HINTS FOR YOUNG GARDENERS. 



ter, afford j^ou pleasure. Habits are soon acquired, and then we associate with them im 

 perceptibly, the idea of amusement; and it is astonishing to find how soon we take an in- 

 terest in any subject, when once we have resolved upon prosecuting it. The garden frame 

 thus commenced, has to our knowledge in numerous instances, led its owner on, step by 

 step, until the green-house and hot-house have been found the onl}^ means of gratifying a 

 taste which slumbered only to be awakened to the enjoyment of those beauties which the 

 Courts of Flora can alone unfold to her delighed votaries. 



With the above, however, fur the present as a beginning, you may if you please be con- 

 tent; but before telling you how to carr}' on your operations at the end of the winter, I 

 will describe another au.xilliar}-, which you may in the beginning or middle of March, 

 call into requisition to add to your enjoyments, and that is a hot-bed. And this you 

 may make as follows: 



Get three or four loads of fresh stable manure from the stable, and shake it with a fork, 

 and lay it up in a heap; let it remain three or four days, and then turn it all over and 

 shake it up again, and let it remain for the same time in a heap; repeat this again after a 

 like interval, when for so small a bed it will be ready for use. Now proceed to make your 

 hot-bed. You will require a frame with one or two lights; mark the size of 3^our frame 

 on the ground, by driving a stick at the four corners. Dig out the ground for eighteen 

 inches deep. Throw in any old brush-wood or dry litter at the bottom, then fill it with 

 the prepared manure, treading it evenly down as you go on, and taking particular care to 

 make it firm and stead}' at each corner, otherwise when it subsides, which it is sure to do, 

 it will get crooked. If 3'our manure is moist, well and good; but if it appears dry, take 

 some water and throw on as you make it up, so as to wet it moderately. When you 

 have filled up the place dug out, widen the bed a foot or so all round, and continue it until 

 all your manure is used up, beating or treading it down evenly. Then place the frame on 

 the top, and the light upon it, and let it stand. In a few days, you will find it has be- 

 come very hot; the frame will fill with rank steam like smoke; the light should be raised 

 a few inches, to allow this to escape. As soon as you find this rank steam begin to sub- 

 side, put six or eight inches of good garden mold into the frame, which in twenty-fours 

 will be warmed through, and if you find no return of the rank steam in another twenty- 

 four hours, it is fit for use. Take care, if there is windy weather, to protect the side of 

 your bed next to the quarter from which it blows, by rough boards, or a screen of some 

 kind. Unless you do this, the wind will blow through the bed and cool it very quickly. 

 In this bed you may sow in March, tomatoes, egg-plants, okra, pepper, early cabbage and 

 lettuce, all of which will be ready for planting out in the open garden by the time that 

 the ground is ready for them. 



Whether you make a hot-bed or not, at all events, as soon as the winter has taken 

 leave of your neighborhood, set about to get your garden in order. With the rake and 

 hoe, level down your ground, lay out your vegetable garden into beds, and sow seeds of 

 such as you wish to grow, and plant out from your frames a part of your stock of cab- 

 bage, lettuce, &c. Do not, however, put all out at once, in case of a return of a sharp 

 night's frost; but when you are satisfied there is no return of that likely to occur, the 

 sooner you get out your general stock the better. The flower beds should also be raked over ; 

 your frame seedlings turned out of their pots, or taken up carefully and planted into 

 them; and a further stock of annuals sown in the open ground to succeed the bloom of 

 those turned out of the frames. Any green-house plants wintered in the frames may 

 be turned out into the ground, or re-potted into larger sized pots, if it is desi 

 them for decorating the parlor or verandah; and soon will you be rewarded for 



