The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-05-08

large yarQ they eVenvually get III the way of power lines and then are ruthlessly slashed.
 The red alder. Kenai birch and small maple that we have here would be much more suitable than any so far mentioned. Birch and maple are not plentiful around here but there are some up the Basin road. Alder would have a tendency to get too big for power lines. The native mountain ash, when properly trained, makes a good tree
 Some native shrubs suitable for the garden would be Menziesla, with it's blue-green leaves, any of the blueberries, the high bush cranberry, the entrants, the copper bush, with its interesting copper colored flower, the Spirea Stevensii found on Douglas Island, near the ditch, and the native wild rose.
 If you have perennials in your garden they should be taken care of next. Perennials are those plants that keep coming up from year to year with little or no encourage ment. Plants of this nature, to name few. are delphinium, her baceous spireas, veronicas an d phlox.
 Some kinds are easy to separ- ate Just dig them up and they either fall apart into natural di- visions, as aconite. or can be pulled apart very readily. Among the lat ter are bleeding heart. small flow cred violas, campanulas and the small rock garden saxifrages Any plant that makes a large crown is fairly easy to separate by cutting. Delphinium, veronica, yarrow and herbaceous spireas are of tn is type Some kinds are so thickiy matted that a sharp aX is the only weapon to use on them. They must be chopped into suitable sizes. Some of the "toughies' are doronicum, phlox, globe flower and Siberian iris.
 Some perennials, in this section should be treated as biennials as they do not survive in very good shape for more than two years. Such plants you should gather seed from each year, or buy it from your dealer if the plant doesn't set seed; start them the next year and they will bloom the following. By collecting, or buying, the seed and starting new plants each year you will always have vigorous plant ing of these perennials. (The so- called hardy carnation. DianthEs caryophy is plant that should be treated this wayD Sweet William and fox glove do better if han dled this way, too. Columbine usI- ally reaches it's peak in it's fifth year and thereafter deteriorates rapidly. New plants should be start ed every few years to ensure the best results from this plant.
 Add your fertilizer to your soil when you re-plant your perennials. Either mix it into the soil before you plant, if a commercial fer tilizer, or work it into the soil around the plant after re-plant- ing.
 Another good early garden chore is to remove all dead seed pods, stems, leaves and other unsightly Winter-gathered debris. A compost heap could be started with this, to which you could add lawn cuttings, plants discarded from hand weed- ing, and any other vegetable mat ter that you may have. In the or dinary course of events it is usually two or three years before a com post heap has decomposed enough to make it useable. But there IS chemical preparation on the market which will enable you cc hasten this decomposition anc make the compost available in from three to six months. The name o1 the preparation is "Adco"-A-d-c-c and you use it according to the directions. Tn the States the ust of old foliage, seed pods anc stems in the compost heap would be inadvisable because of so many plant diseases accumulated rl them. But in Alaska we have st few diseases to contend with thai no harm would result from this practice.
 A compost heap enables you t( recover some of the nitrogen, phos. phate and potash that is in al ! vegetable matter, thus adding t, your other ways of fertilizing ant IS thrifty way of disposing O what would otherwise be vast, matter.