GARDENING NOTES

Wairarapa Age, 24 March 1920, Page 7

GARDENING NOTES

HOW TO .USE FOWL MANURE:. The best-means of preparing fowl manure Application'is to mix it with dry soil, and put it in a box n-ith a sprinkling of sulphate of liinc. After it has been allowed to stand for some time it ma/ be applied' to vegetable crops, fruit trees, and flower borders at the rate of 4oz per square yard. For application to a lawn is would be well to mix it about a fortnight previously with three times it? bulk of rich soil, fairly dry and sifted through a quarter-inch mesh sieve. Use it at the rate of lib per square yard, and leave it for the rains to wash in. The time to apply it to lawns is in the early spring. Half n peck of poultry dung and half a peck of soot "put "into a sack and placed in a tub containing 30 gallons of water makes a good liquid .manure.

PLANTING FRUIT TREES. Although it is yet too early for the actual planting of fruit trees, this js the time when preparations should be made. The ground must be well pre pared where the trees are to be planted. Th besfway is to choose the exact position, then mark out a piece 3ft. Bquare, and dig this square out at least; two feet deep, breaking up the Bhbsoil and adding a sprinkling of bonedust and lime with the soil taker out. Then put it back, treading it and leave till planting time, when it will be consolidated, and in good con dition for receiving the tree. Anothei point to remember now is to get your order for trees to the nurseryman Tho sooner the order is placed the sooner you are supplied when the soa son comes, and early planting is one of the essentials of good fruit-growing. Sometimes, for various reasons, it cannot be done, but where there are only one'or two trees there is nothing to prevent it. So far as varieties are concerned, it is impossible to give one or two that have all good and no bad points; the most that can be said is that the following are as.good a3 can bo obtained:Apples: Delicious, Gravenstein, Scarlet Pearmain, Jonathan, Eeinettc du Canada, Gem. Pears: Williams' Bon Chretien, Louise Bonne of Jersey, Fertility, Conference. Plums,. Japanese: Wright's Late, Burbank, Satsuma, Botan, Ogon. Plums, English: Damson, Pond's Seedling, Evans' Early, Diamond. Peaches: Briggs' Red May, Golden •Queen, Kalamazoo, Sahvay, Sea Eagle, Jansen's Early Paragon. Nectarines: %oldmino, New Boy, Diamond Jubilee. | Quinces: Van Diemen. I Lemons: Lisbon. Guava: Purple. Orange: Paorman's. THE GLADIOLUS. This is one of the finest of garden plants, and many of,the present-day varieties are simply gorgeous. The; do best if planted in autumn, as by so doing they flower before the very hot weather comes, which seems to take the life and colour out of the blooms The soil should be good and deeply worked to get the best results. Gladioli look well either planted in lines on beds or in slumps in tto border.

.Allow six to eight inches between the bulbs, and if clump.t arc to be planted put in threo to six bulbs in each. They should be planted quite six .inches deep in well settled soil, othowisc tliq plants are inclined to fall over- easily. Stakes are necessary; tliey should bo inserted as soon as the growths arc a few inches high, so that they can be kept upright from the start. A fairly sunny, well drained position is necessary to the gladiolus.