COTTAGE GARDENS. 



128 



COTTAGE GARDENS. 



everything that bears on them, are a matter 

 of course patent to all, and that there is 

 nothing to be said on them. Tkere may, 

 indeed, be nothing very novel to say on 

 either of them ; but there is much in each 

 that is often lost sight of altogether, or 

 but imperfectly understood. 



Preparation of Soil. The tools essen- 

 tial to the cottage gardener are the spade 

 and the fork, the former being better cal- 

 culated for working in lighter soils and the 

 latter for heavier soils, because the action 

 of the spade is to bring up masses of earth 

 on its broad flat blade, while the action of 

 the fork is to break up these masses, and 

 to make many small lumps out of what 

 would have been a large lump if lifted by 

 the spade. I am speaking, of course, of 

 soils that have a coherence and consistency, 

 as clay soils, or soils that are apt to cake 

 together under the influence of the sun's 

 rays or abundant moisture. Some soils 

 when lifted by the spade will fall to pieces 

 and crumble nicely, and require little or 

 no beating about to pulverise them, so to 

 speak ; but a large and heavy fork would 

 be inefficient for lifting and turning such 

 soil, because the tines or tangs of the fork 

 would pass through it. Trenching is good 

 for all soils, especially those that it is 

 sought to bring for the first time into a 

 condition suitable for growing garden crops. 

 The reason for resorting to trenching is 

 that by its means the soil is thoroughly 

 broken up, and brought into a state in 

 which a greater portion of its mineral con- 

 stituents can be acted on by the frost, and 

 thus fitted by minute subdivision into 

 atoms, and greater capability of being 

 held in solution, to be taken up by the 

 spongioles, or the rootlets of plants, as 

 plant food. By ridging, or throwing the 

 ground into a succession of ridges and 

 trenches, as in planting leeks or celery, a 

 larger extent of surface is exposed to the 

 action of the frost in winter, and the air 



and frost is better able to find its way into 

 and through the ridges of earth, which, 

 consisting as they do of lumps of earth 

 more or less broken in themselves and 

 lightly piled together, so to speak, are 

 more readily permeated by the atmosphere, 

 or aerated, enabling the oxygen of the air, 

 and its other constituents, to make fresh 

 combinations, chemically, with the mineral 

 atoms with which it comes in contact. In 

 this lies the philosophy of digging, trench- 

 ing, and ridging ; and it is obvious that 

 this should be done from November to 

 anuary inclusive, when Nature is dor- 

 mant. By this it is not meant to say that 

 ground is not meant to be dug over at any 

 other time of the year. To grow good 

 crops of certain vegetables it is necessary 

 .o turn the ground over at least a month 

 Before they are put in, and thus render it 

 ighter and looser for the reception either 

 of the seed or of growing plants. 



Manures and Manuring. In dressing 

 garden-ground, stick to the contents of the 

 muck-heap, and do not rely too much on 

 the efficacy of artificial manures. The 

 muck-heap, composed of turf-parings, 

 charred rubbish and clearings of the gar- 

 den, the contents of the closet deodorised 

 for transit by the addition of a little dried 

 earth, and saturated by the slops of the 

 house, which will consist largely of urine, 

 rich in nitrogen and alkaline salts, will 

 form a compost which puts heart into the 

 land, as bread and beef sustains and puts 

 muscle into a man ; while artificial manures 

 are to the land as stimulants or tonics to 

 the human being, useful for a season, but 

 imparting no lasting and enduring benefit, 

 and incapable of rendering fit to keep up a 

 sustained effort over a considerable period 

 of time. Artificial manures, useful as they 

 may be for the crop that immediately fol- 

 lows on their introduction, are soon ex- 

 hausted, and leave no traces of their in- 

 fluence if not constantly renewed. To do 



