IRISH GARDENING. 



47 



grievoiis waste to plant such on ground and 

 situations where the chances of success are very 

 remote. The site for the niaincrop should be an 

 open one, free from the evil influences of over- 

 hanging trees and their jobbing roots, and the 

 grouiul should be thoroughly well worked and 

 liberally enriched with farmyard manure or the 

 best substitute — the best being, no doubt, sea- 

 weed where procurable. 



Throughout the present and early next month 

 planting may be done. If the tubers are not 

 sprouted at the time of planting it may safely 

 be carried out a little earlier. The governing 

 factor will be the weather. Planting niay bo 

 done with a dibber, or the sets laid in drills, or 

 planted as the digging of the garden proceeds ; 

 2 feet (5 inches to 8 feet will not be too much 

 between the rows and l'"> inches between each 

 tuber, though I am aware very few farmers give 

 thenr that distance between the rows, but in 

 gardens it admits of winter greens being planted 

 inxmediately after earthing up. In good ground 

 a row should be planted wherever available, and 

 even in peace time as an edging to walks they are 

 very handsome when in flower. 



Peas. — Varieties renowned for their produc- 

 tiveness should be sown for succession of the 

 second early Marrowfat types. The practice of 

 Ijreparing and sowing Peas in single lines in 

 various parts of the garden in preference to 

 having the whole of the rows on one plot is un- 

 doubtedly a good one for several reasons. It has 

 generally been recommended that Peas require 

 plenty of manure worked into the soil, but froni 

 an experience last year with a row of the variety 

 Gradus and also one of Broad Beans, on the 

 same plot, that followed a patch of Cabbage and 

 received only a dressing of lime that was dug in 

 preparatory for Potatoes, I am convinced that 

 excellent results may be obtained without fresh 

 supplies of manure. If trenches are taken out 

 and manure added as generally made for Celery, 

 the ground should first be dug, and the same 

 remarks apply to all vegetable crops similarly 

 treated, as I am sure that when cut out of solid 

 ground and refilled when the loosened soil con- 

 denses, the conditions at the roots are unfavour- 

 able to the well-being of the plant's growth. The 

 seed should not be sown too thickly, as nothing 

 is gained by overcrowding, but allowance must 

 be made at the time for any possible losses 

 through variovis causes, and 2 inches between 

 each seed will allow for that. 



Spinach Beet. — This is a most remunerative 

 crop, which will give supplies for a twelvemonth 

 and in the dead of the winter. Seed may be sown 

 any time when the ground is workable, and a 

 pinch at every 6 inches, in di'ills a foot apart, 

 can be thinned afterwards. Encourage last 

 season's sowing with a dusting of soot and 

 loosening the surface soil with the Dutch hoe. 



Seakale. — The planting of the sets or thongs 

 may be carried out as soon as the ground is 

 ready by making holes with a dibber sufficiently 

 deep enough so that the crown is an inch or two 

 below the surface in rows 18 inches apart and 

 9 inches between each. 



Turnips. — Successional sowings should be 

 made, and if a little superphosphate can be 

 drilled in with the seed it will considerably help 

 the crop. The thinning of the earliest sowings 

 should be done piecenxeal, for birds have a habit 

 of pulling them out sometimes. 



Winter Greens. — About the end of the 

 month a sowing of the various Brassicas for 

 supplying the late autunin and winter months 

 may be made. The seed may be sown in drills 

 or broadcast, it matters little, though I prefer 

 the latter, as if not .sown too thickly the plants 

 can develop better. Select a piece of ground 

 tluit has been cropped with some totally different 

 family, well dig and mark out into beds a yard 

 wide, leaving alleys a foot in width which may 

 be thrown out on to the beds, or, simpler still, 

 trodden to a lower surface. When sowing, 

 separate the species as widely as possible, cover 

 lightly with fine soil, and if the weather is dry, 

 water with a fine rose-can. and either protect 

 with netting from the birds or dress the seed 

 before sowing with Ilcrticol. 



Leeks. — Sow in drills or broadcast thinly for 

 the winter and spring supplies. 



Winter Onions. — These may be planted out 

 whenever their x'ci'manent quarter is ready. 

 The ground if at all lumpy should be forked over 

 first, and a dressing of lime or soot and wood- 

 ash will be beneficial before treading and raking 

 down to a fine tilth. Make deep holes witli the 

 dibber so that the roots go straight down, fill in 

 with loose fine soil from the surface, and avoid 

 planting too deeply, in rows a foot apart and 

 G inches from plant to plant. 



Broad Beans. — Make successional sowings of 

 the Longpod type, usually in double rcws, allow- 

 ing a foot between each and placing the seeds 

 alternately at 6 inches apart. If more than one 

 row is sown aUow at the very least a yard between 

 them. I have seen seed dibbled in between 

 Spring Cabbage with satisfactory results, and this 

 year hope to do so with a plot on a narrow border 

 facing west, and plant Shallots half-way between 

 the rows of Cabbage plants. 



Parsley. — If seed was not sown inside or on 

 a mild hotbed for transplanting when hardened 

 oft" for earliest supplies, sow a few drills on a 

 south border for early pickings. 



Sal.safy. — Sow in drills 15 inches apart, and 

 treat similai^ly as for Parsnips for soil conditions. 



Cabbage. — ^Nlake a sowing at once of the 

 larger growing varieties, such as Enfield ^larket, 

 for summer supplies. 



The Hardy Fruit Garden. 



Complete the pruning as early in this month 

 as possible, and make every effort to leave the 

 garden as tidy as possible by burning all rubbish 

 and prunings and forking up the surface soil 

 under and around the trees. This applies to all, 

 I think, excepting Kaspberries, and these will be 

 better if undistm-bed. Some gardeners mulch 

 these annually with cinder ashes to provide a 

 light tilth for hoeing, and with good results. A 

 .sprinkling of Basic Slag under the mulch will help 

 them, or a topdressing of manure, but heavy 

 coatings of rich farmyard manure tends to 

 weaken rather than iniprove their growing and 

 fruiting qualities, at least that is my experience. 

 With other fruits the loosening of the ground 

 not only improves the appearance, but can be 

 much more easily hoed and weeds kept under, 

 and provides a natural mulch by having a loose, 

 fine surface in spells of dry weather, and if 

 stimulants are needed and given, may be much 

 more easily watered in. 



