THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



91 



Devonshire, will often have things up 

 at the time we are instructing them to 

 sow ; while residents on the bleak 

 Northumberland coast, or in the east- 

 ern parts of Scotland, will always be a 

 fortnight, sometimes a month, behind 

 us. This is a difficulty inherent to all 

 calendarial directions, but it does not 

 interfere with such a form of informa- 

 tion. The order of doing things is still 

 the same, let the peculiarities of climate 

 be what they may ; and it is for every 

 one who looks to this article for a re- 

 minder, to take it cum grano salts, that 

 is, to make the proper allowances for 

 their own districts. Many plants which 

 southern growers would describe as 

 hardy, w T ould be found far from hardy 

 in the bleaker parts of the island ; and 

 no remarks of a general kind can be 

 expected to meet every individual case. 

 Kitchen: Garden. — Successional sow- 

 ings may be made of all leading kitchen 

 crops, and where the work of the last month 

 has been delayed, seeds got in early will not 

 be much behind those sown last month. 

 Sow Windsor, longpod, and Johnson's won- 

 derful beans ; marrow and Prussian-blue 

 peas, and a few rows of the earliest sorts, 

 to come in before the late peas are ready. 

 In small gardens, the dwarf kinds are always 

 to be preferred. Sowings should also be 

 made of horn carrot, Savoy cabbage, Brus- 

 sels' sprouts, Scotch kale, brocoli, cauli- 

 flowers, and cabbages, for autumn use ; a 

 succession of such things being preferable to 

 a glut all at once for the private grower. 

 Among cabbages, collard's, Atkins's match- 

 less, Shilling's Queen, early York, and West 

 Ham are good sorts to sow now, but the 

 main crop of cabbages should be up by this 

 time, and must be hoed between, when the 

 ground is in a fit state. Beet should be 

 sown in the second week, in ground deeply 

 dug, but not manured; the main crop of 

 celery should be sown on a rich waim bor- 

 der, the surface to be made light and fine ; 

 sow thin, and merely dust the seed over. 

 Sow, also, onions, lettuce, radish, small salad, 

 sea-kale, and asparagus ; the two last, in 

 drills, one foot apart, and one inch deep, 

 for asparagus, and two inches for sea-kale ; 

 another mode of raising sea-kale plants 

 is to sow in four-feet beds, the seed to be in 

 patches of eight inches diameter, and two 

 feet apart, and about eight seeds in each, 

 the plants to be thinned to three plants in 

 each patch : the ground should be rich, well 

 drained and deep. Beds may also be formed 

 now by planting roots, but the best planta- 



tions are those raised on the spot from seeds. 

 Those who purpose raising seedling rhubarb 

 plants, should sow about the middle of the 

 month, in shallow drills, eighteen inches apart, 

 dropping the seeds in patches, six inches 

 from each other. All the varieties of the 

 gourd family may be sown out of doors this 

 month, in turf or brick pits, according to the 

 instructions given at page 70 of our last 

 number. Potatoes not yet planted should 

 be got in without delay, and towards the 

 end of the month scarlet runners and French 

 beans may be sown ; the runners should have 

 a warm dry position until the first of May, 

 when they may be sown in almost any soil 

 or situation without risk ; but, like most 

 other things, yield the best crops on ground 

 well dug and manured. The main crop of 

 carrots should be got in towards the end of 

 the month, and there is still time for a crop 

 of parsnips, if none have been sown yet, and 

 as a small crop of so useful a vegetable is 

 better than none at all, those who have 

 dela3'ed may still secure one. Slips of 

 kitchen herbs may be put in any time this 

 month, and will root quicker if planted in a 

 rather dry sandy border. Peaches, apricots, 

 and nectarines should be carefully disbudded, 

 and as soon as the bloom is set, give the 

 walls a shower from a garden engine, to 

 clean the trees and dislodge the pests that 

 arc ready to make havoc with the young 

 fruit. Grafting may still be performed, but 

 not a day should be lost. 



Flower Garden. — Seeds of hardy an- 

 nuals and perennials are to be sown early, 

 and towards the end of the month the more 

 tender kinds may be safely committed to the 

 ground ; but very small seeds of choice 

 things had better not be sown till next 

 month, as heavy rains may wash them down 

 into the soil, and they may be lost. Peren- 

 nials may be planted out, and old stools of 

 phlox, chrysanthemum, sweet William, &c, 

 may be parted. Dahlia roots may also be 

 planted, and if the shoots appear before night- 

 frosts are over, they may be protected by 

 flower-pots inverted over them, and the holes 

 stopped withpiecesof tile. Where early bedsof 

 dahlias are required this plan may be adopted 

 in the putting out of young plants, and if 

 well hardened first, the beds may be filled 

 about the middle of the month, and inverted 

 pots, litter, or netting, used to protect them 

 during fits of cold wind or frost. Box edg- 

 ings should be clipped, and ivy may be cut 

 in and trimmed, and fresh plantations made 

 of last year's roots. Cuttings of ivy may 

 also be taken and planted in a sandy bor- 

 der, only partially exposed to the sun. The 

 cutting should be short-jointed, and trim- 

 med of the lower leaves. Tigrida bulbs 



