IN THE GARDEN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1941, Page 8

IN THE GARDEN

HINTS FOR THE AMATEUR Fruit, Flowers and Vegetables WORK FOR THE WEEK VEGETABLE GARDEN. Plant |out the main crop of tomatoes and spray as soon as planting is finished with arsenate of lead to combat the stem borer. Make another sowing of beetroot; the main sowing for storage can be made later. Make |a sowing of runner and French beans as soon as the danger of frost is over in Masterton; sow the latter in successive batches. Sow melons, cucumbers, marrows and pumpkins, as well as tomatoes for later crops. FRUIT GARDEN. Spray apples and pears to combat codlin moth with arsenate ofi lead when two-thirds of the blossoms have fallen. { The peaches and nectarines should also have a lime-sulphur spray when the fruit has set. Well mulch the strawberry bed to keep the fruit clean; the spraying of strawberries for leaf spot should cease now. With fruit trees of many kinds in flower, much will depend on the weather. Late frosts can do quite a lot of damage. i Gooseberries that have suffered from mildew in past years should be sprayed with lime-sulphur as soon as the blossoms'have fallen. FLOWER GARDEN. Plant out chrysanthemums and dahlias in the prepared! positions. Loosen up the soil along the base of the sweet pea; rows, remove side shoots and limit the number of leaders if good flowers are desired. Even when sown thickly excellent sweet peas over six feet high have been obtained in Masterton. Plant out annuals raised under glass for jsummer display as soon as the plants are well hardened off. Stake the early-flowering perennials before they have lime to fall over. Prune the spring-flowering shrubs when the'flowers fade; cut out the old growths that have flowered down to strong young shoots. Watch the roses for greenfly and spray on its first appearance. Climbers are now growing fast; keep them tied to their supports and trained in the required direction.

BEANS

CULTIVATION HINTS. There are several kinds of beans cultivated in the vegetable garden, some of which have young pods, and which are edible before the beans are formed. On others, the young seeds are edible, and on others the ripe and dry seeds. They are all most useful crops, and by preserving the surplus runners and dwarf French kinds, and drying the haricots, they are available all the year round. The broad bean is a native of the East. It has been cultivated from the earliest times, and is the hardiest of the bean crops. To get early supplies, a row can be sown in the autumn on deeply dug and well manured ground, where it will stand through the winter and begin to grow as soon as conditions are favourable in the spring. Where the soil is not suitable, a number of seeds can now be sown in boxes, and after being hardened off, the seedlings can be planted out as soon as weather conditions are favuorable. The first sowing in the open can be made now, and to maintain a succession, other sowings can be made at intervals of three weeks. Seeds are sown in a double row allowing six inches between the seeds each way, and they can either be put in with a blunt dibber, or a drill two inches deep and seven inches wide can be drawn and the seeds sown at six inches apart along the sides. Give a dusting with superphosphate and lime, and, after pushing back the soil, firm it. The most troublesome pest is the bean aphis, but this can be kept in check by pinching out the growing tip of the stem as soon as four or five bunches of flowers have been formed. There are two types, the longpod and the Windsor, both of which are good, and white seeded and green seeded varieties; the green seeded being the most appreciated.

The runner bean is a native of South America, and is not so hardy as the broad bean, but is a most useful garden crop. It likes a deeply-cultivated and well-manured ground, and is most useful for growing up strings or stakes to cover wooden fences or brick walls. It can be grown in the open without stakes by pinching out the young growing points from time to time. To get early crops a number of seeds can be sown in boxes placed in the greenhouse or frames, and after being hardened off the seedlings are planted out in October when all danger of frost is past. The first sbwing in the open can be made in Masterton about the end of October or the beginning of November, the seeds being planted at a foot apart against a fence or wall, and nine inches each way in a double row in the open. Stakes at least six feet tall should be provided, and these should be fastened to a wire or rod near their tops. Many Masterton gardeners train them up wire netting attached to board fences. Spraying the plants in the evening with soft water assists the pods to set during dry weather.

Dwarf or French beans are also very useful, though they do not continue to crop for as long a season as the runners, and consequently do not provide the same amount of food from the same area. They are sown in single rows, two feet being allowed between the rows at three inches apart, afterwards being thinned out to six inches apart if all the seeds germinate. Wax pod, or “butter beans,” are also a useful vegetable, and their cultivation is similar to the dwarf French. “Haricots” is the term given to all types of dwarf and. climbing French beans, irrespective of their colour, but those with white, green or brown seeds are usually preferred. They require similar soil and treatment to the kidney beans grown for their unripe pods, and when the pods show signs of ripening they can be picked and spread out to dry, or the plants can be pulled up, root and all, and hung up in a shed to dry. They can be threshed out or shelled as required.

SAVE THE WASTE

USE IT IN THE GARDEN. We have heard much of late of the waste of material which goes into the dustbin, but should serve some useful purpose. A great deal of it might well go to the composting heap to make manure for the garden. It would pay well, in fact, to have a separate receptable for all materials which would be serviceable for this very important purpose.

Tea leaves, the outside leaves of cabbages and other greens, peelings of carrots, parsnips and turnips, also of apples, oranges, etc., banana skins and nutshells are all good material for the soil after decomposition, and, if such an accumulation missed the dustbin there would be a marked difference in the bulk awaiting removal on collection day. The shells of oysters and even eggs are all too valuable to be thrown away. They should be crushed and mixed with the other contents of the compost heap. Practically anything which will rot will help to make at least a little humus. The two exceptions it would be wise to make are potato peelings, because their eyes may be capable of sprouting and growing where they are not wanted, and anything which is known to be diseased. The necessity of providing humus is one of the first lessons in gardening, but most gardeners have a lot to learn yet about making humus from all kinds of waste products which ought not to be really wasted at all. THE RHODODENDRONS HARD PRUNING. The present is a good time to cut back leggy branches of rhododendrons into the thick, older wood. It means the loss of a season’s flowers, but there is the compensation in a couple of years in having a reconditioned bush abundantly filled with new branches. Other subjects which respond freely to hard pruning at this time are yews, holly, cherry laurel, Laurestinus, Olearias and Veronica Traversii. CATMINT POPULAR EDGING PLANT. Spring is the best time to lift and divide that popular edging plant, the mauve catmint. In some gardens it seldom does well from autumn plantings and frequently • dies out in . winter, whereas spring planting is invariably successful. Large plants may be lifted and divided now. Care should be taken to secure as much fibrous root as possible. After trimming back the long woody roots, separate the growths into small clusters each with roots attached. To plant, a shallow trench should be cut with a spade and the divisions set against the vertical edge about one foot apart. Press a little soil about the roots of each with the hands after which the trench is filled in and trodden firmly.