46 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
The Flower Garden. 
Bedding-out Plants. 
These plants are now near the end of their 
most trying 'Season. Zonal Pelargoniums, 
especially, suffer through long periods of 
damp, foggy or frosty weather, and such 
has been their lot lately. The watering-can 
must be used very sparingly. When the soil 
needs water, give sufficient to thoroughly per¬ 
meate the whole of it in the pots or the boxes, 
as the case may be, and do this early in the 
forenoon of a fine day, giving as much venti¬ 
lation afterwards as possible, and so get rid 
of surplus moisture. 
Put as many of these plants as possible on 
shelves and stages, and where sufficient are 
not available, and you are obliged to keep 
the plants in heated frames, raise the pots or 
boxes on boards. 
During the recent frosty and foggy 
weather, with snow, many leaves of Zonal 
Pelargoniums turned yellow and are now 
decaying. These you must remove at once, 
else if left on the plants the main stems of 
the latter will be affected also. Marguerites, 
and Calceolarias in frames should also be 
examined, and all faded leaves removed. 
Expose these young plants freely on fine 
days. Simply keep out frost, but do not .un- 
duly cover them with mats or straw, else the 
plants will grow up weakly. 
Seed Pans. 
The time will soon come now when you 
will be engaged in sowing seeds in pans, 
pots and boxes in order to raise a stock of 
annuals for the flower beds in summer. Pre¬ 
sently work will crowd in and you will not 
have any time to spare. , But none of the 
work should be done in a great hurry, not 
if it means at the expense of thoroughness, 
d'here is never any slack times for the true 
gardener, but in some seasons there are op¬ 
portunities of doing work which will ease a 
pressing time. So you should commence now 
to get seed vessels ready, as shown in Fig- i. 
Flower pots and boxes should be prepared in 
a similar way. Do not put in any compost 
now, but wait until you actually sow the 
seeds, as if you fill the pans now the soil will 
soon get too dry. Wash the pans and pots, 
also the crocks, and neatly place the latter 
in position. 
A shows the depth of the compost as it 
should be when used ; B the surface for sow¬ 
ing the seeds on; and C space for the result¬ 
ant seedlings to grow in without being 
crushed under the loose square of glass 
placed on the pan. When you have prepared 
the seed vessels store them carefully in a 
dry shed until you require them. 
Fig. i shows how to -prepare a flower pot or 
pan for seeds ; A, compost on good drainage ; 
/surface on which to sow the seeds; C, 
space for seedlings to grow under glass. 
Herbaceous Borders. 
Where the work of forming new borders 
in the autumn was stopped, advantage should 
new be taken of fine days to resume it. Also, 
new borders may be commenced now, but 
the renovation of old ones, where it is neces¬ 
sary to lift roots of plan s, should be put off 
a little longer, as the soil is now very cold 
and the plants will be better left undisturbed. 
Man}' kinds of herbacems plants are gross 
feeders, and produce roots in abundance, so 
that shallow soils are quite unsuitable. No 
matter how good your soiT'is trench it deeply 
fqr your plants, and if 11 be of poor quality 
trench it just the same, and in .addition fork 
up the subsoil and put in a liberal ‘supply 
of well-rotted manure. Better results will 
follow if you only do the- trenching in fine 
weather. 
The Fruit Garden. 
Attack Insects on Wall Trees. 
The wood of fruit trees is now firmer than 
at any time’*since last summer, and conse¬ 
quently insecticides may be used at the full 
axils of the branches at A, A, and on the 
bark at B. 
strength, as given in the instructions with 
them. But let me utter .a word of caution 
here. Do not put insecticides on the fruit 
buds. Dress the bark nf the branches, but 
be careful of all buds. They may not show 
any signs of injury at the time, but many 
may fall off later on. 
Brown scale is often troublesome on Peach, 
Nectarine and Apricot trees. In spring there 
may be only a few insects on a tree, but, if 
these be left undisturbed, the whole tree will 
be covered with them before the end of the 
summer, so rapidly do they increase. Too 
often these pests are disregarded in winter 
time. They seem harmless enough then, but 
there is not a better time for getting rid of 
them. 
They are brown in colour, and cling to the 
trees in the axils of the branches, as shown 
at A, A, in Fig. 2, and also on the bark of 
the branch, as shown at B. 
The scales on the bark of the larger 
branches are killed readily enough, but the 
workman is liable to overlook some of those 
January 23, 1909. 
in the axils of the shoots. The brushes us 
do not always reach them in such positio 
so it is advisable to make use of a poin- 
borders; A shows the Bean seeds buried 
rows; B shows the holes made for the seea 
stick. Scrutinise every branch and th< 
oughly cleanse it, and tie up into sma 
bundles all the shoots as they are dealt wit 
The re-tying, or nailing of the branch 
should be done after the walls and wir 
have been cleansed. 
Greased Bands on Fruit Trees. 
Examine these at once and put on rno 
grease. The bands should never be allowe 
to get rather dry. If you are not able 
procure ordinary cart grease, use some ca 
bolic soap. The wingless moths do not lil 
it, and it forms a very good bar to the 
progress up the tree stems. 
The Kitchen Garden. 
Hotbeds. 
Early vegetables are always appreciatet > 
and by making judicious use of hotbeds man 
very useful crops may be secured. Tt 
material used for the building of the ho • 
beds serves two purposes; first, in promotin 
the early growth of the young vegetable: j 
and afterwards as a rrrinure for other cro^ 
in the garden. 
Early varieties of Potatos should fc 1 
planted in good soil on the hotbeds. Put > 
the tubers 9 inches apart in rows 15 inch! 
asunder. There will not be any need to eart 
up the growing Potatos, so you may scatter 
few seeds of Radishes (Wood’s Early Frame 
and Lettuces broadcast on the soil, and ral < 
them in after the Potatos are planted. 
Broad Beans. 
Fig. 3 shows how to plant early varietit 
of Broad Beans on warm borders. Instea i 
of having two rows of seeds close togethr .< 
and a wide space between the double row. i 
sow the seeds in single lines 18 inches apar 
A shows the Beans and B the line of hole i 
for their reception. Manure the ground wel •) 
all over, and not only where the seeds ar • 
planted in the rows. 
Parsnips. 
It is advisable to sow the seeds early ifl 
the soil is of a light, sandy nature. Yo ■> 
may sow the seeds on the same plot as i • 
previous years, if it is inconvenient to dt , 
vote a fresh border to this crop. But th 
soil should be deeply trenched. 
In the case of clayey ground, defer th<"s 
sowing of Parsnip seeds until the early par, l 
of March, but tackle the soil now, breaking 
it up deeply, and leave it in a rough statejl 
Tn due time .a good seed bed will result. 
Foxglove. 
