YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 25, 15 December 1939, Page 41

YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

By

Ann Earncliff

Brown

(No. 13)

About Lupins UPINS spiring up from leaves that hold a single shining tear of dew in the early morning; lupins, white, blue, mauve, pink, purple, and coral; Russel lupins in subtle art shades; lupins palely gold over wide sand hills — out-of-doors lupins in their sheer straight beauty are lovely. Indoors, cut spikes in a wide pottery bowl on a sunny window ledge fill the living room with a warm peppery fragrance. No longer are they the stiff unbending blooms of the herbaceous border. An hour or two indoors puts quaint lovely curves into the succulent stems and a gay upward tilt to close-packed flower heads. Asking little, save that the soil they grow in be free and open to let the air penetrate deeply, lupins accept drought or deluge philosophically. Flower heads may be shorter and:-their season curtailed in abnormally dry weather, but always they make a brave show. A ruthless shearing of flower and leaf after the early summer blooming allows the plant time to produce a much appreciated second crop of autumn flowers. Lupins have a definite dislike to being disturbed, and should be allowed: to

flourish. for some seasons and thus form worth-while clumps, A Mug’s Game Here in North Canterbury at least the weather, so far, has been a little difficult for growers. Late frosts, long dry spells, and heavy Nor’-west winds have conspired to make me almost accept the views of the local grocer’s boy, who assures me that "gardening is a mug’s game." Certainly hosing potatoes at 5 am. in the hope of minimising frost damage, and later in the day gazing sadly on frosted French beans, lend the lad some support. To relieve my feelings I pinch the tops of broad beans and hope the bumble bees are not going to destroy the flowers. The thrill of having sheltered tomato plants and a long row of runner beans from the frost makes me more cheerful, and I’ve still marrow and pumpkin plants to replace those lost. The grocer’s boy, however, is in a pessimistic mood.‘ Gardening is not the only mug’s game. He had backed a "Sure Thing" on the turf, and his hopes, like mine, were dashed. Agreeing that " Mugs will be Mugs," I suggest that he tries "Radish" as a winner in the Novice Garden Handicap.