113 



MAY WORK IN THE GARDEN AND GREENHOUSE. 



Though the first of May generally 

 proves a burlesque on the glowing 

 character given it by the old poets, 

 the general appearance of gardens, 

 meadows, and woods, is such as to 

 assure us that summer is not far off. 

 Those who allege that our climate has 

 changed for the worst since ancient 

 times, should bear in mind, that the 

 difference between old and new style is 

 sufficient, at this time of the year, to 

 divide the last traces of winter from 

 the first blush of actual summer ; for, 

 in reckoning, we are twelve days in 

 advance of our ancestors, and hence 

 the discrepancy between the descrip- 

 tions of the seasons by Chaucer aud 

 Spenser, and the seasons as observed 

 by ourselves in connection with the 

 modern Calendar. Bleak as May may 

 prove at first, the month will not have 

 advanced far before the entire garden- 

 ing world will be busy bedding out the 

 stock that has been preparing in pits 

 and houses for some months past. To 

 avoid mistakes and mishaps, the space* 

 intended for bedding plants should be 

 measured off in time, and the colours 

 carefully arranged, so that, when the 

 season is sufficiently advanced, the 

 stock may be ready, well hardened to 

 bear exposure, and in sufficient quanti- 

 ties. Stock ordered from the nurseries 

 should not as a rule be committed to 

 the open ground immediately on its 

 receipt, for, having come from close 

 warm quarters where growth has been 

 forced to meet the demand, the plants 

 may suffer a chill, that will put them 

 back considerably. A cold frame is a 

 good place in which to harden stock, 

 preparatory to bedding, and in filling 

 the beds, warm, muggy, damp 

 weather should be chosen, if possible, 

 and the plants turned out quickly to 

 their places, with the least possible 

 damage to the balls. 



Kitchen Garden. — Marrows, cucum- 

 bers, and melons may still be sown; the 

 latter require the most heat, and cannot be 

 ■well fruited unless they can enjoy a tem- 

 perature of seventy to eighty degs., and five 

 more degrees of bottom heat. Pumpkins 

 and gourds of all kinds, as well as Stock- 

 wood, Southgate, and short prickly cucum- 

 bers, may be grown to great perfection in the 



open air, by starting the seeds in a gentle 

 heat, and when the plants have formed their 

 rough leaves turning them out on a bed of 

 dung or loam well enriched, and giving them 

 the protection of hand-glasses for the first 

 fortnight. Thoie who have no hand-glasses, 

 should protect them every night till June, 

 by turning over each plant a flower-pot with 

 the hole stopped. Ridge cucumbers bear 

 well and give little trouble ; the simplest 

 way of growing them is to cut a trench 

 three feet wide and two feet deep, and fill 

 this with any littery rubbish in a fer- 

 menting state; long, half- fermented dung 

 is, of course, the best. Soil it over nine 

 inches deep with the stuff that was taken 

 out, and then sow in patches of three seeds, 

 eighteen iuches apart. Pots or hand-glasses 

 should be put over each patch of seed, till 

 they come up, when they should have air by 

 degrees, and protection against night frosts, 

 and to be thinned to the strongest plant in 

 each patch, as soon as they have made their 

 rough leaves- Cucumbers and gourds 

 should not be stopped, but allowed to ram- 

 ble as they will, either on the ground or a 

 rough trellis. They should have abundance 

 of manure water in dry weather, and the 

 fruit cut as fast as it is ready, as, if one is 

 left to ripen, the vines cease to be prolific. 

 Trenches should now be made for celery, 

 and six inches of rotten dung forked into the 

 bottom of each. A dull or showery day 

 should be chosen to put out the plants, and 

 plenty of water given during dry weather. 

 Sow beet, marrow peas, broad beans, 

 kidney beans, and runners; turn ps, let- 

 tuce, turnip-radish, and other salads, 

 as required for succession. For succes- 

 sional crops of spinach, the prickly sort 

 will be found the best now, as less likely 

 to run during hot, dry weather. Look 

 to seed beds, and transplant ; Avell hoe and 

 clear the ground as may be necessary. The 

 use of liquid manure and frequent stirring of 

 the ground between growing crops will 

 hasten and improve the growth of all 

 things. 



Flower Garden. — "We would advise 

 those who have not had much experience in 

 bedding, to defer the putting out of their 

 stock till towards the end of the month. 

 There is nothing gained by the attempt to 

 save a week, for we frequently have bitter 

 nights, and north-east winds, even till the 

 last week of May. The middle of the 

 month is the earliest time at which we 

 would put out bedding stock anywhere near 

 London, or in the Midland Counties ; farther 

 north we would wait till another fifteen 



