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JOUKNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ October 22, 1868. 



not nearly so expensive. Plants in borders, eucli as tender 

 Lobelias, Tigridias, &c., should be removed to a back sbed and 

 covered with sifted ashes or old fan, or the Tigridias may be 

 placed thinly under the greenhouse stage. Fuchsias and Salvias 

 in beds, if it is not intended to take them up, should have their 

 roots covered with a thickness of C or 8 inches of dry peat 

 earth or leaf mould, which in ordinary winters is quite suffi- 

 cient for their preservation. Fuchsias more than almost any 

 other plant deserve proper protection through the winter, for 

 they make maguificeut autumnal beds. Should the weather 

 prove favourable the main bed of Tulips may be planted, though, 

 in fact, any time between now and the second week in Novem- 

 ber will do. Where plants of Polyanthuses have been permitted 

 to make three or four crowns standing high out of the ground 

 (which they will do if not divided yearly), emitting from the 

 neck of the plant roots that have assumed a green tint by 

 exposure to the air — these, it worth the trouble, should be parted 

 and reset without delay. Auriculas may now be placed where 

 they are to winter. If protected by frames these should have 

 bricks placed at each corner so as to raise them from the ground, 

 to allow at all times a free circulation of air amongst the pots. 

 Though Pansies when properly managed are seldom affected by 

 cold, still beds of choice sorts intended for next year's bloom- 

 ing will be the better of having hoops stretched over them, on 

 which mats may be thrown either in very wet or severe weather. 



GEEENnOnSK AND CONSERVATORY. 



We must snppote the greenhouse now filled with all kinds of 

 plants suited for nearly the same mode of culture. These ought 

 to have as much air as the house and the state of the weather 

 will permit. The inside should be kept as dry as possible, 

 and the watering should be dene early in the day. No plants 

 should receive more water than is absolutely necessary, and 

 the whole ought to be tidy, orderly, and free from dead leaves, 

 insects, &c. The Chrysanthemums will have a superiority in the 

 conservatory for some time, and well do they deserve it. The 

 climbers must now be very gradually pruned as they go out of 

 flower so as not to make any part too naked at once, and if 

 the work is finished five weeks hence it will be time enough. 

 Keep the house rather dry and close for the rest of the season^ 



PITS AND FRA51ES. 



These, now crammed with half-hardy plants, require the 

 common routine of keeping them clean, sweet, and dry; even 

 the night dews had better be kept from the plants after this 

 time, but have the lights off all day when it does not rain. 

 Close confinement is injurious to these plants at all seasons, 

 and more so now when they are newly brought in from the 

 open air. Iridace.t require very little water after the first dose 

 when they were potted until they appear above ground, and 

 Oxalises and all bulbs newly potted require the same treatment. 

 — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST ^^^3EK. 



EITCHEN GAUDEN. 



Weeds. — Took the chance of dry days in the end of the week 

 to run the Dutch hoe through all ground to which access could 

 be had, as weeds were beginning to show after the raini?, where 

 not a vestige could be seen a few weeks ago. Used in time 

 there is nothing hke the Dutch hoe for destroying such weeds, 

 when assisted with a few hours of bright sun. It is astonish- 

 ing how long the seeds of weeds will preserve their vitality. 

 We have been careful for years in preventing annual weeds 

 from seeding, even when we could not well hoe, sending a lad 

 with a basket to pull up Groundsel before the blooms opened ; 

 and yet after such hot weather and the warm showers we lately 

 Lad, there will be no want of young plants coming up to prevent 

 us ever arriving at that condition when we shall have to con- 

 •lider what we shall have to do by way of finding work. This 

 season, for a fortnight, we could see clouds of Thistle down, and 

 this, with the winged seeds of the Groundsel, will furnish occu- 

 pation for weed-destroyers for many years to come. But for 

 bird seed-eaters the case would be much worse. In many cases 

 Thistles were cut down after the seed was dispersed. ' If cut 

 before the plants bloomed, there would have been a better 

 chance of injuring the old plant, at any rate the seeds would 

 not have been carried into other people's ground. Catting 

 Thistles when young will at last destroy them ; the root perishes 

 when the top is not allowed to grow. Not long ago we saw a 

 man laboriously digging and forking-up the huge roots of the 

 Cowthistle, when the same object would have been attained by 

 cutting the plant with a spud or hoe an incli or so below the 

 surface. Some years ago we had a crop of this undesirable 



weed, and among all crops, and it must either have been sown 

 or wafted to us from a considerable distance, as we could not 

 find any plants in the immediate neighbourhood. Like the 

 Groundsel, it seeds so quickly that it required two seasons to 

 get rid of it, and we do not wish to see it again. It would well 

 pay most counties to have an inspector of winged seed weeds, 

 with the power to fine those who, choosing thus to injure them- 

 selves, also inflict a great injury on their neighbours. All seed 

 weeds when allowed to reach the seeding state should, if pos- 

 sible, be burned. We have subjected Groundsel and Thistles 

 to a burning heat from fermenting short grass, hot enough one 

 would suppose to destroy the vitality of every seed ; yet from 

 the soil ultimately left from such a heap we have had multi- 

 tudes of seedlings of these weeds. We could not have believed 

 it it we had not carefully made the experiment. It such weeds 

 with seeds on them are taken to the general rubbish heap the 

 seeds will be brought back to the garden comparatively unin- 

 jured — that is, it such rubbish he.aps are returned to the garden, 

 as they generally are. 



Caiilifowers. — Protected with their own leaves those coming 

 in for use. Took up good strong plants with balls that had 

 been planted or pricked out thickly, and transferred them to 

 an earth pit, where protection can be afforded. It we can keep 

 vermin away, these will be useful in winter and spring. Planted 

 out small plants under hand-lights to stand the winter, having 

 previously well dug, and turned, re-turned, and mellowed the 

 soil. We put five plants of the largest into a hand-light to 

 come in first, and for the bulk put in nine plants in each 

 light, which will be thinned in spring to tour or five plants 

 We generally leave five, as in carthing-up the four outside ones 

 can be bent outwards to give the centre plant more room. We 

 will either pot or prick out in a bed, or by the side of a wall, 

 more to succeed those in glasses. We shall keep the tops of the 

 glasses on tor a few days, and then expose the plants fully until 

 cold weather comes. Before planting we covered the soil within 

 each light with rough road drift ; this helps to keep the plants 

 from damping-cS in winter, and none of the slimy fraternity 

 hke crawling over such a rough, prickly surface. 



Lettuce and Endive. — Tied up large plants in a dry day. If 

 tied rather tightly across the top, the wet cannot well find its 

 way in. Ten days before being wanted is a good time for such 

 an operation. Slates, tiles, or boards laid over the plants do 

 admirably tor blanching Endive. Even straw or dry leaves do 

 admirably, only rains will pass through and be apt to rot the 

 blanched part. A few dry leaves, with a waterproofed covering, 

 do well. We must soon raise some plants, and place them under 

 protection ; but we hope there will be no frost to injure them 

 as yet. Hoed among young plantations, and planted out more 

 by the side of fences, and on sloping banks, to come in in 

 spring. Planted out a couple of rows of small plants of Cos 

 Lettuce in front of the latest orchard house, as from the same 

 place we had an invaluable supply last spring, before we could 

 put them out of doors. Bather singular to say, the most ex- 

 posed ground is more liable to the ravages of grubs than where 

 it is more sheltered. On the open ground we have had to ex- 

 amine for grubs, and fill up frequently. Where we have planted 

 several rows near a wall, not a plant has been touched. 



Celery. — Earthed up a bed, after watering it well at bottom 

 the day before. We shall want it in the beginning of Novem- 

 ber and later. What we have will last until then. We shall 

 ere long earth up all our earliest, and will encourage the latest 

 to grow until we have signs of frost. 



Now is a good time to decide on the rotation of cropping, and 

 for trenching, ridgiug-up, or digging all spare ground. As yet 

 we have not a ijieoe in fallow. 



FKUIT GARDEN. 



Much the same as last week. We have not quite housed all 

 our fruit, and the quantity we obtain from low bush trees is 

 astonishing. Some years ago we planted some common stan- 

 dards of Apples and Pears as a little orchard, but we rarely 

 obtain anything from them, though generally the trees look 

 well at this season, but the place is close to the farm, and some 

 of the sheds being thatched, such clouds of birds visit these 

 trees in the spring that not a fruit is left, and in some extreme 

 cases the wood buds are so picked out that the trees make few 

 leaves in the first part of the season. The low bush trees round 

 the borders of the kitchen garden would share a similar fate, 

 only the workmen help to keep the birds away, and a colouring 

 of limewash early in spring helps to protect from the birds. 

 We find this a great safeguard to the trees, and it is easily 

 afforded these dwarfs. Had we our way, we would have some 

 quarters of dwarf Apple, Pear, Plum, and Cherry trees. Nothing 



