IRISH GARDENING. 



»^5 



Gardening for the Home,* 



There are few details of horticultural practice 

 which are less understood by the amateur than 

 the use of the hose or watering can. Some appear 

 to think that whenever surface soil turns light 

 in colour, a day or two after heavy rain, it is 

 time to turn on the tap again, when in fact what 

 is needed most is the hoe to stir the surface and 

 prevent the loss of moisture by evaporation. 

 Others, again, appear to think that when the soil 

 is really dry and in nepd of artificial watering, 

 that as soon as they have changed the colour of 

 the surface soil from a light grey to a dark brown 

 that that is sufficient, and will go to bed wih an 

 easy conscience, thinking that they have done 

 their duty by their garden. 



To the inexperienced it is astonishing how much 

 water is required to thoroughly soak a cubic foot 

 of really dry soil, and until experience is gained it 

 is a good plan to scratch up the soil occasionally 

 as you play the hose on a circumscribed area to 

 find out just how far the water has soaked in. 



It is fun for your boy to be allowed to play the 

 hose on the garden for a short time at least, but 

 your neighbour's boy and other unoffending ob- 

 jects are likely to get more attention than your 

 garden plants; the moral is, therefore, do the 

 watering yourself. 



If your garden is level or nearly so, it is a 

 good plan to draw a shallow trench between the 

 rows of vegetables or flowers, lay the hose down 

 at one end and allow the water to run gently into 

 it until some time after it has filled from end to 

 end; do likewise over the whole garden, and a 

 good, thorough soaking will be the result, and 

 you will not be tired out manipulating the hose, 

 but will have had plenty of time to read the 

 evening paper or attend to something else 

 between the times of shifting the hose from one 

 trench to another. 



If the garden is on nuich of a slope the irriga- 

 tion trenches must be drawn out across the slope, 

 if this is possible, so that the water will not run 

 off before it soaks in. 



The various kinds of sprinklers on the market 

 are very useful for watering, especially on gardens 

 on a steep slope, as the way in which the water 

 is delivered gives it time to soak in. 



Whichever way the watering is done, liowever, 

 one thing is essential in each case, and that is 

 the stirring of the surface soon afterwards; if the 

 watering is done in the evening the surface ought 

 to be cultivated next morning to help conserve 

 the water applied. 



Allow no weeds whatever to grow, as they rob 

 your plants of much food, including water and 

 light. 



Vegetable crops are making rapid growth now 

 and the roots will be searching every cubic inch 

 of soil for food, and unless ample reserves were 

 supplied at digging time, much benefit will be 

 derived from the application of liquid manure. 

 Liquid manure is best applied the day or evening 

 after pure water has Ijeen given, grave injury 

 may be caused to the roots if they are obliged to 



* The above article, though written primarily 

 for readers in British Columbia, contains much 

 of interest and use to growers in Ireland, and 

 shows what our friends across the sea are doing 

 in food production in their own gardens. 



take up too large quantities of water in wliich is 

 dissolved acid or salty manures. 



During this, the growing season, the element of 

 plant food in most demand is nitrogen, which 

 may be supplied in various forms — viz., nitrate of 

 soda, sulphate of ammonia or in some of the 

 natural manures such as chicken or horse 

 droppnigs. The two former are difficult, maybe 

 impossible to obtain at this time, but the two 

 latter are always obtainable, and the best way to 

 handle them is to place a quantity in a porous 

 sack, tie the mouth and place it in a barrel of 

 water to soak. Jf the barrel used is a 45 or 5U- 

 gallon one a hundred pound grain sack will be 

 all right — larger or smaller barrels in proportion. 

 Allow the material to soak for about a week, 

 stirring and squeezing the sack several times in 

 the interval, when it will be ready for use. Un- 

 diluted, the liquid will likely be too strong, and 

 as a guide to the strength the liquid applied to 

 the plants ought to have the colour of weak tea. 

 With liquid manure little and often is the slogan; 

 say, once a week, the next night after watering 

 with pure water. 



There is a quickly available supply of nitrogen 

 in coal soot, and it is a good plan to put about 

 a shovel full of this article to the hundred-pound 

 sack of maniu'e. 



When applying liquid manure of any kind it 

 is well to direct it to the soil and not to the 

 plants, as injury may result to the young tender 

 foliage. 



On land just vacated by the early potato crop 

 a few seeds of kidney beans may still be sown to 

 supply a late crop of green pods, and a row of an 

 early variety of peas may still be sown, but these 

 two must be sown as early in the month as pos-" 

 sible. 



Lettuce, radishes, carrots and parsley for winter 

 may be sown on any vacant land, and a sensible 

 patch sliould be prepared by manuring and 

 digging for the main winter crop of leeks. The 

 plants if sown in early spring will be quite big 

 enough now to transplant. When the patch is 

 ready, mark off rows eighteen inches apart and 

 set the plants six inches apart in the rows. To 

 make holes for the plants a dibble with a stem 

 about twelve inches long is required, and the 

 plants are prepared by having their roots trimmed 

 off to about a half inch from their base, and two 

 or three inches cut off the tips of the leaves, 

 making them from eight to ten inches long over 

 all. The holes are bored to the full depth of the 

 dibble and a plant dropned in each ; hit the edge 

 of the hole a light tap with the point of the dibble 

 and this will cause enough soil to trii-kle down 

 to just cover the root; leave the rest of the hole 

 open. To those unacquainted with the culture 

 of the leek, this will seem extraordinary treat- 

 ment, but this is how they are grown for ordinary 

 use. For exhibition they are treated more 

 elaborately. The reason for the deep hole and the 

 seeming iaurial of the plant is to give a long 

 blanched stem, which is the part most prized by 

 the housewife. Those of you who did not sow 

 onions or enough of them in the spring, or whose 

 onion crop has been ravaged by the maggot, I 

 would strongly advise to put in as large a plan- 

 tation of leeks as possible. They are an excellent 

 substitute and are preferred by many to their 

 more pungent cousin, the onion. 

 It is too late to sow seeds now, and if you 



