GARDEN NOTES.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 4, 9 April 1920, Page 14

GARDEN NOTES.

Recently-sown crops of carrots, parsnips, turnips, beet, spinach, lettuce, and other crops are now making rapid growth ac d should under reasonable conditions produce a good supply. As soon as the plants are sufficiently advanced, thinning out must be attended to allowing sufficient space for the plants to develop fully. Weedmg, too, at this season is an almost endless task, and it needs persistent work to keep them under control. Sirnply hoeirig is almost useless, unless the weeds are removed from the ground. The Dest plan is to weed the rows thoroughly when thinning out tlie plants, and then lightly dig over the ground between the rows. Th;s will not only destrov most of the weeds, but will allow the air to penetrate and assist root growth. Later-sown cabbage and cauliflower plants are now compaiatively free from fly and should be plar.ted out as soon as sufficiently advanced in growth. Little is gained by planting, however, until the plants are strong enough to resist the attack of slugs. To grow these or any of the i

Brasica family successf ullv, the ground requires to be thoroughly enriched with manure. Celery plants are now making good growth, and must be kept clean and free from weeds. The liberal amount of

manure required to grow celery successfully naturally resulhs in an abundant crop of weeds, necessitating frequent weeding to prevent the plants becoming checked in their growth. The early-planted celery. provicling it has been kept well supplied with moistui'e during the dry weather, rnay now be ready for eartning up. Nc-thing, however, is gained by earthing until the plants are well advanced in growth, as there is always a risk of the centres (or hearts) rotting if earthed up before the plants are well furnished with plenty of .good, healthy foliage. In earthing up, care in any case must be taken to keep -the soil from the hearts of the plants. A good plan is to place a tie | round each plant before commencing to ! place the soil around them, removing the I tie after the soil is pressed around them; o1". if Raffia grass is used to tie them, it need not he removed, as it will decay before it has time to cut or injure the st-alks. Tomatoes will still require attent-ion, keepmg all lateral growth removed, so as to expose the fruits to the sun as much as possible. But in addition to removing the laterals, a portion of the main leaves should be shortened, and about half the leaves cut off, tlius giving the fruit the f all strength of the sun to assist in ripening. All ground that has been cleared of spent or ripened crops, such as peas, beans, potatoes, onions, in fact every piece of ground not under crop, should now be dealt with. Such plots should he deeply dug, or trenched if necessary, and, if not required for cropping before the latter end of winter or early in spring should be sown down in oats, vetches, or other green crops. This quickly covers the ground and effectually keeps weeds under during the winter months. Kumar s are now making rapid growth. The rurners of these should be occasionally lifted to prevent the runner rootin.g into the soil.