THE GARDENERS ASSISTANT 



INTRODUCTORY 



CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN 



It is necessary to observe, that no calendarial 

 directions can be made to justify the expectation 

 that they can be strictly followed in all cases. 

 The climate of the locality, the season, soil, 

 and other circumstances, may render deviation 

 expedient or absolutely necessary. It will be 

 found, however, that in preparing the following 

 Calendar most of the circumstances that lead 

 to exceptions have been noticed, and suitable 

 directions given accordingly. It is obviously 

 impossible to provide for every contingency; 

 but any intelligent person will easily adopt 

 such modifications as his particular case may 

 require. On the whole, it is presumed that 

 the following Calendar will be generally appli- 

 cable throughout the United Kingdom. It may 

 be said that over this extent the climate is 

 exceedingly variable, and therefore no one 

 Calendar can be applicable; but within certain 

 limits of elevation the difference between the 

 temperatures of any two places is much less 

 than frequently occurs between the tempera- 

 tures of two different seasons at the same place. 

 For example, if we take March — the principal 

 spring month for seed-sowing — we find that 

 over nearly ten degrees of latitude, extending 

 from Paris to Wick, in Caithness, the mean 

 temperature of that month differs very little on 

 the average of a number of years, as will be 

 seen by the following table :— 



Mean Temperature 

 Latitude. of March. 



Paris, 48° 50' 4379 



Eouen, 49 26 41-12 



Brussels, 50 51 4278 



Chiswick, London, 51 29 42-23 



Boston, Lincolnshire, 52 48 41'67 



Dublin, .? 53 21 42-46 



Liverpool, 53 25 44*44 



Edinburgh, 55 58 40'53 



Dundee, 56 27 42-20 



Aberdeen, 57 9 42-80 



Elgin, Morayshire, 57 38 40-53 



Wick, Caithnesshire, 58 29 41-94 



Vol. T. 



From the above it appears that the mean 

 temperature of March is nearly the same at 

 London, Dublin, Dundee, and Aberdeen, al- 

 though the last-named of these places is nearly 

 400 miles north of the first. At Elgin, the 

 month of March is just as warm as it is at Edin- 

 burgh ; and at Wick, furthest north of the towns 

 noted, the mean temperature at that period of 

 the year is higher than at Edinburgh. It will 

 also be seen that at all the above places the 

 difference of temperature in March is not such 

 as to materially affect the Calendar of Opera- 

 tions. In fact its scope may include all those 

 widely-distant places. 



But in different seasons, at the same place, a 

 greater variation than that arising from latitude 

 frequently occurs, in consequence of which con- 

 siderable modifications of usually applicable di- 

 rections have to be made. The mean tempera- 

 ture of the month to which we have referred 

 varies as much as ten degrees in different years ; 

 and operations such as sowing and planting, 

 which in ordinary seasons would be properly 

 done in the first week of March, may not be at 

 all practicable, in consequence of frost and snow, 

 till the very end of the month. 



The adaptation of a Calendar, therefore, is 

 more affected by the variations of the seasons 

 than by any circumstance connected with lo- 

 calities fit for gardens throughout the extent of 

 Britain, If, then, a Calendar is carefully made 

 for one place, it may be considered suitable for 

 this country in general. By gardeners in the 

 south, as well as in the north, calendarial direc- 

 tions must be understood with the proviso — 

 weather and state of the soil 'permitting. If these 

 are favourable the earliest practicable oppor- 

 tunity should be taken to carry out the opera- 

 tions indicated. 



