mould worked in the soil helps to provide a genial rooting medium. Plant them one foot apart and keep all the runners removed.

The strong tips of runners root quickly, and if stock is short the long runners may be cut into pieces and dibbed firmly in the soil, these soon root, either in autumn or spring and make nice plants, which will give some of the very largest blooms in autumn and winter, though they never grow into such huge plants as the strong vigorous growths that come up from the base of old plants. All roots must be made very firms when planting, and if growing them extensively room should be allowed between the rows for hoeing, as they should be kept scrupulously free from weeds at all seasons. If possible, choose a site where the sunshine strikes for the best part of the day, sheltered from cold winds by a wall or a plantation. Most all violets develop a lot of lateral growths from the main crown, it is important that these should bo cut off- in order to enable the crown to build up its flower buds. When grown in large quantities this is often done with the spade. In the autumn a dressing of soot is very helpful, worked among the plants, or a dressing of bonemcal or blood and bone fertilizer could be used with benefit to -the winter blooms. The roots of violets should be disturbed as little as possible and no large lumps of soil or farmyard manure should be left underneath them for the roots to come in contact with. One row well planted and cared for will provide more blooms and of better quality than half a dozen rows .grown in a haphazard manner. For an ordinary garden display it is a good plan to edge the rose borders with them. The violet derive the benefit from the annual top-dressings which are usually provided and the runners are easily kept within bounds. Betterdrainage is, or should be, provided for the roses and this is all to the good for the violet, moreover, the sunniest position is usually chosen for the roses and some shelter provided from rough cold winds. If contemplating planting violets the work should be undertaken as soon as possible in order to.get the plants rooted before they have to contend with the hot dry days of summer. Mrs. Lloyd George is a comparatively new large single violet with a beautiful eye, but it remains to find from experience whether it is going to surpass ether varieties; at present the variety is in its novice stage.