such like. 
and six feet wide. 
wall of the house. 
to fit the sashes. 
sashes. 
for ventilation. 
A sort of lean-to built of hotbed sash, the terrace wall making one side. 
The house is 66 ft. long, 6 ft. wide with a solid bed. 
It grew lettuce from October till April, also 
cucumbers with sweet peas, wallflowers, and other flowers for planting out 
Growing Winter Salads in a “Pit”—By Frank H. Presby 
New 
Jersey 
AN AMATEUR’S INGENIOUS SCHEME FOR UTILIZING THE WALLS OF A TERRACED GARDEN AND PROVIDING THE 
EASIEST MEANS OF DOING GARDEN 
AST fall I felt that in order to be per- 
fectly happy in my garden I must find 
a place for some more coldframes, as I had 
only six, in which I grew pansies, daisies, and 
My garden is divided into ter- 
races, and I found the right place in the sec- 
tion used as the vegetable garden. After 
further consideration of the factors I decided 
that it would be better to build a cold house, 
or pit, instead of adding more frames. 
The house is a lean-to sixty-six feet long, 
The terrace wall, which 
is six feet high, was used as the back, or high 
The upper ends of the 
sashes rested on the top of the wall, which 
was built up two inches with cement grooved 
The lower ends of the 
sashes rested in a groove made of cement on 
a brick wall, which was two feet high. To 
cover this house I used twenty-two 3 x 6 ft. 
Six of the sashes were cut and 
hinged, so they could be opened as needed 
The north end of the house 
was built up solid with brick, while a door 
was made in the south end. The walls are 
made of brick, washed down with cement. 
WHAT IT COST 
While I do not remember what the whole 
cost of the house was, I do know that all of 
the material used (excepting the sashes) was 
worth about sixty dollars. The bricks used 
were of the cheapest kind and the cement of 
the Rosedale brand. A mason and laborer 
WORK IN 
Photographs by Harriet C. Presby 
did all the work in a few days after the foun- 
dation trench had been dug by my man. This 
house has no fire heat, but derives its warmth 
from the sun. During the cold weather the 
sashes are covered at night with straw mats. 
As it was thought best to have a solid bed, 
a brick wall two feet high was built two feet 
from the back wall, which left a space for a 
walk, and gave a bed sixty-six feet long and 
four feet wide. 
WHAT IT GREW 
Last October the house was planted with 
200 lettuce plants of the Mignonette and Big 
Boston varieties. All of these had been used 
by February, when it was again set with 
plants of Big Boston, which had been started 
in a box in the house about January rst. As 
the ground was very rich, and plenty of 
water was used, the second crop was gone by 
spring, when.the house was planted with 
cucumbers. and flower seeds. 
The Big Boston lettuce made fine heads; 
many were as large as those which are sent 
to market. The heads of Mignonette were 
small, and while perhaps they stood the cold 
better than the other variety, I have decided 
to grow only the Big Boston for next winter. 
In addition to the lettuce, I grew a large 
bed of mint and parsley; about fifty pansy 
plants, and a number of forget-me-nots, 
daisies and hardy primroses, all of which did 
very well. I had one hundred violet plants, 
and while the Prince of Wales variety did 
61 
THE MIDDLE OF WINTER—RAISING FLOWERS FOR CUTTING 
very well, those of the Marie Louise were a 
failure, as they were badly attacked by spot. 
I also had about three dozen plants of Pros- 
perity carnations, which were a failure, be- 
cause the house was too cold. 
The one thing which was the greatest joy 
of all was a bed of twenty-five wallflowers; 
they commenced to bloom early, and kept it 
up all winter. I picked a bunch about every 
Sunday, many times when the thermometer 
outside was at 20°, or even lower. 
About the middle of February I planted 
sweet pea seeds in six-inch pots, and although 
they were a long time in germinating, I had 
plants three to four inches high, and the pots 
full of roots, by March 17th, when they were 
planted out. 
GETTING AN EARLY START 
I never found so good a place to start my 
flower and vegetable seeds as in this house— 
I think about every seed germinated—and 
especially good results were had also from a 
lot of Japanese iris and gladiolus seeds which 
had been hand fertilized. 
In the spring the glass was lifted off, and I 
grew a fine crop of cucumbers. They did so 
well that I shall not plant any in the open 
garden next year. 
The house (the professional gardener 
would call it a “‘pit’’) has made a fine place 
to spend a few hours on Saturdays when the 
ground is covered with snow, and an enthus- 
ilastic amateur is longing for spring. 
