A SOUTHERN TOUR (Continued.)

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 484, 28 June 1890, Page 4

A SOUTHERN TOUR (Continued.)

Cottage Gardens in Christchurch and

Suburbs.

It was a great treat to walk about the streets of Christchurch and suburbs. From just outside the centre of the business portion of the city every little plot of ground at front and rear of the dwellinghouses was devoted to gardens. Considerable taste was exhibited, not only in the arrangements, bift in planting out of flowers, trees, and shrubs. Christchurch, in this respect, was far before anything which I had seen in any part of New Zealand. In fact, everything was in favour of this, the ground being perfectly level, soil in most instances being unexceptionally good, and water abundant; the soil in most cases being of a rich light loam with a largo amount of decayed vegetable matter in its composition. The water supply came from the artesian wells, which are so plentiful in Christcharch ; not only the artesian wells, but moisture is also supplied from underground. Near the centre of the city there were some workmen putting up a fence, the post holes being onlgr two feet six inches deep, and at the bottom of the holes there was water, this being in the driest part of the season. Where I saw this the soil was of a swampy nature. Throughout last February all the different garden vegetables were flourishing splendidly, cabbage and cauliflower, etc., growing with vigour and with little or no blight. Tomatoes also did splendidly, trained with a northern aspect. What I was sorry to see, in many instances, was the large number of very fine coniferas planted in some of those small places. At the time they looked well, but in a few years many of them would need to be cut down so as to give more room. In fact, many of those fine expensive coniferas had been planted as closely together as a shrubbery would be, and in some instances there would be about a dozen of such together in a space which would not fairly give room for one when it had attained about half its natural growth. Garden Fences in Christchurch. Some of the garden fences look fine as you travel about the suburbs. The principalof these are composed of cupressus, macrocarpa, holly, laurel and quickthorn. The macrocarpa looks the best if it is kept in good order. In appearance it is like a solid green wall, which to look at you would think a bird could not penetrate, but to keep it like this constant clipping is required, and if neglected for any length of time it soon gets spoiled, parts of it dying out altogether and becoming unsightly. The holly comes next in my estimation ; it grows well, andmakesa capital fence; does not require so much attention as the macrocarpa,and if neglected for some time it will stand cutting pretty hard, back, and will soon become furnished with fresh foliage again. The laurel also is placed in much the same position as the holly, but I thought it did not look so well. The

quickthorn is pretty extensively used and where a few privet are intermixed with it then it makes a first-class evergreen fence. To keep this in good order, frequent cutting is required. The pear and plum tree leach does not seem to interfere with it so much in Christchurch as it does with us in Auekland.