The Garden.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 458, 29 March 1890, Page 3

The Garden.

(Br HORTIS.)

Kitchen Garden. The fine heavy, welcome rain which we received towards the latter end of last week will have instilled new life into most of the autumn crops. Every advantage should also have been taken of it to sow fresh seeds for winter and early spring crops. A small patch of cabbage and cauliflower seed should now be sown for late autumn planting. Sow in a cool, moist, shady situation, and keep the soil pretty moist till the young plants are transplanted. Anyonehavingafewyoung cabbage or cauliflower plants notentirely devoured by the cabbage fly should have them dibbled out in permanent roivs at once. Before doing so wash their leaves in strong soapy water, and water well after planting out, so as to thoroughly settle the roots in the soil. Mustard, radishes, and cress : Sow in small patches frequently in cool, moist places, and keep the soil moist. Lettuce : Prick out another batch in a good rich bed, and keep them very moist so as to obtain a nice fresh, crisp, juicy head. Sow a patch of seed for future pricking out. Celery: Attend to the earthing-up as the plants in the trenches attain sufficient size, also water freely. Plant out another trench, so as to obtain a good succession during the winter and early spring. By judicious sowing and plantings of this excellent vegetable a good supply can be kept up for nearly all the year round. Turnips : Small patches of seed can now be sown at intervals, so as to keep up a succession of nice, juicy tubers. Leeks : Those who have neglected to plant out a few leeks in the spring can now do so. During the autumn and winter they will still give a fair return. Tomato plants : Keep them in a good fruiting condition; should at least be watered once a week. If the ground in which they were planted is very rich clean water will do, but where the soil is poor and hungry, liquid manure must be used. Where the tomato plant has been liborally dealt with throughout the season strong growth will still bo provelant; pinch back as much as may be required, looking still to the preservation of fruit-bearing wood, as there is still time for the flowers to set and develop fruit. All the debris of spent crops of French and running beans,also cabbages, cauliflowers, etc., should bo cleared off the ground as soon as cut and placed in the rot heap, where they should be liberally treated to salt and lime so as to kill all germs of insect life. I believe that a large proportion of the insects which infest our gardens throughout the different seasons are due to the carelessness in which some growers allow the debris of a garden to lie and decay and dig into the ground where the crops were grown. If the debris of a garden is properly treated in a rot heap thousands of those insects will be destroyed every year in the heap. The decayed vegetable matter would also make a splendid addition to the manure heap every season.

Flower Garden. We have at last got over the pinch of the late dry weather, a good quantity of rain falling at the end of last week, which has to a considerable extent freshened up most of the autumn flowering plants. All spent debris of anuuals, etc., should be cleared off the ground ; other permanent plants which may have overgrown themselves should be shortened back. Dahlias : Give plenty of liquid manure, and gently stir the surface soil about each plant, so as to keep it from baking, pinching out all superfluous floweis and shoots. Chrysanthemums should also be kept pretty moist, giving liquid manure occasionally. Where a few fine large flowers are required for exhibition, a systematic thinning of flower buds will be necessary in some instances, only leaving one, or at most two buds on a shoot. This of course entails a deal of labour and trouble, but where perfection is required it must be attended to, and assoon as the buds are formed. The superfluous ones should be nipped off. The result of this stripping of buds will result in all the forces of the shoot going to develop one or two flowers. At the chrysanthemum exhibition, to be held next month, some adepts will be able to see (from the fine flowers that are expected to be staged) what can be produced under a high cultivation. Preparations should be made for planting a few of the winter and early spring bulbs. When these are to be planted, dig a small hole in the border about a foot deep, adding some rich soil to the old ground when filling in. I believe the clumps look better than isolated bulbs. Whereearly flow’ersarewanted watering will need to bo resorted to until the ordinary web season sets in. Cuttings can now be taken of many of the ordinary bedding plants, and these can be struck with ease if placed in a nice warm bed, bub shading will be required during the day. Although we have received a little rain, and the weather for the rest of the season will neither be so dry nor hot, a certain amount of watering will require to be performed from time to time, and I would again point out that from the house there is many a bucket of waste water, slops, otc., which is wantonly thrown away. If such were saved and used as they accumulate, many a plant in the flower garden or patch of vegetables could be grown to a much greater perfection than at present. All waste water from a house contains more or less manurial ingredients, and is thus much better than clear water. When, using it never pub it over the foliage but on the ground immediately near the roots.