KITCHEN GARDENS AND ORCHARDS. 



Fruit 

 rooms. 



Examples. 



The arrangement and training of fruit trees on espaliers has been brought to great 

 perfection by the French horticulturalist, who by his special methods cleverly secures 

 the greatest fruit-bearing capacity together with a very beautiful arrangement of branches, 

 He aims at getting the greatest amount of fruit-bearing wood on any given area of 

 wall or espalier. The branches, whether in the form of upright cordons, fan shaped, 

 candelabrum or horizontal, are twelve inches apart ; there is no waste of wall space yet 

 no tree is allowed to encroach upon its neighbour. Here is a useful lesson which our 

 Continental neighbours may teach us, as the method is in every way adapted to English 

 gardens, and a successful example is given in illustrations Nos. 310 and 311. It is well 

 to remember, however, that just as with us topiary work often degenerates into grotesque 

 vegetable sculpture, the cleverness of the French gardener sometimes leads him to attempt 

 absurd forms, such as tables, balloons, birds and beasts ; which are to be avoided. 



An important adjunct of the kitchen garden is the fruit room. Every hostess knows 



the risk and anxiety 

 cherished tray of 

 apples or pears, and 

 spent on elaborate 

 good keeping. A 

 fruit room, such 

 in illustration No. 

 needed if grapes are 

 for apples, much 

 may be adopted, 

 freshness of the 

 earth, particularly 

 served, and flowers 

 a dug-out room (111. 

 eluding the light and 

 of air in order to 

 evaporation. Above- 

 built of match 

 ally insulated with 

 thatched on both 

 (111. No. 317) are 

 somewhat expensive. 

 an entirely under- 

 as that shown in 



FIG. 314. A FRUIT ROOM. 



of keeping, say, a 

 specially good dessert 

 much money is often 

 erections to ensure 

 well constructed 

 as the one shown 

 314, is in any case 

 to be kept, but 

 simpler methods 

 The flavour and 

 kindly fruits of the 

 apples, can be con- 

 retarded, by making 

 No. 315) and ex- 

 the free circulation 

 lessen the natural 

 ground fruit rooms 

 boarding and liber- 

 ground cork, or 

 roof and sides 

 practicable but 

 Economy suggests 

 ground room such 

 illustration No. 316, 



which could be covered over with a sufficient depth of earth to ensure an equable 

 temperature. Compact planning would direct that this room be sunk under one of the 

 garden offices or under the cold storage, or as an independent underground room with a 

 roof of arched concrete, but in any case it will need a regulated ventilating shaft at 

 each end, double doors at one end, and a small window opening on to an area at the 

 other. A damp earth floor is essential to fruit preservation. 



To explain and enforce the above remarks relating to kitchen gardens, illustrations 

 are given of several designed by the Author. 



The first (111. No. 318) is the plan of a kitchen garden of nearly two acres, designed 

 for a client in the United States, and illustrates a case where, on account of the 

 peculiarities of the site, the garden cannot be square in shape. The site of this garden 

 was previously cut up into a number of small plots containing frame cottages, which 

 have now been removed to a more secluded position, and there erected according to an 

 ordered plan. The garden required comparatively little grading, excepting at the North 



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