INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 5 



The chief requirements of a small kitchen-garden are : An 

 open situation ; the provision of a moderate shade in convenient 

 portions by means of tall-growing vegetables and cordon or 

 espalier fruit trees and bushes ; naturally shaded ground to 

 be afforded relief from further shadow, if possible, or used only 

 for those plants requiring protection from sun or hard weather ; 

 the drastic elimination of weeds and all superfluous vegetation ; 

 the frequent use of salt, soot, lime and ashes, to kill and keep 

 away insects and sweeten the soil ; a well-thought-out laying- 

 out plan ; and a wise choice of subjects to be grown. 



It is astonishing how far the good growth of vegetables in 

 town even in city gardens can be accomplished. Evidence 

 of this is very public in the case of the Church 

 Vegetables Army waste-ground allotments in the city of 

 in Town London. Where the demolition of buiklings have 

 Gardens taken place, and no further erections substituted, 

 the bricks, timber, and other debris has been 

 removed or perhaps piled away in one corner of the piece of 

 ground, and willing and enthusiastic hands have converted, 

 in a surprisingly short space of time, the dust-heap into a 

 smiling garden of vegetables that would do credit to many a 

 cottager in the heart of the country ! 



Such successful enterprise must put to shame anyone pos- 

 sessing a fair amount of garden lying uncultivated and idle! 

 When one, in passing these allotments, stops for five minutes 

 to contemplate the neat rows of flourishing vegetables amid a 

 scene of desolation, and then, in leaving the spot, glances up 

 at a murky sky, and realizes the presence of a smoky, stifling 

 atmosphere, only one word seems to fit the situation, and that 

 is " Marvellous ! " 



I was privileged to see, at the beginning of July, an exhibit 

 of produce fr^m one of these allotments, at the Royal Horti- 

 cultural Hall, and it seemed to me an impossibility that such a 

 collection of vegetables could have been secured from a city 

 waste-heap so early in the season ! Yet there was no doubt 

 about it, for I had only to step outside the Hall, and there, 

 a short distance away, were the very " allotments" from which 

 the vegetables came, an oasis in the midst of a desert ! l 



1 If the reader would like to know more of this unique and successful scheme, 

 I am sure the Rev. Prebendary W. Carlile, of St. Mary-at-Hill Church, E.G., 

 the initiator of the idea and head of the Church Army ; or Mr. H. T. Bennett, 

 Hon. Sec., 55, Bryanston Street, Marble Arch, W., would be pleased to give 

 every information. 



