334 



On Cottage Gardening. 



The crops above specified will come into use in the following 

 order : viz., every intermediate row of the caLbage planted in 

 October may be used for greens during the winter, and their 

 places taken by broad beans and peas, according as the greens 

 are cleared off. Next, every intermediate plant of the rows of 

 cabbage intended to stand to head may be pulled as wanted, to 

 serve till the prime cabbage come in during May and June. The 

 Christmas-sowed radish (if any were sown) will be ready in 

 April; and in May there will be also the thinnings of onions, 

 carrots, turnips, and lettuce, to eke out a meal or give a relish to 

 the rasher. 



Cabbage will be plentiful in May ; and soon afterwards a row 

 or two of potatoes may be taken up ; not that we would advise 

 beginning on the potatoes so soon, but that the ground they 

 occupy may be had to get in upon it another crop of cabbage, 

 savoys, or any other sort of winter greens. 



Another seed-bed of the sugar-loaf or Battersea cabbage 

 should be sown in June, to supply coleworts (that is, open cab- 

 bage) during the autumn and winter ; and if any piece of ground 

 is empty at the same time, it may be sown with turnips for winter 

 use. If a little leek-seed was sown among the onions, the plants 

 may be drawn and planted in a drill by themselves in some vacant 

 spot, 4 or 5 inches apart, to stand for good. But if the leek be 

 preferred to onions as a pottage plant, a little bed should be sown 

 in March, to furnish plants for putting out in rows about Mid- 

 summer. 



It is lucky that about this time of the year, June and July, the 

 labourer has not much to do in his garden, except gathering 

 some of the crops, destroying weeds, and collecting everything 

 which can be turned into manure for the service of the next sea- 

 son : but, in the last week of July, or in the first of August, he 

 must not forget to sow a seed-bed of early York cabbage, to raise 

 plants for putting out in October and the following months. If 

 sown a week or two before the times stated, many run to flovv^er 

 without forming heads ; and if sown later than the last-mentioned 

 date, they do not come into use soon enough. 



About the end of August, if the duties of harvest allow, a bit 

 of ground must be got ready at the upper end of the potato 

 ground — which crops are supposed to be taken out of the way 

 for this purpose — three small beds, one for onions, another 

 for spinach and lettuce, and the third for radishes. The onions 

 should be sown pretty thick ; and, unless the winter prove very 

 severe, the, crop will be very useful in the spring, either for pre- 

 sent use or for transplanting into an open spot of ground to bulb 

 in the summer. The spinach and lettuce, if they survive the 

 winter, will be acceptable at a time when greens are scarce. Ra- 



