IN HOT WEATHER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 December 1940, Page 2

IN HOT WEATHER

SOME PLANTING HINTS. Many home gardeners find it extremely difficult to transplant successfully lettuce, cabbage and similar plants during hot. sunny weather. For lettuce, make a shallow trench two or three inches deep across the ground and, having carefully forked over -the bottom, to provide an easyroot run, soak the trench with water. Do this early in the morning or in the evening after the sun has set. Plant the lettuces one foot apart and, after strewing dry bonfire ash, soot or fine ash from the house fire to keep slugs away, cover the row with newspapers held down at the corners by soil or stones during the sunny part of the day. Remove, the sheets of paper at night. After about a week the plants will be well established and the shading can be discontinued. In the case of cabbages and cauliflowers set them well below the surface of the ground, leaving a cup-like depression round each plant. Fill this with water and, after planting, place some old grass or grass cuttings round each plant to conserve the moisture.

till quite dry, then trim off. Daffodils and other narcissi may be left in the ground for three or four years, and liliums need not be moved unless their growth is unsatisfactory in their present position.