I will never forget the face of the ironmonger in Exeter when I went in many years ago to ask for a suckering iron. I had never heard of such a tool, and yet at that time it was possible to buy them from ironmongers in Maidstone, Kent, without any difficulty at all.

There are occasions, however, when it is impossible to get the bow in between the branches, and then it is preferable to use the Grecian pruning saw with its curved blade. Once again, it can be bought in three sizes: the 12 inch, 14 inch and 16 inch-the 14 inch being the most popular.

If suckering irons are impossible to obtain, the best thing to do is to use a well-worn shiny spade and sharpen its edge.

The curved end is then hooked over the branch with the knife-blade full open and the handle up. The handle is then pulled down, the knife-blade passed through the branch, cutting it sharply and ends up in the slot provided for it in the hook. The branch thus falls to the ground, having been cut off neatly at the desired spot.

Common names are Cauliflower, Broccoli (Eng.); Chou-fleur (Fr.); Coliflor (Sp.); Blumenkohl (Ger.); Bloemkook (Neth.).

The common names are Leaf Mustard, Indian Mustard, Leaf Mustard Cabbage, Mustard Greens, Chinese Mustard, White Mustard (Eng.); Moutarde de Chine (Fr.); Mostaza de la Tierra (Sp.); Kai Choy, Kaai Ts’oi (Mal.); Sesawi (Indon.); Sarson Kaag

Local forms have been selected for specific areas. Synonyms are B. juncea var. rugosa (Roxb.) Tsen and Lee, B. lanceolata Lange, B. cernua Forbes & Hemsley,Synapis juncea L., S. ramosa Roxb.

Local forms have been selected for specific areas. Probably of Mediterranean origin, now distributed throughout many subtropical and tropical regions.

Extensively cultivated in eastern Europe, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, China and Africa (Sierra Leone and Guinea). An important oil-seed crop in India. One of the most pungent of the cultivated mustards, the seeds containing 35% of edible oil. The leaves, which are used as a vegetable, contain a glucoside, sinigrin. An erect, branched, annual up to 75 cm in height. Basal leaves: bright green, stalked, wrinkled, with well-defined veins, spreading, up to 20 cm in length with large, ovate, terminal segment and broad main vein Flowers: inflorescence elongated; petals pale yellow, 7-9 cm long, self-fertile. Fruits: 3-5 cm long, usually 4-angled. Seeds: round; weight of 1000 seeds = 2 g.

There are certain virtues in either method and which is chosen will depend to some extent on the plants selected and the position in which they are to live, and the personal tastes, inclinations and talents of the gardener. But neither process is by any means difficult, even for the least experienced indoor gardener.

Then again, because the entire area of soil will be kept uniformly moist, it is essential that compatible plants be used together.

They are perfectly happy, have made great growth and one of them sent out a six-inch flower spike complete with golden inflorescence during the summer.

Again, plants are of benefit to each other if placed in close proximity, for the moist air transpired from the leaves tends to be wafted in the air over neighbouring plants, to their benefit. Still another benefit is in the saving of time, for where several plants are placed together they can be tended so much more quickly.

It is most important to see that the bulk of the fruit is planted in one part of the garden on its own. It is a great mistake to try and grow apples, pears and plums in a vegetable garden. Or, to put it another way-please don’t plant vegetables and salads in between fruit trees.

Furthermore, a wall will shelter the soil for a foot or two at the base of it, from rain, and thus it is necessary to adopt some system to ensure that the roots of trees growing against walls get the moisture they need. Some people for this reason bury 3-inch agricultural drainpipes upright in the soil, 3 feet apart and a foot away from the wall, and then water can be poured into these sometimes so as to wet the soil below.

Much can also be done, of course, by mulching the surface of the ground with well-rotted compost or sedge peat.

I know a garden whose owner insisted on having apples on each wall; and this meant planting on the south wall James Grieve, Lax- ton’s Superb and Cox’s Orange Pippin; on the north wall Beauty of Bath and Tydeman’s Early Worcester; on the east wall Ellison’s Orange, Sunset, and Tydeman’s Late Cox, and on the west wall Fortune, Winston, Pearl and Cox’s Orange Pippin.

Very occasionally you may find a snail, a slug or even an earthworm among your plants, particularly if they have been placed outside in the summer. These are generally comparatively simple to see and identify and can generally be removed simply enough by the classic finger and thumb method.

These are about the only pests that we are likely to encounter on any of the plants we grow indoors. All are quite easily cleared so long as they are caught in the early stages of infestation. But it should be emphasised again that they tend to breed at a phenomenal rate, so plants should be examined daily and immediate steps to clear any attack should be taken as soon as it is seen.

From the above it will be seen that pests and diseases should give little if any trouble to the lover of house plants who grows them well. Never over water. Always try to keep humidity rates at a reasonable level. Never overfeed. These basic rules should keep all pests and diseases away, but the occasional appearance of aphids may sometimes be expected in the summer if, for example, the roses have not been sprayed recently. Get rid of them immediately, otherwise they can breed to the extent that many plants may he damaged.

In the first place the roots must never be allowed to become dry. Secondly, and even more important, plants must be allowed to get really cold before the flower buds can be induced to form. They must not be allowed to become frosted, but after their summer rest in the garden they should be allowed to stay there until well into October (protected, of course, from the danger of an early frost) and brought indoors to the warmth of a normal living-room only when the buds can be seen.

It is perfectly true that some Christmas cacti flower happily year after year without a summer in the garden and without being any cooler than the normal warmth of the living-rooms. It will be found, however, that under these circumstances room temperatures almost invariably drop during the night to approximately the same level as those out of doors, and this is probably the explanation of the successful flowering of plants which never leave the room.

Don’t forget that constant cultivation, especially when carried out to the depth of a spade, definitely reduces the population of earthworms, and this means less main channels down below. A fruit grower keen on compost must realize that the structure of the soil is all important.

Furthermore, it may not be possible for the water to soak in and so it lies on the surface of the ground and inay, in fact, run off the surface, taking some of the sandy soil with it. This we call result erosion.

However deeply the normal gardener cultivates, he cannot possibly get down to a 10-foot depth, where the roots will undoubtedly be, and therefore he must rely on the soil fungi and bacteria, plus the worms, to carry out the improvement of his soil where it is most needed. Worms will carry plant foods, applied as a surface dressing, deep down into the soil, and it is there that it will become available to the roots when droughty weather may make the top few inches too dry for fibrous roots to feed in.

Various conifers, usually junipers, are the most frequently seen bonsai trees, but the range can be quite wide, to include maples, cotoncasters, blossom trees of the malus family, hornbeams, jasmines and even vines such as wisteria. For established trees you will have to rely on what the importer has in stock and you may be advised to wait until new stocks arrive before you can get exactly what you seek.

If it is out of doors in a porch or on the terrace, make sure that the sun will not strike too strongly on it for long periods and that it is protected from any particularly strong winds such as sometimes whistle around corners or through gaps in the building or vegetation.

If you intend to collect your own tree from woods or hillside, look if possible for a tiny specimen that is already semi-dwarfed and misshapen because its roots are growing in a rock crack or bent by another tree.

When the young tree is large enough to be handled without damage you can begin its training. Look at the specimen carefully to decide whether you can take advantage of any natural shape or grace that it may possess.

With very sandy soil, on the other hand, if the natural drainage is good, holes can be dug, and furthermore by burying the roots 8-9 inches or so down they are kept cooler.

What he can do, of course, is to try and suit the fruits to the soil, even though this may mean that lie will have to give up growing certain types which he is most anxious to produce.

It is tremendously important to know as much as possible about the soil and how it works, for unless we know this we cannot be sure what we require of it. It’s possible for even the veriest beginner to understand something about the branches of a bush or tree, because they live in the same environment as the gardener. The roots, however, which may form at least three-quarters of that tree, are below soil level, and in an ‘environment’ which the gardener cannot appreciate.

Twice in the year, i.e. in January and again in August, a fish manure with a 6 per cent potash content is applied along the rows over the grass mowings, at 4 oz. to the yard run.

In the case of the top fruits-apples, pears, plums, cherries, etc., it is necessary to dig a hole about 3 feet across and about 8 inches deep. Such a hole should be of sufficient size to take all the roots. These are bound to have been damaged when they were dug up from the nursery and the jagged tear or break found at the ends of the bigger roots must be trimmed back with a sharp knife or a pair of scissors. As the result of this careful pruning, it should be possible to fit the roots into the sized hole.

Annual weeds like groundsel, chickweed and shepherd’s purse are not a problem., but once fruit trees and bushes have been planted in ground infested with perennial weeds there is no satisfactory easy way of getting rid of them. It is a mistake to plant a variety that is not particularly suited to the district. A Cox’s Orange Pippin, for instance, is undoubtedly the best flavoured apple there is next to Cornish Gilliflower, but a Cox needs a pollinator and doesn’t like the cold and dampness of the north, while the Cornish Gilliflower is a tip-bearer and much prefers the warmth of the south-west.