A Year's Work in the Vegetable Garden 



borders, and suitable appliances for screening and forwarding early 

 crops. Under these favourable conditions, we advise the sowing of 

 small breadths of a few choice subjects towards the end of the month ; 

 and, this being done, every care should be taken to nurse the seed- 

 lings through the trying times that are before them. Such things as 

 tender young Radishes, Onions, small Salads, Spinach, Cabbage, and 

 Horn Carrots never come in too early ; the trouble often is that they 

 are seen in the market while as yet they are invisible in the garden. 

 Hedges of Hornbeam, Laurel, or Holly, to break the force of the 

 wind, are valuable for sheltering early borders, and walls are great 

 aids to earliness by the warmth they reflect and the dryness they 

 promote. 



The soil for these early crops should be light and rich, and the 

 position extra well drained, to prevent the slightest accumulation of 

 water during heavy rains. Supposing you have such a border, sow 

 upon it, as early as weather will permit, any of the smaller sorts of 

 Cabbage Lettuce, Silver-skin Onion, Long Scarlet Radish, Round 

 Spinach, Cabbage, and French Horn Carrot. All these crops may 

 be grown in frames with greater safety, and in many exposed places 

 the warm border is almost an impossibility. Reed hurdles and loose 

 dry litter should be always ready when early cropping is in hand ; 

 and old lights, and even old doors, and any and every kind of screen 

 may be made use of at times to protect the early seed-beds from 

 snow, severe frost, and the dry blast of an east wind. 



Forcing is one of the fine arts in the English garden. It is an 

 art easily acquired up to a certain point, but beyond that point full 

 of difficulty. Every step in this business is a conflict with Nature, 

 and in such a conflict the devices of man must occasionally fail. A 

 golden rule is to be found in the proverb ' The more haste the less 

 speed.' Whatever the source of heat, it should be moderate at first, 

 and should be augmented slowly. The earlier the forced articles 

 are required the more careful should be the preparation for them, 

 and the more moderate the temperature in the first instance. There 

 must be at command a constant as well as sufficient temperature : 

 when a forced crop has made some progress a check will be fatal to 

 success. The beginner should acquire experience with Rhubarb 

 and Sea Kale, then with Asparagus and Mushrooms and Kidney 

 Beans, and so on to ' higher heights ' of this branch of practical 

 gardening. 



Artichokes, Globe, are not quite hardy, and must be protected 

 with litter. 



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