THE KITCHEN-GARDEN. 



ARDENING, whether regarded as an orna- 

 v_JT mental art, or as a branch of industry, has 

 long been cultivated with success in the British 

 Islands, and has, in fact, become more intimately 

 identified with the English people than with any 

 other nation. Happily, many advantages of a 

 public kind are now afforded for the gratification 

 of our love of gardening. The Royal Garden of 

 Kew is now the everyday resort of pleasure- 

 parties of all ranks of society from the humble 

 artisan, whose holiday come* once a year, to the 

 rich noble, whose life is one long holiday. The 

 Crystal Palaces at Sydenham and the Alexandra 

 Park, the Regent's Park Botanic Garden, Batter- 

 sea Park, and the 'marine gardens' (vivaria) of 

 the Zoological Society, are additional sources of 

 delight to all lovers of gardening in London ; 

 while the inhabitants of Scotland have the Royal 

 Botanic Garden at Edinburgh, with its palm- 

 houses, noble conifers, heaths, and ferns ; and the 

 Botanic Garden at Glasgow. Ireland is fortunate 

 in its Botanic Gardens at Dublin, Belfast, and 

 Galway. The provincial public institutions of 

 this kind in England are numerous as those at 

 Cambridge, Oxford, Sheffield, Manchester, &c. 

 To these may be added the gardenesque style of 

 keeping now happily introduced into most of our 

 public parks and cemeteries. But the possession 

 of such examples of gardening does not satisfy 

 the people ; for gardens are like libraries the 

 enjoyment of a public one leads every man .to 

 wish for a little paradise of his own. 



There are various kinds of gardens the Italian 

 gardens, with their splendid terraces, vases, and 

 statues ; the old French gardens of Le Notre, of 

 which we have a specimen at Versailles, with 

 their long straight walks, clipped hedges, formal 

 parterres, and fountains ; English gardens, with 

 their elegant blending of natural with artificial 

 beauty ; and so on. But it is to none of these 

 princely kinds of gardens that we intend, in the 

 present series, to direct attention. We propose 

 to treat of the three departments which belong to 

 the greater number of gardens of the middle and 

 humbler classes ; those, in short, which, designed 

 on a moderate scale, are intended to afford the 

 three staples of garden culture vegetables for the 

 kitchen, flowers to charm the eye, and the more 

 easily attainable kinds of fruit. These various 

 articles are for the greater part the production of 

 one garden, a section or scattered part being set 

 aside for each ; but for the sake of clearness, we 

 shall confine ourselves in the present sheet chiefly 

 to the economy and products of the kitchen- 

 garden. 



CHOICE OF SITUATION AND LAYING OUT OF 

 GARDENS. 



A garden of the ordinary mixed description 



varies from the eighth of an acre to a whole acre ; 



but a common size in country places is about 



half an acre. Whatever be the dimensions, the 



35 



garden ought to be inclosed with a wall from ten 

 to twelve feet high, and the ground thoroughly 

 drained. A much more important circumstance 

 than size or external appearance, is exposure. In 

 a flat country, the garden must of course be level ; 

 but if there be a choice as to situation, select by all 

 means a spot which lies with an easy slope towards 

 the sun at his meridian. In the British Islands 

 this will be facing the south. The next best 

 exposure is towards the south-west, and after that 

 the west. Avoid a northern or eastern exposure. 

 Allow no house, wall, or trees to interrupt the fair 

 action of the morning sun on your garden ; for the 

 sun is the main agent in bringing vegetation to 

 perfection, and if you be deprived of it, your opera- 

 tions will be blighted and retarded in every pos- 

 sible way. So important are the sun's rays, that if 

 your garden be small, rather have no wall on the 

 south and west sides, but only a low fence, than 

 submit to their exclusion. Some gardens are so 

 disposed that they receive the sun in abundance 

 in summer, but only partially the rest of the year. 

 These gardens are imperfect. The garden should 

 be visited all over by the sun daily, except perhaps 

 in the heart of winter, when his rays have 

 comparatively little effect. The exposure should 

 also allow a free admission and currency of air ; 

 for this reason, a garden is best away from dense 

 old woods, and is most advantageously placed in 

 an open sloping lawn, overlooked by, or near the 

 house of the proprietor. There should be an 

 abundant supply of water readily at hand, for 

 'water is the life and soul of a garden.' 



The shape of a garden is of little consequence. 

 It may be square, oblong, semicircular, or irreg- 

 ular, according to taste or local circumstances. 

 In the greater number of Instances, an oblong, 

 as represented in the following plan, will be found 

 most convenient. It is surrounded by a wall, in 



which is an entrance marked e. Within the wall 

 is a border of several feet wide for select crops, or 

 dotted round with flowers and flowering shrubs. 

 Next is a gravel walk ; and within is another 

 border cqntaining fruit-bushes, or perhaps fruit- 

 trees on espaliers, and in the centre is the body of 

 the garden laid out in three plots, marked a, b, 

 and c. Between these plots and around them are 

 paths (represented by dotted lines) of twelve or 

 fourteen inches in width, not for ordinary walking, 

 but for admission to the various plots or sections 



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