Gardening We are now fast approaching the time of year when tomatoes and dahlias may be planted outside without fear of windy chilly weather spoiling their future. I know I’ve been through this a million times, and my way is by no means the ONLY way of success- fully growing either tomatoes or dahlias, but there are enough new- comers to gardening on the coast to warrant my going over it once again. Please bear with me, you clever ducks that already know all about it. Let’s start off with tomatoes shall we? For each one of these plants which will be grown in the open garden you will need a large hole, probably 18 imches in diameter, and at least 12 inches deep. If you prefer to dig all your holes before planting any tomatoes, space them about two feet apart. I usually Stagger plants down a raised bed, in the following manner: tomato tomato tomato 2 tomato tomato | © and this seems to work very well, allowing each tomato a wide area in which to spread its enormous _ Toot system. : In the bottom of each hole put about six inches of either compost, seaweed, wet newspapers (prefera- bly soaked with a solution of 20-20-20, or Miracle Grow) or well-rotted cow or horse manure. On top of these goodies put in pethaps two or three inches of soil, and then your tomato seedling, burying it at least as deep as those first oval-shaped leaves. If your plants are very tall they may be placed on their sides and covered as deeply as the first true leaves. As the plant grows it will Straighten up. When you have finished filling each hole leave a shallow trench around each plant *¥ to hold water, and into this sprinkle a small handful of hydrated lime, and fill your trench several times with water, to make sure each 2 Two caughNi in house burglary r® Two male suspects were arrested _ by a neighboring police depart- ment just hours after a North Saanich residence was -hit for an assortment of valuable property. The house, in the 9400-block Ardmore Drive, was broken into during daytime hours Thursday $s and a large quantity of Sterling silver cutlery, a large stamp collec- tion and some cash was stolen. All the property was recovered by the municipal police force in Saanich a few hours later. Two male suspects were to appear in Victoria provincial court to face Fs charges of break and enter and "possession of stolen property, Sid- ney RCMP said. tomato has had a good drink. This is the time to place your tomato cages around each plant, and drive a stake through the cage deeply into the ground behind each one. The stake is necessary to help the cage support the weight of the tremendous harvest you may how expect! The story for planting dahlias, and here we are talking about the tall ones, is very much the same as for tomatoes. Dahlias, like tomat- oes, prefer full sun. Once again dig a deep and wide hole, add com- post, or rotted manure to the bottom, fill the hole within six inches of the top, and drive a stake into the back of it. Place your dahlia tuber so that the stem from last year’s plant is almost against the stake, and cover the tuber. As your dahlia grows, gradually fill in the hole, until you are left with a shallow trench to hold water. If you want fewer, larger blooms, remove all but one main stem, and keep it tied loosely (using strips of nylon panty-hose) to the stake. If you want lot of smaller (but still beautiful) flowers allow more than one stem to grow. These are, of course, harder to support, but you sure end up with lots of blossoms. j