YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 3, Issue 56, 19 July 1940, Page 55

YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

By

Ann Earncliff

Brown

(No. 38)

VEN in the more backward districts bulbs are pushing their way through the soil. Many of you by now have the early yellow jonquil in bloom, but at whatever stage your bulbs may be, they will need careful weeding. A hand-fork, and your own fingers for the finest work, will guard against injury to bulbs. Where the soil is warm and not too damp, annuals and early flowering subjects such as nemesias, stocks, forget-me-nots, antirrhinums, -delphiniums, cornflowers, and marigolds can be set out, The old candytuft was rather a despised if hardy garden specimen, but under the more dignified name of "Tberis," perennial candytuft to-day is a showy and very attractive white for massing, Last week I was tempted to buy a further two dozen scarlet anemones, They are to make a rather late splash of colour at the foot of the Glory Vine trellis. Last year I certainly had a "splash" but of the wrong colour. Instead of the scarlet gradually shading into flame antirrhinum, I found myself with that vivid scarlet screeching at a deep yet bright pink-very lovely in itself but not at all happily placed. The florist’s label clearly pronounced flame, but I am moving the pink mistakes over into a happier situationnext to that very delightful cornflower Jubilee Gem. Spring ahead is heralded by those first true-scented violets-not the large showy kind that have lost their true fragrance, but the first cousins to the wood violet, Princess of Wales is a truescented variety with long stems and neat foliage-very welcome as table decorations in these near-winter days. Somehow violets always make me think of that virtuous flower " Thrift." If, as we are all urged to do, you set your feet on a path strictly outlined by "thrift" you should choose clumps of Armeria boetica -perhaps the best perennial thrift, and you will-then have a delightful reminder,

A wide slab stairway of rock steps, placed informally in a garden I admire, had its line indicated by a trickle of ,Storm water, The steps followed the natural curves of the water, and on each side of the bold irregular steps grows thrift-most appropriately this season for the lawn, once demanding hours of labour, is now deeply dug over and awaits the spring (and the potato planter to add its quota to the war effort). Whether you are digging up your lawns or merely planning your routine vegetable garden, your attention will be turned to your "first earlies." Mine are nicely green and hardened but must now be set up in trays to sprout. Pack your seed potatoes closely with the "rose" end-that is the cluster of eyes-upper-most. The scar at the opposite end is where the tuber was joined to the parent stem. With well-hardened seed you should get 2 or 3 strong thick sprouts; all unwanted shoots should be rubbed off. In the North Island, gardeners by now will risk plantings of early potatoes, but in the south the seed, set in full light, is much safer out of the ground for a little longer. Nothing is gained by setting tubers in cold soil, and much may be lost by having the first growth cut severely by frost. "Hasten Slowly" is a wise garden motto for the July worker,