IN THE GARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 April 1938, Page 10

IN THE GARDEN

HINTS FOR THE AMATEUR. VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS. Flower Garden. Prepare the ground for planting Anemones and Ranunculus, which can be done any time now. Make a sowing of early flowering Sweet Peas. A sowing of the summer flowering sorts can also be planted. Prepare the ground for planting Sweet Peas. Deep trenching is not so essential for the early or winter flowering section. Dahlias will need attention to disbudding. Spraying or dusting to control caterpillars is necessary. Hardy annuals such as Scabious, Mignonette, Cornflowers, Calendulas and Eschscholtzias can be sown now. Many shrubs, such as Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Kalmia, Camellias and other evergreens, can be layered. Cuttings of many bedding plants, such as shrubby Calceolarias, Pentstemons and Pansies, can be planted. Cut away the runners of Violets. Spray the plants with lime-sulphur if there is an appearance of red spider on the foliage. Vegetable Garden. Make a sowing of Spinach, also of Shorthorn Carrots and turnip-rooted Beet. Onions should be harvested as soon as possible. Sow Cabbage and Cauliflower. Ail yellow or badly-infested leaves of Cabbages, etc., should be collected and burnt. Make a sowing of Lettuce. This will provide Lettuces for winter. Clean up all w.eedy plots. Clean off spent crops and where necessary dig or fork over the ground ready to sow or plant. Ground not to be used till spring should be sown down in Oats, Lupins, or a similar soiling crop. Keep Tomato plants trimmed and tied. A further spraying is advisable and will result in a late picking if looked after. Where Pumpkin, Cucumber or Melon leaves are showing signs of mildew, spray . with colloidal sulphur. I Keep Runner Beans and French Beans closely picked. If foliage shows signs of red spider, spray with lime-sulphur 1-120 and nicotine 1-100. Prepare ground for sowing onion seed for winter and spring planting. Celery will need earthing up as soon as plants are fully grown. Choose a dry day, tie leaves loosely, dust with soot and add only a portion of the soil, finishing the work in three stages.. Fruit Garden. Cut out old Raspberry canes and tie in the young canes for next season’s crop. Apples and Pears should be harvested as they mature. Collect fallen fruit and destroy it. Trees of no use should be cut out. A lot of orchard troubles are due to the useless old pest-infested trees which are left growing yea rafter year.

GARDEN REFUSE METHOD OF TREATMENT THE MANURE PROBLEM ■; Progress in horticulture or any other pursuit does not always mean marching along a straight path. Sometimes investigators open up a new avenue which seems to promise big jumps over troubles and difficulties, and, in eagerness to disburse information, they put something into print. Wide-awake journalists seize on a new idea, and make big stories about the latest discovery, not always confining themselves to proved facts.

We have reaped results of varying character in consequence of this continuous searching after novelty, and in horticulture some of the biggest mistakes have been made in the two directions of nourishing the soil and combating plant diseases. The substitution of chemicals for animal manures has been a profitable theme for many penmen. Now we find the most thoughful and practical tillers of the soil are getting seriously concerned about the ultimate effect of exhausting without replenishing the humus content of land which is under constant and more or less intensive cultivation. It is very little use simply to bemoan the fact that animal manure is inadequate for the needs of agriculture and horticulture. What must be done is to realise the importance of maintaining the necessary amount of humus in the soil by making the greatest use possible of all the vegetable refuse the garden produces. We use the term “vegetable refuse” to apply to all growth of plants, lawn grasses, etc., from the flower garden and shrubbery, as well as from the food crops in the fallen leaves, spent herbage and waste kitchen garden.

Time and again, in these columns, burning has been advocated as a serviceable means of disposing of garden rubbish, and it must be adhered to that such is the proper method of dealing with anything which is infested with fungoid, bacterial, or parasitic disease, or loaded with eggs of destructive insect pests. In the case of clean, pest-free vegetation we must consider burning to be wantonly wasteful, in view of the growing need for conserving all available supplies of humus-forming material. Whilst the majority of readers probably understand quite well the meaning of the term “humus,” there may be some beginners who do not know that it is the substance formed by the rotting-down of leaves, stems, fruit, seed vessels, and roots of all kinds of plants. Some humus is also formed by the rotting carcasses of animals, birds, or fish. Without a fair proportion of humus, no soil can be sufficiently fertile to grow vigorous plants or crops. Stiff clays, light loose sands, and chalky soils need additions of humus in largest quantities. Old pastures, peaty soils, and old gardens which have been manured for many years, or have been made the burying ground for the rubbish of many seasons may quite possibly be overcharged with humus. It is such soils which benefit greatly by dressings of lime.

In gardens of great extent there is no difficulty about providing accommodation for ,a rubbish heap, but in town gardens a great accumulation of rotting material may be a source of considerable trouble. It is under such circumstances that the special preparations, advertised for the purpose of accelerating decay, are of valuuable assistance. They quickly reduce bulk, and get rid of useless water, leaving the manurial matter unimpaired. As in most tasks connected with gardening. it pays to be methodical in dealing with rubbish. It it is simply thrown in a sprawling heap and left thus, it will occpy more ground space than is necessary, and decomposition will be slow and irregular. The best pan is to build a rectangular stack. Where is it possible, turf walls may with a great advantage be built up, leaving an enclosed space to be filled with the refuse. Where this cannot be done, it is usually possible to form the walls of hard, straight stems of

herbaceous plants and the like, filling in the middle with lawn mowings, leaves, weeds, and other short, soft stuff. Level out this rubbish, and tread it down to an even firmness. Cover with the accelerating material, as directed by the vendors, and add furthem layers until the stack reaches a height of about four feet. It is a good plan, if space permits, to start a fresh stack when that height is reached. If too deep a heap is made, and fresh material is laid on for a lengthy period, the oldest rubbish at the bottom of the stack will become completely rotted long before the upper layers are ready for digging in. Smaller heaps make it possible to utilise the manure that is made whenever a patch of ground can be dug, and the unnecessary, excessive decomposition at the bottom will be avoided. It is a good plan to pass the contents of a rotted heap through a coarsemeshed sieve, using a piece of wood to press lumps and flaky masses through the meshes. Portions which have not rotted sufficiently can be placed on another* heap and re-covered with accelerator.

The big advantage of digging in rotted vegetation is that it supplies the soil with the quivalent of the decayed straw and fibrous matter contained in stable or farmyard manure, helping to keep clay soils open and warmer, and creating a sponge in loose, dry sands to soak up and hold water, and the dissolving salts of chemical manures and fertilisers that may later be applied for the nourishment of crops. The fertilisers are thus helped to do their maximum amount of good work. They cannot accomplish this without the presence of adequate humus in the soil. Therefore, whilst it cannot be said that rotted vegetation alone is sufficient to make soil really fertile, it may be claimed that humus is combination with chemical plant foods brings a garden as near as possible to the condition obtainable by the use of animal manures.

The great desireratum of a few loads of stable or farmyard manure is nowadays well outside the grasp of the average town or suburban gardener; the country practitioner may get his needs supplied, but mechanical traction has now so generally ousted the horse that the supply of manure is definitely very low; thus the value of other decayable materials has gone up.