YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 48, 24 May 1940, Page 55

YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

By

Ann Earncliff

Brown

(31)

OW that the root vegetablesN except parsnips, which improve with the frost-are safely lifted, there seems space to tempt the gardener into just a last little flutter in peas and broad beans. Choosing high, well-drained soil and a sunny location, you can still sow a row or two of dwarf peas and Windsor beans. Of course many of you will have both well established already, but where there is plenty of spare ground, these later sowings can be indulged in. Autumn sown onions should be kept free of weeds. That most obliging member of the family, the multiple onion, is once more growing its green tops. Somewhat like the chive, the multiple onion provides little onion "cloves," which can be pulled off from the bunch as desired. The "tops" die down about three times a year, then come fresh again-a sort of perennial spring onion, Lettuce which is to stand through the winter should be thinned and well weeded-wood ashes worked into the soil give added resistance to winter conditions. Lettuce seed sown in shallow trays which can be carried to the warmest spots in the garden provides, not hearted lettuce, but a salad green for those who must have lettuce in their daily diet. Pick as you would mustard and cress, and cover from frost at night. Cuttings of currant, gooseberries, hardy shrubs and roses may still be set out. The vegetable garden is generally a convenient and well cultivated place for these to strike in. With the exception of peaches and nectarines, the pruning of fruit trees can be gone ahead with. Spray peaches, nectarines, and apricots, and any other

trees which have been attacked by fungoid disease with winter Bordeaux Mixture: Where the soil is in good planting condition, fruit trees, roses, ornamental trees and shrubs can be planted where you have not grown a green manuring crop. All vacant ground should be well dug and left open and rough for the frost to penetrate. Dahlia tubers and late varieties of gladioli corms should now be lifted and stored to dry in a cool but well ven-

tilated place. A dusting of sulphur over the gladioli is useful. Sulphur, lightly dusted over sacks containing seeds or roots, helps to keep them free from attacks of rats and mice. While you are forking over your flower beds, you may turn up some overlooked bulbs. If amongst these you have yellow daffodils--any from the common double "daffy" to the finest specimen trumpet-spare a few to plant close in around your pzonies. Praise for Paeonies Peeonies don’t like being disturbed, and with the passing of time become happy handsome border subjects. As their early spring foliage shows such a delightful reddish tone, the surface rooting yellow daffodils make an attractive colour combination, and do not disturb the fastidious peony. Give your peeonies-now-a little blood and bone or bone meal, and a liberal allowance of wood ashes. A well-rotted mulch and liquid cow manure in spring, together with a plentiful supply of water, ensures a very worth-while return. Look Before You Choose If you have not yet grown ponies, you have nowadays a wide choice in colour and form. The doubles show creams, flesh, and coral pinks, crimsonscarlet, pale rose and deep crimson; singles have silver pinks, rose pinks, whites and blood reds. The yellows are

~ rarer. I have not seen, but have heard much in praise of P. Mlokosiewiczi-e yellow; but if you desire it, I advise you ry

---- -- to write the name. It is not easy to do, but I think much easier than saying it to your nurseryman. The pink, red, and yellow tree peeonies are handsome and worthy of their place. In deciding on which pzonies to grow, see either the living specimens or a coloured catalogue of these. You can’t keep trying another variety unless you are as rich as you are patient. Whatever your choice, give your pezeonies good deep soil, but do not plant too deeply. I could give you lists of lovely paonies, but I must not let myself go on a pet hobby horse of my own,