72 THE VILLA GARDENER. 



with clear water, so as to prevent the surface of the soil from being disfigured ; 

 or, what is preferable, to use it chiefly during or immediately before rain. 

 As the supply of liquid manure will be regular throughout the year, it ought 

 to be regulai'ly used ; and at those seasons when it may not be proper to 

 water annual herbaceous vegetables with it, on account of disfiguring or 

 dirtying their leaves, it may be applied to perennials, such as tart rhubarb 

 and sea-kale, and to the roots of fruit-trees and fruit shrubs. The liquid 

 manure from a house, where the family consists of five or six persons, and 

 where they wash at home, if used as it is produced, so as to allow none of it 

 to run off by the drain, will be quite sufficient for a garden 200 ft. in length 

 and 60 ft. in breadth. Liquid maniu-e, however, though powerful in a recent 

 state, is always more efficacious after being a week or two fermented ; but for 

 this purpose two tanks are necessary, as will be hereafter described, when 

 treating of the arrangements suitable for large gardens. All the laying out 

 being completed, we next proceed to the planting. 



112. The front garden vfe Vionld devote chiefly to ornamental flowers or 

 plants, some of which should be, at the same time, useful in cookery. The 

 general surface we would keep in turf, forming round it a narrow dug border, 

 and, in the centre, a bed in the form of a circle, square, diamond, or any 

 other regular figure. In these borders, and in the central bed, we would 

 plant no trees or shrubs, but only such ornamental herbaceous plants as could 

 be rendered useful in the kitchen : for example, in the centre bed we would 

 plant a Judas tree, the flower's of which make excellent fritters when fried in 

 batter; or a mulberry; and in the alternate beds of a circular shape round 

 it, we would plant an eatable gourd, or vegetable marrow, the fruit of which 

 is one of the most useful of summer vegetables, either boiled or fried, and 

 serves either to mix with apples, or to use alone, flavoured with lemon and 

 sugar, for fruit pies. The best kind of gourd for using, when young, is the 

 vegetable marrow. In the other beds we would plant a mammoth gourd, or 

 American butter-squash pumpkin, the fruit of which should be allowed to 

 ripen, for the purpose of being used for soups and pies, and also as a veget- 

 able, when boiled, in the winter time. The fruit of both these species, when 

 the plants are regularly watered every warm evening with diluted liquid 

 manure, or even with simple water, will sometimes attain an enormous size, 

 weighing from 100 lbs. to 200 lbs. ; and, as it will keep the greater part of the 

 winter, even though cut, it is a most valuable resource for soups, and is so 

 used in some of the first families in England. When cut, a circular orifice, 

 of about 4 in. in diameter, is made on one side, and the piece taken out is, 

 after cutting ofl" part of the flesh, preserved as a stopper to exclude the air. 

 When a piece is wanted for soups or pies, the stopper is taken out, and a suf- 

 ficient quantity scooped out of the inside with a knife or an iron spoon. This 

 may be practised throughout the whole winter, and the fruit will still continue 

 quite fresh. The mammoth gourd is much used in soups by the French, 

 even of the humblest class, and in the public hospitals, as well as by the 

 Italians and the Americans ; and though in England it is as yet scarcely 

 known, except at the tables of the nobility and gentrj-, it is well deserving of 

 general cultivation. It gives a fine flavour and creamy richness to soup, and 

 is very nutritious. The flowers of all the gourds and pumpkins are delicious 

 fried in butter ; and the points of the young shoots, boiled, are equal to 

 spinach in tenderness and in flavour. 



