THE WEEK’S WORK AT A GLANCE

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 38, 7 May 1927, Page 20 (Supplement)

THE WEEK’S WORK AT A GLANCE

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN. The following - vegetable seeds should be sown during the \ month of May:—Broad beans, onions, carrots, parsnips, beet, ! lettuce, cabbages and cauliflower. Early planted onions should be carefully thinned and weeded, a small handfock will be found most useful. Prepare the bed for ! transplanting; when ready plenty of potash is advisable. ; Rhubarb roots can be planted any time. Those old roots ; left in the ground will now have sprouted. Plenty of liquid ! manure, either stable or fowl, will prove beneficial. Make a raid on all weeds in the garden. Constant hoeing < will keep these down and also help to exterminate the slugs and , snails. June is the month for tree-planting. Well trench and prepare , the holes to receive the trees before the ground becomes too wet v and sodden. In very sheltered and warm spots Early Dwarf peas may be sown. These should only be planted if the position is suits hi*'. i; Potato onions, garlic and shallots may be planted for early | use in rows Sin apart and 15in between the rows. ; Fill up any vacant ground with lupins, oats or mustard for ! digging in later. !; THE FLOWER GARDEN Commence sowing summer flowering sweet peas. These will follow the early flowering varieties and so give a rotation of | bloom. <1 Hurry up with your bulb planting. If you fail to plant this month it will be too late until next year. Anemones, ranunculus, narcissus, hyacinths and tulips are the pick of the spring flowers. Begonia tuberous that are 1 ooking sick can now be dried off and stored in sand until earl y August. Michaelmas Daisy, Helen ium. Golden Rod and all herbaceous roots may be lifted and divided if necessary. The shrubby calceolaria, b otli bronze and yellow, may be planted on the rockery and in the flower borders. Sow the following seeds in seed-pans or boxes:-—Pansy, cineraria, nemesia, larkspur, stock, Iceland poppy, antirrhinum and delphinium. A sheet of glass over the seed-pan will greatly help the seeds to germinate. Polyanthus and primrose p lants can be subdivided and replanted in beds or borders in rich soil. Cuttings of the following p lants may now be taken in sandy' soil:—Geraniums, marguerites, carnations, calceolarias, pansy and. pelargoniums.

FLORAL DECORATIONS FOR THE HOUSEWIFE

May is a month of worry and anxiety for those enthusiastic floral decorators. At this time of the year the choice of flowers is limited. Dahlias are over and chrysanthemums are looking battered and shaggy. For table decoration we have early Iceland Poppies. These graceful flowers always look well in vases arranged with asparagus or lycopodium fern. When cutting the poppy bloom always dip the stalks in boiling water. This makes them last and if the room is not too warm they will keep several days. Nerine, or spider lily, makes a dainty decoration for small vases on the sideboard or mantel-shelf. A few sprays of maiden hair fern further enhance the appearance of this quaint flower. Violets are just coming into season, but as yet they are too small and do not last long enough to give complete satisfaction. However, they are the first herald of the coming spring and soon the narcissus and jonquils will be flowering to perfection and so end the worries of the floral designers. GREEN MANURING During the winter months many gardens have large strips of vacant ground which could be turned to better advantage by sowing mustard, oats or lupins which, in early spring, can be dug in, thus enriching the ground for later crops. ROSE CULTURE There is nothing more beautiful in a flower garden than a bed of roses. There are some five or six hundred varieties of roses grown in New Zealand, and those wishing to add to their collection could do better than plant such varieties as Sunburst, Sunstar, Independence Day, George Dickson, Mrs. Herbert Stephen. All the above are good, strong growers and should make well-branched bushes that will be a delight to their owners. Rose

beds should be well-manured with cow manure for preference. Failing that use well-rotted stable manure. Roses should be well-pruned back and all unsightly growth removed, care being taken fto prune the outside bud, keeping the centre nice and free from growth. Any sign of aphis or fly on the young growth should be immediately sprayed with Blackleaf 40 in the formula of one teaspoonful to one gallon of soapy water. The soap has a softening action on the water and causes it to spread more freely on the foliage. ERICAS OR HETHS

These are natives of South Africa and delight in the warmest and suniest part of the garden. Sandy peat is the most desirable, but any soil will do provided it is not of an actual limy nature and is well wjof-ked and moderately rich. The pruning is an important operation in the cultivation of ericas. It consists mainly of cutting back the flowering growth immediately after the flowering period is over. Any information required as to the best varieties suitable for your class of land can be had by writing to THE SUN Garden Editor. MAKING A GARDEN FRAME

Commence by making the frame (figure 2), using lin wood. The front and back pieces are 4ft 6in long by 6in and 12in wide respectively, while the sides are 3ft 6in in length. The four pieces are made secure by using corner

blocks of 3in wood, as in figure 2. Figure 1 is more difficult to make. First procure two strips of wood 4ft 7in long, 2in wide and Sin thick, and two more of similar section 3ft 7in in length, and nail together to form frame (a.d.) The top bar (c.) is lin wide by ?in thick, and similar material is used for the three intermediate bars. Five strips |in thick will now be required. They are nailed to the three intermediate bars and the two outside lengths to provide a resting place for the glass. The pieces of glass will overlap Ain, so that the rain will run off. The glass is secured by means of small nails driven into the woodwork and then puttied. NEW ZEALAND SPINACH The cut and come again spinach yields continuously from early » summer to iate autumn. The New Zealand spinach is a valuable addition to the summer supply of edible greens, the beneficial effects of

CARE OF ANNUALS Seed boxes can be prepared and fine soil sieved and mixed with sand ready for the sowing of choice annuals for spring- and summer flowering. In warm positions only or with the half of a glass frame early sowings can be made of such annuals as asters, zinnias, calliopsis, pansies, Iceland Poppies, stocks, antirrhinums, etc. These should be sown in a box filled with fine soil and well manured until the small seedlings are through, when they may be pricked off, transplanted into another box until large enough and the weather conditions are ready for bedding put. which are so well known that it is needless to add further comment.

During the hot summer months, when ordinary spinach bolts and goes to seed, the New Zealand spinach is at its best. It thrives on almost any soil and withstands drought wonderfully well. The plant is bushy in form and produces great quantities of succulent rich green leaves of a delightful delicate flavour. As the tops are cut off, side shoots develop and in a few days another crop may be cut. Hence the words cut and come again spinach. The seed should be sown outdoors after there is no longer danger from frost, in rows from 2 h to 3 feet apart, covering the seed about one inch. When the plants are a few inches high they should be thinned out, so that at the final thinning the plants stand fully 12 inches apart. METHODS OF PROPAGATION There are six chief ways of increasing plants, trees and shrubs, by seed, cuttings, budding, grafting, layering and division. I will endeavour to give a few short examples, as follows: DIVISION Increasing plants by division or in other words by dividing the root stock is a simple matter. It consists of dividing the root stock into several pieces and replanting the best of the latter. It is practised chiefly when dealing with herbaceous perennials. When plants are small the simplest way of dividing them is to pull them apart with the hands. When large clumps are dealt with they can be lifted and divided by means of two garden forks thrust between the roots and placed back to back, so that by pressing them together the clump is separated. ANSWERS FOR PUZZLED GARDENERS R.S., Otahuhu.—Onions are best planted during April and May. Of the varieties named by you Early Straw Spanish and Brown Spanish are far the best sorts to grow. The latter variety will keep nine months if required.

F.M., Onehunga.—Rust on chrysanthemums can be prevented by spraying with lime and sulphur or Bordeaux powder before the disease appears. A pinch of nitrate of soda in each vase will help to make the blooms last much longer.