IN THE GARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 July 1941, Page 7

IN THE GARDEN

HINTS FOR THE AMATEUR Fruit, Flowers and Vegetables WORK FOR THE WEEK VEGETABLE GARDEN. There is no need for an elaborate rotation of crops in the vegetable garden, butitry to arrange a change of crop each year. Table potatoes will now begin to sprout freely; these should be .gone over and the shoots rubbed off. Collect all the hard garden jrubbish and burn it, ' saving the ashes under cover. Make a small sowing of celery in boxes for an early crop. ; When the soil is in a workable condition get as much ground ready as possible for the time when seed sowing will begin in real earnest. The more the soil can be exposed to sun and air,, the better it will be for the crops to be planted or sown. FRUIT GARDEN. If leaf spot appears on the old strawberry bed,, spray With Bordeaux mixture, 3-4-50. Where shallow-rooting vegetable crops have been grown near fruit trees, see that the nutriment is returned to the trees in the way of manures. Unsatisfactory apple trees can be made to produce better fruit by grafting over with a better variety. Birds often attack the fruit buds at .this season; where this occurs, spray the trees over with a solution of tar disinfectant. The planting of fruit trees and bushes should be proceeded with whenever the soil is in a good condition. Small healthy plants of loganberries iare better to plant than old stools. FLOWER GARDEN. Many flowering shrubs will benefit by a thinning out of the weaker shoots at the present time. ;■ Where leafmould is available a good dressing should be given to the base of rhododendrons and azaleas. Where hollyhocks are grown and treated as annuals, sow the seeds now under glass. Lily pools should be overhauled and any leaks repaired during the dormant season. Climbing roses and those of the polyantha types should be more freely planted in the flower borders; climbers to,the back and dwarfs in front. Verbenas are showy plants for the borders and these, should be sown now under glass.