THE AMATEURS KITCHEN GARDEN. 
5 
In breaking np a piece of grass land, you have at least the 
advantage of your ideas of what a kitchen garden should be. 
You can make your boundaries and walks, and the forms and 
sizes of the several plots and plantations in accordance with 
your own theory of a perfect garden, so far at least as the 
extent of the ground, the nature of the soil, and other inevitable 
conditions will allow. Now in this case the two matters of 
vital importance are the boundaries and the drainage. In 
making the boundaries, it will be well to consider at the very 
first start to what extent will shelter be needful, and of what 
should it consist. A broad belt of wood or coppice affords 
the best of shelter against the keen east winds that in many 
parts make havoc of our own gardens in the months of March 
and April. If a site can be selected on the west or south of 
a sheltering hill or wood, the gain will be great in those 
seasons when “winter lingers in the lap of spring.” But 
it may be that the land is exposed to all the winds of 
heaven, and in that case shelter will be of the utmost value. 
Dwarf walls and close boarded fences are generally considered 
valuable for purposes of shelter, but in truth their value 
is but slight. It is well to count the cost and probable effi- 
ciency of a “cheap” wall before determining on its adoption. 
To grow fruit satisfactorily is impossible on walls of four or 
five feet, and a boarded fence is of less value than a dwarf 
brick wall for fruit growing. But a cheap wall is a screen to 
shut out curious eyes, and it constitutes a moral if not a 
material barrier against thieves, who will often hesitate to get 
over a wall when they would not hesitate to mount a rough 
open fence, or even with the help of sacks overtop a hedge of 
holly. He who encloses his own land and has in view to grow 
good fruit, will be wise to build a wall of ten to fourteen feet 
high, the material stone or brick, with strengthening pillars, 
and a coping of six to eight inches. The minimum height for 
a wall to be of any use in fruit growing is eight feet. 7 Such a 
wall should be nine inches thick, and have a coping projecting 
forwards. If from eight to fourteen feet, the thickness should 
be thirteen-and-a-half inches, and the coping six to eight 
inches. If from fourteen to twenty feet, the thickness must 
be eighteen inches, and the coping should project at least a 
foot. Hollow walls are formed by placing the bricks on edge 
alternately with their faces and ends outside, so that every 
second brick is a tie, and every course alternates in the order 
