199 



THE YILLA KITCHEN- GAEDEN".— No. T. 



BY J. C. CLARKE, 

 Head Gardener at Cothelston Ilouse, near Taunton. 



IN commencing a series of papers, which I propose to de- 

 vote to the subject of Kitchen G-ardening, I wish to say, 

 at the outset, they are not intended to teach tho^e men 

 who occupy positions in the more exalted stations of 

 gardening ; although perhaps with those a perusal 

 would not be time ill spent. But they are chiefly intended to suit 

 the position and scope of men less favourably situated, and the 

 writer hopes that his efforts to diffuse amongst the readers of these 

 pages some practical information for the proper management of a 

 kitchen-garden, may be useful to many of the readers of this 

 work. 



The writer feels himself at full liberty to state candidly that 

 he starts without any presumptuous notions of his superior abilities 

 in this matter ; because he is one of those men who has been bred 

 to the garden, and the kitchen-garden more particularly, and has 

 still to depend on the proper management of a garden for his 

 livelihood. But having done so, to tlie great satisfiiction of a late 

 respected employer, who has repeatedly requested the writer to put 

 his practice upon paper, for the benefit of the public, he has con- 

 sented to do so in this form ; and hopes, by only giving sound and 

 practical information in a plain readable language, to succeed in 

 impressing upon the mind of the young gardener, and the ama- 

 teur, some of the chief matters to be observed in managing a 

 kitchen-garden. 



The General Plan. — AVith this brief introduction, I will pro- 

 ceed to the more practical details of my subject ; and, in the first 

 place, I may refer to the plan here given, and to state that it is not 

 given as adapted to any particular spot or position, but as appli- 

 cable to the majority of villa gardens, from half an acre to two acres 

 in extent. It is eminently adapted for villa gardens, for this 

 reason — that the grounds of these residences are, generally speak- 

 ing, of greater depth than width, so that a square form could not 

 well be introduced. And it is important to remember that this 

 parallelogram form secures more of the sun's influence than would 

 ' any other, without introducing divisional walls ; as the length of the 

 south wall, taken in connection with the narrowness of the garden, 

 must increase the temperature near it by radiation — to an extent 

 that can only be estimated by taking into consideration the length 

 of the wall — and then we shall understand how much more of the 

 temperature of the garden is influenced by radiation in this form 

 than in a square one. To my mind this is such an important con- 

 sideration in the ultimate productiveness of the garden, by securing 

 early and better crops, that some trifling objections to it ought not 



