TAUPO GARDENS IN APRIL

Taupo Times, Volume I, Issue 14, 16 April 1952, Page 3

TAUPO GARDENS IN APRIL

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BY

"FLORA"

In Taupo we are experiencing a warm dry autumn which has slowed down seasonal work in our gardens. But in spite of this there is quite a few things that can be done. If you are growing leeks and celery, earth these up, an4 give them liquid manure at regular intervals. Complete the sowing of onion seed before the end of this month. A satisfactory way to manage this crop is to sow the seed in rows in the permanent onion plot, later thinning them slightiy. Broad beans can be sown now in well manured ground; they are greedy plants. They like a sprinkling of lime. Lift potatoes when the tops die down, allow the tubers to dry, but not in the sun, or they will turn green. Store only sound tubers. Prepare the ground for planting out strawberries. Either new plants from a grower, or ones you have grown from runners from your existing bed. In northern districts strawberries are grown as annuals; but here it is quite satisfactory to carry them into the third season. As the summer crops in the vegetable garden are finished; it is as well to plant a green crop on this vacant ground. It is rather late to get the best from a lupin sowing, as this crop must be well advanced before the winter sets in. So it might be as well to plant either mustard or oats as the cover crop. Later to be dug in. It is not too early to divide and replant perennials; any that have already died down can be dealt with. Prepare the ground by deep digging, add manure and compost at the same time. Replant only the young outside edges of herbaceous clumps. Disbud chrysanthemums and keep a sharp watch for pests. Good subjects for Taupo are the summer flowering chrysanthemums. With these you will be sure of a bright show, as they are flowering now. So often in Taupo we miss the best of these lovely flowers, as just as they are eoming out, a severe frost reduces them to pulp. Always a disappointment with plants which have only one flowering; and we have waited all the year for their blossoming. Perhaps you have decided to put down a lawn. Now is the time for it to be sown, for it should not be long before we get our autumn rains. Rake the area until a fine crumbly surface has been obtained; the finer it is better as seeds get lost among large lumps of earth. Measure the area in square yards and allow grass seed at the rate of 2 ozs per square yard. Thus for a lawn 5 yards by 10 yards the ounces of seed required wouuld be 5 x 10 x 2, that is 100 ounces or 6 pounds 4 ounces. To sow evenly, first divide the seed into two portions and sow one half walking up and down the area and the other half walking across the plot. Having distributed the seed as evenly as possible at the same time walking in rubber shoes so that no heavy footsteps disturb the surface, take the rake and run it lightly over the surface so as to bury the seed beneath half an inch of soil. AHight foller can then be taken over the area; or if the lawn is a small one, the back of a spade can be used to bat the surface flat. Otherwise the birds will use the surface as a dust bath. If you fear the birds are going to be particularly troublesome it might be as well to treat the seed before sowing. Dress it with carbolic powder using a half pound to a bushel of seed. Now is the time to give the whole garden a thorough cleam up.. Collect all vegetable refuse — dead annuals, weeds and the tops of spent perennials — and put on the compost heap. Everythirg in fact, except diseased plants which should be set aside for burnirg.