THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 195 



SUMMER WORK IN THE KITCHEN GARDEN. 



EY GEOEGE GEAY, 

 Head Gardener, Norbitou Hall, Kingston-on-Tliames. 



N order to secure a good supply of vegetables during the 

 late autumn, winter, and early spring months, the great- 

 ;*|| est amount of activity is necessary during July, and the 

 planting of broccoli, borecole, and, indeed, winter greens 

 JSS * ga ^ of all kinds, must be completed during that month, 

 because it is impossible for crops planted later in the season to attain 

 their full development by the time the weather becomes cold enough 

 to put a stop to the growth. Seed of many useful vegetables may 

 still be sown with the greatest degree of success, but there is no 

 time to lose. When the ground is occupied with the remnants of peas 

 and other crops the plots should be cleared at once, and manured 

 and dug up deeply, because it is folly to risk important crops for 

 the sake of the chajice of one or two dishes. The stumps of early 

 cabbages should also be cleared, for the few dishes of greens that 

 will be obtained from them will certainly not pay for the space 

 occupied. Instead of allowing them to remain until the winter, as is 

 so frequently done, it will be far more profitable to destroy them, 

 and, after the ground has been turned up, to sow with turnips, or 

 plant with some other crops, and form a small plantation of cab- 

 bages elsewhere. 



Liberal manuring and deep digging are both important matters 

 in the kitchen garden, and must be regulated by the circumstances 

 in which each cultivator is placed. Every part of the kitchen gar- 

 den should, if possible, be trenched to the depth of two feet during 

 the winter season, every second year at least, and it should be dug 

 over after every crop. The ground should also be mauured once a 

 year, and there can be no doubt that good stable or farm-yard 

 manure, when about half rotten, is the best that can be employed. 

 Amongst the artificial manures phospbo-guano is the most desirable, 

 because its fertilizing properties are of the highest order, and, unlike 

 the samples of ordinary guano, do not vary much in quality. Guano 

 would be one of the most valuable assistants the amateur could pos- 

 sibly have were it not for the fact that such an enormous price is 

 charged for it when purchased in smaller quantities than one cvvt. ; 

 and in buying it by the hundredweight a rate of nearly double the 

 price per ton is charged, and guano exceeding £20 per ton cannot 

 be employed in the kitchen garden with profit. In applying guano, 

 when the seed is sown in drills, it should be sprinkled along the 

 drills, and then covered very lightly with fine soil previous to sowing 

 the seed. But in all other cases it should be sown broadcast over the 

 surface before the seed is sown or the plants put cut, as the case 

 may be. The rate at which it should be used in the kitchen garden 

 is from three to four cwt. per acre ; and before quieting this part of 

 the subject, it is desirable to add that the assistance it will be to 



