166 . GAEDEN MANAGEMENT. 



with sloi'ubs for winter, space must be found for them in the reserve garden in. 

 summer. Small plants of hollies, laurels, box, acacias, berberries, sedums, 

 thalmias, rhododendrons, and other flowering shrubs, are very effective and 

 useful for this purpose. They may be either grown in pots, or carefully moved 

 without pots. After a few years' transjDlanting in good sound loam, they wUl 

 be famished with such compact balls of roots, as to be moved with impunity 

 at almost any period of summer or winter. Living plants are much better 

 than branches of shrubs for relieving the bald outlines of flower-beds in winter. 

 By studj-ing the various shades of green, intermixing variegated vai-ieties, 

 and edging the shrubs with bulbs or other plants, to increase the effect, the 

 garden may be made almost as interesting in winter and spring as at any 

 other period. 



390. The soil in the reserve garden should be varied, to suit its sjDecial uses. 

 That most generally serviceable will be a rather heavy loam, which, by the 

 addition of sand, leaf-mould, &c., will produce almost every conceivable variety 

 best adapted to the varied purposes of this department. Some beds of peat 

 should also be provided, and composts of various kinds laid up within easy 

 distance. The size of the reserre garden will entirely depend upon the 

 demands upon it. A plot a yard square may suffice for an amateur ; a quarter 

 or half an acre may be needful for some of our largest places. No garden, 

 large or small, can be complete without one ; for what the propagating, 

 store, and growmg houses are to the conservatory and drawing-room, the 

 reserve garden is, or should be, to the flower-garden. It should not only be a 

 great manufactory of raw material, but an inexhaustible warehouse, filled to 

 overflowing with finished goods ready to be delivered whenever and wherever 

 a supply is demanded. 



§ 2.— The Kitchen-Garden. 



391. Kitchen gardening is certainly the most profitable purpose to which 

 a piece of ground can be appHed ; a shilling's worth of cabbage-seed will pro- 

 duce plants enough to crop several rods of ground, and will furnish greens in 

 winter, and cabbages in summer, for a large family ; but few who possess a 

 piece of ground are contented with the mere cultivation of cabbages. The 

 crops required for the kitchen are both numerous and varied ; dehcacies must 

 be produced in season and out of season, and this requires both'judgment in 

 arranging and skill in growing them. 



392. In laying down a plan of operations for kitchen-gardening, it is neces- 

 sary to have an eye to the means of those for whose service it is intended. A 

 kitchen-garden suitable for a gentleman's country seat would be little or no 

 use to the cottager, and vice versd; but although the minor details would be 

 different, the broad principles are the same, — the soil and situation are to be 

 adapted to the vegetables required, and the ground turned to the best pos- 

 sible account in both cases. 



393. The best soil for kitchen-garden purposes is a mellow holding loam». 



