FOR THE WOMAN GARDENER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1940, Page 2

FOR THE WOMAN GARDENER

SOME USEFUL HINTS. Fresh vegetables are such an important item in the daily diet that every woman gardener who has any ground to cultivate should grow them. If possible, choose a warm, sunny position, preferably sloping to north or north-east, for the vegetable beds, and if there is no sheltering fence or hedge, provide artificial shelter to protect from cold and dry winds. Have each plot divided into small beds that are easily reached and worked, making the rows run north and south, so as to let the sunlight get between the rows. Do not plant vegetables where there are fruit trees, for neither the trees nor the vegetables would benefit from being in close proximity. Incorporate manure with the soil and give a moderate dressing of lime.

Seeds for sowing are French beans, butter beans, tall runner beans, borecole or kale, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, carrot, parsnip, peas, kohlrabi, spinach, swede turnip, white turnip ,and tomato. If growing cucumber, water and rock melons, winter squash, or vegetable marrow, prepare trenches eighteen inches deep and place in them a generous quantity of well-rotted manure, filling up to surface level with soil.

For salad sow seeds of lettuce, cress mustard, onion, and radish Keep all vegetable plots' well cultivated, watered, and manured, and keen a constant look-out for insect pests or disease. Deep working of the soil with the hoe or fork is important and every care must be taken not to injure the roots in the process.

Regarding the rotation of crops, it is essential that root crops follow loaf crops and vice versa..lt is also necessary to dig the ground over after each crop, enrich it with manure, and let it e i\T°v a fcw ' days before replanting. Make small sowings and plantings at regular interva s rather than put in too many at one time. This will ensure a succession of crops. Vegetables should be picked in the early morning while they are crisp and before the sun has a chance to impair them. If not required immediately store them in a cool, airy place.