IN THE GARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 June 1939, Page 3

IN THE GARDEN

HINTS FOR THE AMATEUR

FRUIT, FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES

WORK FOR THE WEEK

FLOWER GARDEN. Go Over the herbaceous border and put new labels to any herbaceous plants. Cover crowns of Delphiniums and Peonies, putting a good shovel of coarse shell sand or small scoria on top. As soon as Dahlias are over and foliage begins to yellow, cut the plants down to within nine inches. See that labels are firmly affixed to the stools before they are lifted and stored. Finished Chrysanthemums should be cut down and the rubbish burnt. Keep stools free of weeds. Prepare new Rose beds; begin planting as soon as possible. Existing Rose beds should be manured. Old or decrepit plants should be lifted, their roots trimmed, and replanted. If the variety is out of date, throw it away and put in a new sort. Garden hedges should be cleaned up round the base and a dressing of manure lightly forked in. Coarse sand will protect the roots of liliums, early-flowering gladioli and similar subjects in districts subject to heavy frost. The pruning of ornamental shrubs can be commenced; defer pruning the spring-flowering varieties till after blooming. Sweet peas will need constant attention in keeping the soil stirred between the plants. VEGETABLE GARDEN. Make a planting of Silver Beet, also of Cabbage and Cauliflower. Lettuce should be sown, or if plants can be procured put in a few. For winter purpose choose one of the small, close-heading Lettuce, such as All-the-year-round. A sowing of Radish can be made, also Mustard and Cress. When making sowings of vegetable or other seeds at this time of the sow on raised beds. Make a sowing of Broad Beans; these do well in heavy soils. Prepare the ground and plant a few early Potatoes. Plant very shallow and draw a little soil over the sets. A sowing of Peas can be made. A warm, well-drained position is essential. Sow a round-seeded dwarf variety. All spent crops should be cleared away and the ground dug or trenched. Lime plays an important part in the production of vegetables, especially peas and beans. Apply at four ounces per square yard. Potatoes do not require much lime, as it invariably causes scab. Weeds are best disposed of by forking in lightly while the soil is wet. Collect as much vegetable matter as possible for the compost heap; this material will come in useful in spring. Keep the decaying leaves picked off the cabbage and cauliflower crops. FRUIT GARDEN. ’ Prepare the ground for the planting of new trees. Prepare a piece of ground quite three feet in diameter, add no manure, but break up the lower subsoil. The pruning season is at hand; judge each tree for pruning on its merits; it may pay to avoid pruning some trees. Trees that are covered with mosses and lichen should have a cleansing spray when the pruning is finished. Look for and cut out any cankers of brown rot, fireblight and other diseases- which . will give trouble next season. While manure is good for all fruits, those making too much wood may be deprived of it for one season. Thin out the raspberry canes to five or six of the strongest on each stool. Apart from pruning, there is much “tidying-up” to be done. Trees throwing up suckers should have these removed at the point of origin.

TREE PRUNING THE CORRECT METHOD. • In order to get the best results in training a modified leader tree the better plan is to start with straight one-year-old trees. In the case of transplanted trees it is better to cut back in order to obtain the necessary branches. The only purpose of the head-ing-back, it should be noted is to in'crease the number of main branches, and to obtain them in the desired positions along the main stem. This heading back should not, in any case, be as severe as in the case of trees being trained to the open-centre type. Early Pruning Difficulties The severity of the heading back is determined by purely practical considerations. Under modern conditions of tractor cultivation, tree heads should be aUleast two feet six inches from ground level, in which case the one-year-old tree should be headed at not less than three feet high. In the second year a number of lateral shoots will be made. The terminal. or leading shoot, will have continued the upward development of the main stem in an almost straight line. It may be that the shoot next below is almost as vigorous as the leader, and is competing with it. Remove completely this first lateral. Next bring the remaining branches into balance with the leader. This is done by heading back the leader to about 18 inches long, and the remaining laterals to 12 inches. Short shoots low down on the stem may be left, as they will certainly form spurs, and become a fruiting unit quickly. Most of the difficulties encountered in the development of modified leader trees occur at this, and at the next winter pruning, and attention may be called to some of them at this stage. In the first place, there is a temptation to leave too many shoots in the tree, and to cut them too hard. This tendency almost certainly arises from experience in producing open-centre trees, in which this treatment is necessary and proper. Under such a pruning treatment, the head is crowded from the outset, and the best results cannot be obtained. Many pruners fail to visualise the effect of their work in years ahead, and the result is trees with crowded framework branches. A distance of 10 to 12 inches between shoots for development into the framework branches is not too much. Promoting Early Producticn. In building the modified leader tree, the branches must be kept well spaced apart on the main axis. The severity of the heading back must be decided in relation to the weakest branch which it is desired to retain as a main leader. The selection of the main branches is continued over three or four years. It is, therefore, in marked contrast with the open-centre type tree where the number of main branches is determined in the second winter pruning. In practice, it is rarely possible to select more than two main branches for a modified leader tree each winter. The remaining shoots that develop in the region immediately behind the heading back are either too

strong, too upright or too close to the branch below. A certain hardness of heart is necessary to enable one to cut out these offending shoots, but the compensations make it well worth while. The shoots that are allowed to remain in the tree are only lightly headed back, and are in consequence encouraged into early production, notwithstanding the fact that the tree as a whole is making strong and vigorous growth. The third, and all subsequent pruning treatments, consists of the selection of more framework branches in the one-year-old regions of the tree, and the selection of the leader for the main stem. The selection of the new branches in the two-year-old region of the main stem follows exactly the same procedure as that outlined above for the one-year-old tree, except that the new selections must be made in relation to the branches lower down.

Select branches that complete the spiral arrangement, allowing nine to 10 inches between each branch, and more if possible. The treatment of the two-year part of the branches already developed, also follows the same procedure as the one-year-old tree, except that in this case the leader must lead in a horizontal plane, and be heading into an open position. THE AUTUMN BEST TIME TO PLANT. TREES. SHRUBS AND BUSHES. The autumn is considered to be the best time to plant or transplant deciduous trees and shrubs and fruit trees and bushes, for then the soil is still warm, as a result of the summer sun, and it is usually in just the right state of moisture. In and around Masterton, planting can be mostly carried out at any time until late spring, but in some country districts, where frosts are very severe, if it cannot be done in autumn of early winter it had better be left until the spring. Trees and shrubs, when planted in the autumn, find the soil sufficiently warm to stimulate the action of the sap, to secure the healing over of all cut surfaces (forming a callus) and the formation of fine, new roots, so that when growth commences in the spring the tree or shrub is sufficiently established to be able to make growth right away, and it will be very little behind the established ones in developing their flowers and’ foliage. For both fruit and ornamental trees and shrubs, it is better if the ground can be trenched, and the sub-soil broken up and drains laid, should the position be at all damp or swampy. If trenches are not dug, holes should be made wide enough to allow the roots to go in easily without twisting or bending in any way. When preparing or opening up a hole, the grass should bo skimmed off to a depth of about Gin, then the surface good soil should be laid on one side and the lower layer of soil on the other. Make sure that the sides of the holes are vertical, for, from experience, I know there is a tendency to narrow the hole as it deepens until it is not as wide at the bottom as the top. Next, with a pick or a crowbar, break up

the soil in the bottom, and if the soil is a stiff clay, which is likely to hold water during the winter, a run-off hole should be provided on the lower side of the hole. It is most important to provide for drainage down to a depth of two feet at least. On level or nearly level ground it may be necessary to lay an agricultural drain from hole to hole, with a suitable outlet. When trees and shrubs arrive from the nursery, the roots are usually wrapped in damp grass, moss or straw, and the tops packed in straw with suitable precautions to prevent their being broken. They should be removed from the bundle at once, and if their permanent positions are not ready they should be heeleod in at once, in a sheltered semi-shaded place. When shifting from one’s own nursery or from one part of the garden to another, there is not the same danger of the roots drying up, but every precaution should be taken to prevent this and they should be wrapped in wet sacks, and kept covered up until they are to be put into the holes. Most ,if not all, of the root’s hairs perish, in .any case, unless the plants are transplanted with a. ball of soil. This is not necessary with deciduous trees or shrubs. During the process of lifting no matter how careful one may be there are a number of roots cut and damaged, and all of any size should be trimmed back beyond the bruised part with a sharp knife or secateurs. The smooth surface enables them to heal up more quickly. Next,‘put the grassy turf in the bottom of the hole, and chop it up, then some of the good soil mixed with some of the poorer kind, forming a sort of cone in the centre, on the top of which the base of the plant should be placed. It is a mistake to plant too deeply, for the cultivated soil has a tendency to sink, and afterwards the roots would be too deep down. The soil mark on the stem which indicated the depth to which the plant was placed in the nursery should be the guide, and on no account should it be buried under the surface. Place the tree or shrub with the base of the stem on top of the mound, and spread the roots evenly all round. Next break up the good top soil finely, and throw some of it on top of the roots, working it in amongst the fibrous ones by gently shaking the plant. Put in more of the good soil, and then tramp it firmly round the margin of the hole, but not immediately round the stem. Then fill in with mixed soil, and make it firm as it is put in, until the hole is filled level with the surface. It can be built up a bit above the surface, if good soil is available, for it will settle down gradually during the winter. If the soil is poor a few handfuls of bone meal may be mixed with the soil as it is being filled in, but on no account should animal manure be placed where it will come into contact with the roots. Well-rotted manure can, however, be mixed with the soil put into the hole in the first place, which should be well below the roots, and it can be mixed again with the surface soil which will be well above them. Should the soil be dry, and it often is, when planting against a wall or fence a good watering should be given before the whole of the soil is filled in. A mulching of leaves, strawy manure or grass is sometimes spread over the surface soil after planting, but this is not necessary in the autumn, for there is little danger of the surface soil drying Up during the winter, and a mulch would have a tendency to keep the soil cold and wet. In the spring it would be a distinct advantage in reducing evaporation and in maintaining cool, moist conditions.

When transplanting trees and Shrubs, the cutting and breaking of many of the roots is unavoidable, and to balance the plant so that there will not be too great a demand for moisture by the branches, it is desirable to cut back or thin these out to some extent, to bring the part above ground into harmony with that below. The extent of the tor> pruning should depend upon the amount of damage done to the roots, and plants, which have few fibres left, should be pruned severely and in some cases cut back almost to the ground surface. When transplanting deciduous trees and shrubs it is not necessary to wait Until the leaves all drop off. If they are well ripened they will soon drop and the unripened tips of the branches will be pruned of! in any case. The main points in planting and transplanting are to prevent the roots from drying up and to prune off damaged ones ,to make the holes wide enough to admit the roots without twisting or bending, not to plant too deeply, to put good fine soil over the fine roots, and to work it in among them; to plant firmly and never when the soil is frozen or when it is wet and mucky. Do not put animal manure in contact with the damaged roots.