Ui 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



[ December 10, J 



roots, and lightly forked into the ground. If a similar want of 

 Insnriance is perceptible in Rhododendrons, and other ever- 

 green American shrubs, they may be taken up and replanted 

 with advantage, enriching the ground at the same time with a 

 liberal supply of peat soil, or well-decomposed leaf mould. 

 Hoeing and raking the borders amongst shrubs will be suifi- 

 cient to give a neat and clean appearance, without employing 

 the spade, which is very objectionable, when by its use the 

 fibrous roots of shrubs are cut. 



gree>;house and cokservatoet. 

 The best temperature for the conservatory in cold weather 

 is about 45°, although the generality of half-hardy plants will 

 feutlive the winter if the frost is kept from them, but the tem- 

 perature of 45° is high enough for a conservatory not attached 

 to sitting-rooms, and only used for the purpose of wintering 

 large specimens, and not containing plants in bloom. A few 

 good stove plants, and a forcing pit, are essential towards keep- 

 ing up a good appearance in the conservatory in winter. See 

 that the fireplaces, flues, and pipes act properly, as we often 

 iear of accidents arising from such sources. Where the heat- 

 ing apparatus is barely sufficient to keep up the required tem- 

 perature, accidents are more likely to follow. Sometimes 

 .plants are injured at this time by being placed over the parts 

 of the pavement beneath which the pipes pass ; in such cases 

 •an empty pot under that in which the plant is growing, would 

 lessen the risk of the roots being dried too much. Another 

 source of great injury to the plants in the borders, is their roots 

 coming in contact with the walls which divide the beds from 

 ihe hot-water pipes, when these are so arranged. Keeping such 

 parts well moistened partly prevents injury, but in cases of this 

 sort the beds or borders ought to be protected by a few inches 

 of some non-conducting material, as by sawdust or pounded 

 charcoal cased with a brick-on-edge wall between it and the 

 soil. This arrangement ought never to be omitted where the 

 $ipes run under the paths, &c. The best way of forming a 

 stock of pot climbers for exhibition in the shortest time, is to 

 plant young plants of them in the borders ; for a year or two 

 encourage them to grow as much as possible, and then take 

 them np for potting. 



BTOVE. 



It is now fully acknowledged on all hands, that a high tem- 

 perature in winter is injurious to stove plant?, and it is no less 

 injurious to have the atmosphere too moist, with a low tem- 

 perature at night ; hence the practice of watering early in the 

 day. It there is any stove climber or shrub planted out in 

 a bed or border, which it is desirable to move to another 

 situation to flower next year, this is the best time to begin to 

 prepare such plants for the change. Dig round one side, and 

 .take up half of the roots, place them near the surface, and fill 

 in about them with sand, peat, and leaf mould, give a gentle 

 watering, and in sis weeks the new roots will be formed, to feed 

 the plant ; then the other half of the roots may be taken up 

 and treated in the same way, and on any rainy day in March 

 or April, the plant may be potted or transplanted without in- 

 jury. Climbers 50 feet long and branched in all directions, 

 bave been removed in this way without their growth being 

 diminished in the following season, and the experiment will 

 succeed with Passion-flowers, Beaumontias, Allamandas, 

 Echites, &c. — W. Ke.vne. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST ^\'EEK. 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



Digging, Trenching, and Ridging Ground. — Where there is 

 vacant ground, and of that we have as yet little, there could be 

 no better weather for turning it over by adopting one or other 

 of the above modes, of which something Uke the rationale was 

 given the other week. It is always important to dig-down soil 

 after it has been frozen when fully thawed, and it is equally 

 important to turn it again, for at least part of its depth, when 

 so slightly frosted as to admit of that being done, and when a 

 keener frost is expected. The more aU rather stiff ground is 

 turned so that the frosty air has direct access to the soil, the 

 sweeter will this become, and the better pulverised will it be. 

 We cannot depend on the season, or, as a matter of choice, 

 we would prefer that vacant ground at all stiff, and where 

 slugs, &c., had been troublesome, should be well frosted before 

 ieing broken-up, then turned up as soon as the spade would 

 go in, and exposed in the rough to future frosts by frequent 

 turnings in a rough way. We have thus got rid of the slugs 

 and snails for a season or two ; but, when trenching or ridging 



before the surface was frozen for several inches in depth, we 

 have found the slimy tribe as numerous and destructive after 

 a severe winter as after a mild one. 



It is well now to fix on all the ground intended for long, 

 tuberous-root crops, as Carrots, Parsnips, &c. The great point 

 in their case is to have what manure is given placed in the 

 bottom of the trench, and after the first trenching and ridging, 

 whatever turnings the ground may have, the spade should not 

 go so deep as to bring up or incorporate the manure with the 

 bulk of the soil. That from the bottom of the trench will 

 make excellent material for mere surface-rooting vegetables in 

 the following season. 



There is a great inequality in the country as to the power 

 of the gardener to do his soil and his crops justice. We go 

 into one place where the empty quarters — the fallowing system 

 — can be carried out to such an extent that the gardener has 

 actually to think what he can till the garden with, so as at one 

 time of the year to show it all well cropped ; and we go iato 

 another garden, where except the places from which Carrots 

 and Parsnips were taken late, there is scarcely an empty piece 

 of ground to be seen, even in winter, to say nothing of the fre- 

 quent crops in summer. 



Such constant work can only be done by carefully stirring 

 the ground, and the addition of some decomposing organised 

 material for sustaining continued fertility. A garden much 

 too large is a continued annoyance, but one too small is often 

 a continued loss. The best compromise in the latter case is 

 to grow a portion of the commoner vegetables, as Potatoes, 

 Carrots, Turnips, &c., in a field, and that a fresh piece every 

 few years, so as to afford all the benefit of fresh soil and 

 rotation of cropping. It is one of those strange things for 

 which there is no accounting, that gentlemen who arc satisfied 

 with but moderate returns from their fields after dunging them 

 well, tilling them well, and fallowing, as well as putting them 

 under the restorative process of green crops, cannot see that a 

 kitchen garden will be worn out after such continuous cropping, 

 and that even dung will come to be a bane rather than a 

 blessing, if not brought into a more soluble and sweet con- 

 dition by liming or exposure. In old, dark-coloured garden 

 soil we have known from sixty to seventy bushels of lime per 

 acre produce as wonderful an effect as it frequently does on 

 fresh- reclaimed peaty soil. The time will come, when if we 

 have fine walled gardens, and we ourselves never wish to see 

 them gone, the new ones will enclose much less space than we 

 now find in large establishments, and then the bulk of vege- 

 tables will be grown in fields, and be sweeter and finer than 

 they can be obtained from old gardens, change and rotate the 

 crops as you may. In the quality of vegetables, do what we can, 

 we can never beat the market gardeners, and what contributes 

 mostly to the quality is the more open and free exposure, for 

 most of them give the ground little rest, though they are adepts 

 in manuring and changing their crops. Many small gardens 

 that would grow fruit well, and the earlier and later vegetables, 

 are spoiled because too much is attempted in them, and ex- 

 pected from them. It is perfectly wonderful what is thus 

 collected from perhaps less than an acre of garden ground, 

 and yet the owner of that garden will be satisfied if he receive 

 from 25s. to 30s. an acre for the contiguous land. 



The chief point to be attended to in the rotatimi of cropaia 

 to have deep-rooting and shallow-rooting crops following each 

 other, and the same may be said of fibrous-rooting and tuberous- 

 rooting crops. The tuberous roots do best in rather poor soil. 

 Celery is a good preparation for most crops, except the tuber- 

 ous-rooted, as the dung when spread out from the trenches 

 makes the bulk of the soil too rich, and encourages surface- 

 rooting, and the dividing or branching of the tuber. Celery 

 ground, after being trenched, and the well-sweetened dung left 

 divided over the ground, does admirably for Peas, Beans, 

 Cauliflowers, Cabbage, &c., and first-rate for Onions, with, 

 perhaps, a little more sweet manure added. Cabbage is a good 

 follower of the Onion quarter or bed, but nothing could be 

 worse than to have Onions following Cabbage. In fact, every 

 time we tried it, even after manuring, we had reason to regret 

 it. In our case, however, the Cabbages had a long lease of the 

 ground, planted say in September, and producing heavily all 

 the following summer, and if the second winter was at all 

 favourable, up to the second March from planting. We ad- 

 mire the Coleworts that come in for use from October, but we 

 have had a fine bed of Coleworts destroyed in midwinter, when 

 the old stalks of the old Cabbages carried us through with 

 abundance of nice sweet sprout.s ; so that in general our main 

 plantation.of Cabbages stands through two winters. 



