The Daily Alaska empire., 1938-04-30
By !. P. ANDERSON

If you are starting out with raw soil that has never been worked before, it is best to make an appli- cation of lime If using the ordin- ary agricultural or air-slaked lime, scatter it over the soil until tn, surface looks whitish. This had bet ter be done after the first working and then raked in. If you are going to plant, azaleas, rhododendrons or other acid-loving crops do no; lime the soil; but for ordinary crop lining raw soil helps.
 Our very wet climate has ten delcy to leach the available fertil- | ity out of the soil, hence fertilizing is necessary For this purpose, nothing beats old-fashioned stable manure, but it is very bulky and none too pleasant to handle so that it is often advisable to use commer- cial fertilizers. The effects of stable manure last for two seasons, but commercial fertilizers are more readily available and should be ap- piled once or, better, twice per sea son, being careful not to use too much at a time as they are very con- centrated and if used in too great a quantity will burn the plants.
 Applies Juneau Area
 This applies especially to Juneau and parts of Alaska having simi
 lar very wet climate. Up on Lynn Canal and other places with more summer sunshine, many species of flowers do well that have a ten dency to rot where there is too much cloudy and rainy weather. The frost is now mostly out of the ground and as soon as it quits rain- ing and the ground is dry enough to work, it is time to begin gardening Woody plants and hardy perennials can be planted at once and the sooner the better; but plants start ed indoors should not be set out before the first of May. In sowing seed out of doors nothing is gained | by being in too big hurry and the cold wet soil may cause many seeds to rot. The last week of April or first week in May is early enough. | Trees and shrubs should be planted as soon as convenient. r.. setting them out, plant them only an inch or two deeper than they stood in the nursery. Our soil here is usually very shallow, hence deep planting is undesirable One of the best trees for general planting is the mountain ash with fragrant blossoms in spring followed by red berries in the fall which are great ly liked by birds. Native birches, cot tonwoods, and even red alder and some species of willow make desir- able trees. Most of these are avail able locally. Native evergreens are all right, but fancy evergreens from warmer climates should be planted with caution as many are not adapt ed to our conditions. M Finest Shrubs
 Our finest shrubs are rhododen- drons and azaleas. Not all varieties, however, are hardy Those that are, thrive exceedingly well, and are very showy. They are higher priced than most other kinds of shrubs as it is more expensive to grow them. Some kinds of spirea, Tartarian honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and few other shrubs do we'll Li- laos of some named varieties bloom fairly well, but are rather expensive, while the common purple scarcely ever blooms satisfactorily. The ru- gosa rose and some of it's hybrids make fine shrubs as does also the native species of roses. The ordinary finer variety of hybrid tea and hy- brid perpetual roses are not relia- ply hardy, but can be taken up about November and stored in a box of soil, moss, or sand in cool cellar where they will not freeze hard. 1 I have had many people ask me why they should not be hardy here, as in some places they stand harder 1 freezing weather than we have dur ing an ordinary winter. The req son is that our cold, exceedingly wet fall weather does not permk of 1 1seF