WAR AGAINST WEEDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 922, 15 March 1930, Page 28

WAR AGAINST WEEDS

• Late summer is the time when many of the worst of our weeds are carryj ing their seed crop. • Seed, as you know, is the means by which the weeds add to your load and to my load, and at the same time increase the grip that usless but vigorous vegetables already have on the garden and countryside. | Mild weather, good rains, splendid soil and lots of sunshine have given

the stocks and the dandelions a great opportunity to dig in a little deeper in their efforts to get control of the home situation.

Weeds are weeds because they have -wonderful ability to hang on hard during a bad time, and can step it out ever so much faster when the good time comes. The things never miss an opportunity. It is the gardener who gives them their chance. Miss a small stagger-weed plant and it will soon be well out in blossom; give an oxalis plantling a foothold, and it will not be long before you will have the rubbish all round the garden; pass a small bunch of onion weed, and one day you will be seriously thinking of giving up your gardening.

General Dock, Colonel Dandelion, Sergeant Sorrel, Gunner Pigsface, and the whole army of them, are massing for fight. Their challenge is unmistakable. If you and I fail to take up arms against them our home garden plots and our lawns will soon be overrun, will soon be conquered.

The weed war must be waged with various munitions. Hake, chipping hoe, cultivator, mattock, hand fork, fingers and scythe must be used skilfully and vigorously to beat back the ever-encroaching army. Never use poison powders on garden weeds, or you will poison the soil against the right plants, which you are doing your best to keep going. Arsenic ruins the land. Leave the quick weed killers alone.’ There are quite enough hand tools to do the job well if you will put your heart and head into the job. Gravelled w*alks and pathways can be cleaned up with spray stuff. Lawns must be kept short-cropped to hold back the minor growths, and must be worked over with a knife or a weedkiller before you will get rid of the root-growths of some of the more vigorous soldiers of the 1 weed army.

Get to the rubbish when the things are small. That is the time when the work of eradication can be done with the best effect.