SUBUBBAN KEblDENCKS. 



89 



with flagstone walks, will be but small ; being merely a bed about 12 ft. wide 

 by 75 ft. long. To make the most of this plot, it must be divided into smaller 

 beds, say fifteen, eacb 4 ft. wide, with 1 ft. alleys between, as shown in 

 the figure ; and that, at the lower end, as nearest the enti-ance through the 

 trellis, may contain the perennial potherbs, such as chives, garlic, sage, mar- 

 joram, winter savory, thyme, fennel, tarragon, burnet, and mint, the last 

 three being the most useful (tarragon for vinegar, and for flavouring salads 

 and steaks ; burnet, at all seasons, for salads; and mint for boiling with peas, 

 and for sauce to lamb, &c.) Annual and biennial herbs, as parsley, chervil, 

 and pot marjoram, may occupy an adjoining bed, double space being required 

 for them; because, while one crop is in use, another must be sown to succeed 

 it. For a very small family, not particular in their cookery, one bed, 12 ft, 

 in length and 4 ft, in breadth, will be quite sufficient fur the whole of these 

 herbs, pei-ennial, annual, and biennial. The remaining part of the plot 

 allotted to kitchen crops may be occupied by those vegetables which it is 

 always convenient to have at hand ; and by such as never can be so well 

 procured at market, or from the greengrocer, as direct from the garden. 

 Among these lettuce may be included, as always convenient for making 

 a salad, and we would therefore devote the beds 2 and 3 to a succession of 

 this vegetable ; bed 4 is for small and oth.er salading, such as mustard and 

 cress, radishes, lamb's lettuce, American cress, &c. ; in beds 5 and 6 we 

 would sow winter spinach, which, if the Flanders kind be chosen, will afford 

 a dish now and then throughout the winter, and in spring twice or thrice a 

 week, from April to August ; beds 7 and 8 may be planted with scarlet 

 runners, two rows lengthwise in a bed, and these will afford a small dish of 

 kidneybeans every other day, from June till they are destroyed by frost; and 

 beds 9 to 15 may be devoted to peas, that being a vegetable never to be 

 obtained good, except direct from the garden ; because, in a few hours after 

 peas are gathered and put in baskets or sacks, they begin to heat and ferment, 

 and when dressed they will be found to have become tough 

 and vapid. The most suitable sorts of peas for a very ^q 



small garden are the blue Prussian, Knight's marrow, and 

 the dwarf marrow ; because these have the seeds, or peas, 

 large. The frame and the Charlton are early varieties, but 

 both the seeds and the pods are small, and the peas are 

 neither so succulent nor so sweet when cooked as the kinds 

 before mentioned. Whatever kind of pea is sown ought to 

 be staked as soon as the tendrils appear; because, in this 

 way, the plants occupy less room. The kind of staking or 

 supports proper for peas in a small garden is, a line of rods 

 on each side of each line of peas, and at about 3 in. distant 

 from them, with pieces of string stretched horizontally from 

 rod to rod, so as to leave a clear space between the line of 

 rods 6 in. wide, in which the peas will grow up, and support 

 themselves by clasping the strings and rods. The rods may 

 be from 3 ft. to 5 ft. apart, and from 3 ft. to 4 ft. in height; 

 the first string may be 18 in. from the ground, and the 

 others 9 in. apart. The rods, if Kyanised before being used, 

 will last several years ; or light iron rods, formed by bending 

 quarter-inch iron rods in the form of a hair pin, as shown in 



