THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

Wairarapa Age, 30 March 1920, Page 7

THE VEGETABLE GARDEN

A PEW HINTS.

If not already done, the principal work will consist of harvesting onions find potatoes. Early celery and leeks will require attention as regards earthing up. In lifting potatoes keep a sharp look out for those attacked by disease, and cut off and burn any foliage found to be diseased. All /potatoes are ready for lifting except late, slow-ripening sorts, which should be given another month, i Young spinach and turnip plants should be thinned out, and a little lettuce seed many be sown on a warm border for planting out in spring. In the general gathering of crops and tidying up, much vegetable refuse will accumulate, including weeds, etc., whiph should bo slowly burnt, so as to yield a good supply of wood ashes for use as manure. ,We can expect frost any timo now, and tender plants such as dwarf beans and marrows will fruit longer if some old mats are thrown over them when the temperature is low. Ripe matrows and pumpkins can be cut off on a dry day and stored. Tomatoes outdoors should be given a light protection pn cold nights, ana the foliage partly removed, Bp that the fruit gets all the sun possible. They cannot stand any frost, so that you must either be prepared to protect the plants or, to pull off the fruits and ripen these off indoors. Early frosts will'damage the cauliflowers if not attended to, and these afe too valuable to be lost.; Simply bend two of the leaves over the "flower," and these wiir give all the protection needed. If several turn in at once, pull the plants up by the roots and hang them from the ceiling of a cellar or shed, where it is dark and cool. Let them hang head downward and they will keep fresh for several days.