388 



JOUBNAIi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER, 



i May 14, 1874. 



was only in course of preparation for the reception of the 

 13,000 tedding plants which are required to render it gay 

 during the summer months. 



Since His Eoyal Highness the Prince of Wales has made 

 Chiswick House his town villa, and has his own larger sources 

 of supply, the kitchen garden and the park are let off, so we 

 have no notes to make on the fruit and vegetable gardens, al- 

 though those in the neighbourhood would afford a fertile theme 

 to discourse upon. In fact, the place, like Holland House, 

 Kensington, is becoming year by year more tightly engirdled 

 by buildings. The late Duke expended much in endeavouring 

 to plant these out ; the present one is yielding to the inevit- 

 able logic of facts, and they are springing up on the outlying 

 portions of the estate, but those which are being erected are 

 villa residences, and very different from the miserable dwell- 

 ings which rendered the New Town of Chiswick a disgrace and 

 burden to the parish, where the Asparagus beds were levelled 

 into the alleys and the foundations laid ; where the shells were 

 mortgaged before the roofs were put on, and a fresh mortgage 

 made before the houses were rendered fit — no, not to be 

 tenanted, but to be let. This drove away many of the better- 

 class of residents ; this made Chiswick the dwelling-place of the 

 labourers of adjoining parishes, who, when work failed, became 

 a heavy burden upon it. But now improvements are being 

 actively carried out, there is a hope of sewage being more 

 satisfactorily disposed of than being carried into the Thames — 

 for the main drainage terminates with the adjoining parish of 

 Hammersmith — and Chiswick bids fair to be, what it once was, 

 one of the most fashionable places near London, as it has for 

 years been, in spite of all drawbacks, one of the most healthy. 

 And here it may be noted that places near a tidal river enjoy a 

 continual change of air; twice a-dr; \he tide rises, twice falls, 

 and an immense bulk of air is thus displaced four times a-day 

 as if by the bellows — blown in and sucked out, for the water 

 must be replaced by air. Still, favourable as the locality is to 

 health, it is not altogether so for gardening, as from the high 

 ground of Acton and Ealing the cold air sinks by its gravity 

 into the valley, making the frosts in winter severe, and fruit 

 crops precarious in spring, while in summer the heat is often 

 intense. 



With these remarks we shall quit Chiswick, its gardens, and 

 its gardeners, adding that among the many worthies of those 

 which are is Mr. Edmonds, the Duke of Devonshire's steward, 

 whose genial face has been so often and so long seen at the 

 Fruit Committee Meetings at Kensington. 



NOTES ON VILLA and SUBUBBAN GARDENING. 



The Green Fh/.—li slugs and snails are the terror of gardeners 

 in reference to their culinary crops aud other productions near 

 the surface of the ground, the numerous tribes of aphis are 

 equally obnoxious to the well- being of his trees and shrubs. 

 They also thrive with provoking fecundity in frames and green- 

 houses. _ The present season is distinguished by the ravages of 

 these minute creatures, who do injury in various ways. They 

 do not eat up the plant on which they dwell, but they constitute 

 a sad incubus on its power of life, both by tlieir own pressure 

 and by the gummy excrement they so plentifully discbarge. 

 Gardens are so generally infested by these insects, and the 

 damage they do is so well known, that any contribution to the 

 modes of counteracting their influence must be acceptable. 



It is well known that tobacco smoke, when properly applied, 

 effectually clears the plants in a frame or greenhouse from the 

 aphis; but the same agent when used in the open air is almost 

 useless, for although a puff of smoke will dislodge the enemy 

 it does not kill it — it is only intoxicated for a time, and will 

 speedily return to its predatory attacks. Having myself a col- 

 lection of Roses scattered rather plentifully over about an acre 

 of ground, and all much disfigured with green fly, I therefore 

 commenced operations with gas water. Having diluted it with 

 six times its bulk of water I plentifully syringed some climbing 

 Roses trained against a wall, but to my vexation the insects 

 were unmoved either by the smell or the taste of the dose. What 

 followed I relate as a warning. If the aphis was unaffected by 

 the gas water, other things were not. Despairing of clearing my 

 trees by any solution or dccocticu, I resolved to have recourse 

 to the labour of the hands, and recklessly to crush the bodies of 

 those I could not poison. I went over the bushes and drew my 

 fingers up the shoots infested, thus slaying thousands in a 

 minute. In this way I pressed to death all that I found on the 

 Rose buds. The operation is very disaRreeable, but it is more 

 effectual than any other I know. As the juices of the insects 

 thus destroyed form a sort of gum on the branches, they must 

 be well syringedwith water as you proceed. Bythismode I have 

 brought the enemy under, although he is far from being quite 



destroyed. As the aphides begin to move when the branch is 

 disturbed, I think the shoot which is covered with them should 

 be held over a basin of water, and then gently brushed so that 

 the insects may fall into the basin. These modes of procedure 

 may appear very tiresome, but it is to be understood that a 

 well-regulated garden is only made so by tiresome processes. 



Those who require Cinerarias for early blooming must sow 

 the seed in May or early in June. There is an important reason 

 for early sowing which, perhaps, many amateurs may not quite 

 understand. It is this : Unless you have strong healthy plants 

 with their pots full of roots by the end of September they will 

 not flower before the beginning of the new year, whereas by 

 sowing early and shifting the plants on during the summer as 

 fast as the pots are full of roots they will commence flowering 

 by the beginning of November. The seed should be sown 

 in a deep pan or in a 10 or 12-inch pot. Fill the pan to the re- 

 quired depth with fine soil, and well water it before sowing the 

 seed. Then place the seed-pan in a warm shady house or pit 

 until the seedlings are large enough to pot-ofl singly in 3-inch 

 pots. After they are potted place a frame under the shade of a 

 north wall, and cover the bottom with a layer of coal ashes. 

 This must be their summer quarters, for Cinerarias cannot 

 endure the summer sun, but they must have an abundance of 

 air both night and day wlien there is no appearance of frost. 

 Good turfy loam three parts, and old rotten dung one part, will 

 grow Cinerarias to perfection, but it must not be sifted. Plants 

 for later blooming may be raised from seed sown as late as the 

 middle of July, and receive the same summer treatment as 

 advised for those raised from the first sowing. 



Watering. — This matter of watering is one much less understood 

 than it should be, but the more it is understood the lighter be- 

 comes the labour. As a rule, water should never be given tintil 

 the further withholding of it would be detrimental to the plants. 

 Habitual watering does, in the majority of cases, more harm 

 than good. Plants left to battle with drought send their roots 

 down deep in search of moisture, and when rain does come they 

 benefit more by it than those that have regular watering all 

 along. If the ground is dug deeply and kept in good heart, 

 plants that have once got established will bear drought for 

 almost any length of time ; but things lately planted and that 

 have not time to get hold, must be kept supplied, or their 

 beauty may vanish for half the season. Succulent vegetables, 

 too, which ought to be kept growing quick must have abundance, 

 and, of course, plants in i)ots must of necessity have sufficient. 

 There are two important points to be attended to in giving 

 water: one is to expose the water to the sun before using it, to 

 render it soft and warm ; aud the other is to give a thorough 

 soaking at once suflicient to keep the ground moist for a week. 



Cuttings of aU kinds may now be struck out of doors. Antir- 

 rhinums, Phloxes, Pentstemons, Alyssums, Dielytras, &c. ; and 

 cuttiugs of Laurels, Aucubas, and other shrubs must be struck 

 in the shade. 



A small Cucumber bed may now be made by digging a trench 

 1 foot deep by 3 feet wide, in a sunny spot well sheltered from 

 the wind, for such a position is of the utmost importance. A 

 thorough collection of all the weeds around the garden, the 

 trimmings of ditch sides, old Ferns, hedge dubbings, &c., blended 

 with a little hot manure, will do well. Keep the manure low, 

 and fill-up the trench as a mound nearly 2 feet above the ground 

 level. Soil it over slightly, and raise deep hillocks where the 

 plants axe to be set. Those who cannot get hand-glasses may 

 stretch some sticks or hoops across, and cover-up at night with 

 old mats or cloths. Such, however, should not trust their plants 

 out until another week or fortnight. 



It is now high time to think of bedding-out some of the mass 

 flowers, at least such as are least liable to injury from frost, 

 and have undergone a proper hardening process. Much may be 

 done as to display b'y a judicious arrangement or combination 

 of both colour and figure. As a general principle, our best au- 

 thorities seem to agree that the various shades of orange and 

 yellow will class well with the various purples and blties. 

 "whites are suitable with the blues, oranges, and reds. White, 

 however, deranges the effect of the yellows, as also the violet 

 shades, whilst the various red or roee-colourtd flowers are, as 

 far as colour is concerned, capable of forming a bed for them- 

 selves. Every individual bed of a flower parden should, in my 

 opinion, be complete in itself in regard to colour, outUne, and 

 arrangement of height. — W. Keane. 



DOINGS OF THE LAST AND PRESENT "WEEES. 



Hardii Fruit Garden.— On walls, as in the open ground, all 

 sorts of fruit seem to have set well this season, and now that 

 the safety of the crops has been secured, it is absolutely neces- 

 sary, in order that good fruit may ripen off, that the trees be 

 kept in perfect health. I'nid an ardent amateur cultivator of 

 fruit the other day, " If X should ever change my residence, and 

 have a new garden, I will have no Peaches or Nectarines on the 

 walls." Of course he could not expect his trees 1o do weJl, 

 smothered with aphis in May, and thej fewtleaves that thebc 



