KITCHEN GARDEN. 



2$0 



KITCHEN GARDEN. 



garden must depend upon the demands 

 upon it, and the mode of culture adopted. 

 It is bad policy to have it too large. It 

 should be kept in the highest state of 

 cultivation, and its productive powers 

 stimulated to the utmost by liberal dress- 

 ings of manure. The soil should be 

 trenched at least 4 feet deep, and drained 

 a foot deeper. All the coarse vegetables, 

 such as Jerusalem and globe artichokes, 

 horseradish, rhubarb, &c., should be 

 grown outside the walls, if possible, in 

 a slip by themselves. Herbs should have 

 a border devoted to them, and be grown 

 in beds 3 feet wide. Thus cultivated, the 

 back garden becomes a source of interest 

 and an object of beauty, and they are 

 easily accessible. All that has been here 

 advised is as applicable to a plot a few 

 yards square as to a nobleman's garden 

 of ten or twenty acres. There is no 

 reason why the kitchen garden should 

 not bear the impress of order, design, 

 and high keeping, as much as any other 

 part of the grounds, or why this should 

 in any way interfere with securing the 

 largest amount of produce of the best 

 quality from a given space, which should 

 be the leading object in this department. 



In disposing of the main body of the 

 garden, if the form be such as will admit 

 of doing so, as shown in Fig. 3, divide it 

 into four equal compartments, by means 

 of cross-walks, 3 or 4 feet wide, as 

 already recommended. If it be desired to 

 have standard fruit-trees, plant a row 

 through the centre of each quarter from 

 north to south, and no more, for it should 

 be remembered that the more trees there 

 are, the less and poorer will be the crops, 

 both of fruit and vegetables. As regards 

 gooseberries, black, red, and white currants 

 and raspberries, it is far better to plant one 

 of the quarters with these instead of resort- 

 ing to the very common practice of border- 

 ing the quarters with them. 1 his is done 



on a false notion of economy, while, in 

 fact, it is a great waste; it is also done 

 with the view of being ornamental it is in 

 reality the contrary ; and it involves the 

 loss of these bushes as renewers and pre- 

 parers of the soil for ordinary kitchen crops 

 in connection with a system of rotation of 

 crops which will keep the ground in good 

 heart without any intermission of the pro- 

 duce. The converse of this may often be 

 seen in old kitchen gardens which do not 

 return the worth of the seed sown in them, 

 where the soil is swarming with grubs, 

 maggots, and mildew ; where cabbages club 

 and rot, tap roots canker, and potatoes 

 produce no tubers ; and why? Because 

 the soil, which has been for many years 

 overtasked, cropped highly, and injudici- 

 ously manured, whereas a proper system 

 of rotation cropping would have kept the 

 ground in good heart. See Cottage Garden, 

 Rotation of Crops in, a 'id Sequence of Crops. 



There are certain permanent crops, both 

 of vegetables and fruit-trees, which will 

 occupy the gardener in the autumn months. 

 To begin with the borders : In preparing 

 them dig out the soil to the depth of 4 feet, 

 and in the bottom of the trench thus formed 

 place first about a foot in thickness of brick 

 rubbish, or any coarse stuff, which, when 

 rammed down hard, will prevent the wall 

 trees from forming tap roots. 



If the soil in the kitchen garden is natu- 

 rally good loam, no more is required than 

 to mix a quantity of well -rotted dung with 

 it before throwing it back into the trench, 

 making the borders slope gradually towards 

 the paths. If the soil requires improving, 

 get a quantity of friable loam, mix rotten 

 dung with it in the proportion of one part 

 dung to three parts loam, and mix this 

 again with the soil of the border where the 

 trees are to stand. Plant the border with 

 healthy young trees peach, nectarine, and 

 apricot, and, if desirable, with grape vines 

 and figs : these ought to be placed 12 or 15 



