The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 201, 30 April 1887, Page 5

The Garden.

The present dry weather cannot be expected to last much longer. All draining, trenching, or digging of vacant pieces of ground should therefore be done as soon as possible. Soil laboured in dry weather will bear bet*r crops than that whi h is done in wet weather, especially those inclining to clay. Where vacant pieces of ground are not wanted for crop, sow down with green feed. Plant out small patches of cabbage and cauliflower. Continue watering till moist weather sets in. Earth up the earlyplanted crops. Sow mustard cress and radishes for succession. Prick out another patch of lettuce ; continue tying up the leaves of the advance crop for blanching. Tomatoes : It is not worth while allowing any more flowers to set. Keep pinching back all shoots, and thin out foliage so that the sun's rays may properly ripen the fruit already set. Give plenty of water ; tie and earth up as it advances in growth, taking care that the earth does not get into the centre of the plant. Sow prickly spinage for winter use. Keep thinning the earlier-sown crops, using the thinnings. Pumpkins, piemelons, etc., as they ripen, gather and store in a dry place for winter use. Sow turnips and carrots. Of the former sow frequently, so that you may be able to get a succession in good order for the table. Have all the debris of vegetables and Aveeds placed in the rot heap. Give plenty of salt and lime so as to kill the lavvaic of insects. Many of the garden pe^ts lay their eggs in the debris, and if proper steps are not token to have them killed, it is worse than useless to use such debris as manure, and you only help to increase their numbers in tho garden. It would be better to burn it. Now i& the best time of the year for making new flower gardens, making alterations, or enlarging old ones. Large numbers of people defer this work till too late in the season, saying that the ground is too hard and dry. They wait till wet weather, as they think it can be done cheaper. Now, the above is a great mistake, for tho improvements as a rule can always be done for far less money while the soil is in a dry state. Certainly it is a little hauler to break up, but that is counterbalanced by the less trouble in conveying it from one place to another, besides the harm that is done to soil by moring ib while it is wet. All improvements should therefore be taken in hand now and finished as far as possible before the winter sets in. Gladiolus bulbs lift, dry and store past as they become ripe. Early flowering spring bulbs and tubers : Continue planting out ; give each a little, good, new soil gr compost. Dahlias, chrysanthemums, bouvardias, and other late autumn flowering plants will require to be watei-ed pretty often how so as to cause them to produce plenty of good flowers. Add a little liquid manure occasionally. Continue the striking of cuttings of all the bedding 1 plants. Preparations must he made for renew ing the lawns next month. Have the .--oil, to be used for top-dressing, tiirned. At the sime time add bones and lime to the heap as it is turned.

Greenhouse Shading- might altogether be dispensed with for this season. Bulbs and tubers going to re?t should \v watered very sparingly. Water the rest of the pot plants very sparingly, especially the cactus tribe, making an exception of epiphyllums, as they should soon be showing signs of flowering. Make preparations to have all winter flowering plants moved from their summer quarto's outside into the house. Repot such as may require it. In the case of others, take off about an inch of the surface soil inside the pot, and mulch with some rich compost. Keep insects under ; never allow then to make tiny headway. Still keep up a f t oe circulation of air.

Notes. Manures rich in nitrogen or manure* 'purely ammoniacal should never be applied heavily in orchards. It is claimed that the female Codlin moth will, at the end of the third litter, have let loose in an orchard as many as IG, OOO moth?. Old brush piles, heaps of dried grass, old, decaying, green vegetation, dead trees, and old stumps are prolific bleeding places for most of the insect pests which trouble orchardists and vineyardiste. TToktus, in " Auckland Star."