Agricultural Calendar: June

The month of June is among the most important months of the agricultural year, for the harmful weeds will grow quickly; they must be destroyed and the soil turned over repeatedly.

In the Gardens

Coastal gardens: If these gardens hold this season's flowers, they should be made to yield to their utmost limit; therefore:

First: Sprinkle them with water four or five times a week.

Second: Hoe the ground to destroy the weeds before they flower and cast their seeds into the soil.

Third: Treat the roses to guard against the cotton disease and aphids, as was explained in the previous issue.

A caution: Do not cut roses just as comes easiest; rather, cut two centimeters above the tip, and then, after a period of time, the tip drops and you can then cut the two remaining centimeters.

Mountain Gardens

Make haste to put the garden in order if you wish to profit from it during the summering season and to have it set your dwelling abloom.

Manuring the soil (even though it be late) is a necessary matter. One sack suffices for every 20 square meters. Flower bulbs and shrubs must be planted in the beds, and the ground must be watered daily during the first week.

Vegetables

On the coast: The planted vegetables, such as cucumbers and tomatoes, must be sprinkled from two to four times a week, and the ground hoed from time to time to destroy the weeds. It is also necessary, if the signs of some disease appear, to treat the vegetables with sulfur by dusting it through a light cloth.

In the mountains: String beans must now be planted (an area of 30 or 35 square meters suffices for a whole family for the summer season), and likewise cucumbers, squash, parsley, eggplant, tomatoes, and salad greens.

Watering: two or three times a week. Hoe the ground from time to time; watchfulness is necessary so that diseases may be treated when required.

It is well known that in the Abu Nasr market all seeds are sold.

Fruit

On the coast: The tree must be whitewashed up to the first limbs with lime and water together with a quantity of Sulfate de cuivre and agricultural D.D.T. (100 dirhams to a tin of water). In this way the tree resembles the very man who puts on white clothes in summer. The ground under the trees must be sprinkled every fifteen days.

In the mountains: The treatment of trees such as apple and pear must be continued with the following solution:

Water: 20 liters, or one tin.
Lead arsenate: 60 grams.
Sulfur ready for dissolving: 100 grams.
Slaked lime: 120 grams.

This solution is used every 15 days from the end of blossoming; and if traces of aphids appear on the tree, 30 or 40 grams of nicotine should be added to the said solution.

As for apricots and peaches, they must be sprayed every ten days with agricultural D.D.T. at the rate of 100 grams to a tin of water. The vine is treated, as we said before, with sulfur. And now the furrows for irrigation must be dug, and the basins at the foot of the trees, for watering them in the period to come.

General Remarks

We advise families and children to accustom themselves to caring for gardens and to loving the products and scenes of nature, and to learn the names of the vegetables, flowers, and trees, and hoeing, planting, and cleaning. All of this preserves the health of mind and body.