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TDe Radical Vlewpolnt WHITBY FREE PRESS, Thursday, May 18, 1972, Page il GAR DEMINO lie Tecimical by SUdi Morris by Ed McCaughtre This Summer Go Organic T h e e a s y m e thod of year-round m ul1 ching is good spoiled hay. Cover your entire garden area with it. If you don't have a garden and are starting from scratch, you will need to g e t some organic matter into your yard area. Use rotted hay, peat moss, leaves, manure old farm style, or the bagged variety sold in seed stores. Decide where the garden area is to be and rent a tiller, or hire some one todoit and till the above mixture into the earth. This shouldn't cost more than $ I O, unless you are feeding the entire street. How m u c h do you need? One bale of hay covers an area 10 feet by 10 feet or one hundred square feet. As you make the rows, walk on the h a y no t the soit. The soit is where y o u w i Il put seeds arid tender young plants. Plant the seeds in thefour inch gapjust as you would normally. When s e e d 1li n gs start to grow, add some fine hay such a s old lawn cuttings or partly rotted compost. As the plants grow bigger, draw the hay in around the plants so that the soil does not show. Ad d to the mulch suc h things as k i tchen vegetable wastes. Tuck them under; there is nothing wrong with the peas or cabbage you left on the dinner plate, if your appetite had held out, you would have eaten them, so recycle tofeedtheplant now that will feed you later. Add the cuttings of your lawn, and that of your neighbours if you can get them. If the weeds start to poke through simply toss a little more hay on top. You are actual ty creating a compost _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ DSHAWA4 WARD ýNDS CONACRI GARDEN CENMR - NORM'.lS SERvIC E ,oM«n-- SIRIHG OSHAWA & DISTRICT CL "us NOW TMSCKsON 1a* NOItm booKUN ONT. 6"-333 SHADE TREES Silver Maple 10 - 12' Golden Weeping Willows 8 - 10' .10 - 12' Lombardy Poplars 6 - 8' 8 - 10' 10 - 12' Mountain Ash 6 - 8' Flow. Crabs - 3 Varieties $9.00 $7.00 $9.50 $3.10 $3.80 $4.50 $8.20 $8.50 NOW $6.00 $5.00 $6.50 $2.00 $2.50 $3.00 $5.00 $6.00 Rhododendrons l , Azaleas f or Spring So y ou think you can't grow rho- d o d endrons and azaleas here in our locality. Don'tdespair; you can. Mind you, it is a challenge but with proper pl anting and care you can have a mag- nificent display every Spring. The Federal Department of Agric- u I t u re has been work ing on Rhodod- endrons and Azaleas at their Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa and have d i scovered.-that they will grow in Ot- t a w a w i th protection of a lath house and straw covering. The clay and alkaline soil condit- i o ns of our area make the growing of these interesting plants a challenge. Therefore it is necessary to reprod- uce the desired soit conditions. First remove the clay soil to a depth of ap- proximately 12" to 18" deep. Replace the ci ay wi th a mixture of sandy or gravelly soit mixed with an equal part of peat moss. heap all over the garden as the mulch rots down constantly supplying a rich organicmaterial to the plants. Worms thriving i n this type of environment, dig in the soil and keep it soft, adding to the topsoil, their casts. Wormcasts contain u p to four times as much av- ailable nutrients as good compost. After a time the soil is so soft you can dig into it quite easily with your bare f ing er s. So now\we have NO MORE DIGGING. The hay heats up as it decomposes and burns out anything underneath it, d i spe n s i ng with WEEDING for the g a r d ener. And no, i t won' t burn the plants up because they are not under the mulch but surrounded by it. Because the hay insulates the sur- faceof the soil, preventing evaporat- ion and the heat of the sun, you'll have NO MORE WATERING. Withal t this going for you why don't you go organic this summer ? R h o dodendrons and azal eas enjoy m o i sture but cannot withstano stand- i n g in water. For' this reason drain- age isnecessary. It is wise to build up the location so that the bed is raised approximately 311 to 6" above the sur- rounding soil. Another factor to consider when deciding where to try some rhodod- endrons (evergreen) or azaleas (decid- uous) is the fact they don't like an ex- posed location. This is particularly t r u e d u r ing the winter when drying w i nds can damage the flower buds as w e 1 I a s the evergreen foliage of the rhododendrons. Thenorthsideof your h o m e will likely be the best place to t r y y o ur hand at growing rhododen- d r o n s. The reason is the winter sun doe sn 't usually reach the north side and if it does, it isn't strong enough t o thaw the evergreen foliage, there- b y c a u s i n g damage. To give added protection to the plants during the win- ter, it is wise to put up a burlap screen a round the bush or to cover the plant with straw after the soil has frozen in f alt. This straw protection should be removed only after the soil is frost f r e e. Protection may al so be had by u sing the branches from your Christ- mas tree. The normal blooming season is the last week of May and the first week of June but likely later this year since it is a I a te spring. You will find that r h o d o d e ndrons come in a variety of co ours - red, mauve and white, as wel I as blue which isn't hardy in our area. Azaleas have the additional col- our of a vivid orange. Once the plants have finished flow- er i ng, you should remove the green seed capsules, asleaving them on on 1 y h i nders the plant's production of flower buds for the next year. 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