THE FLORAL AYORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
155 
OARDEI^' GUIDE FOR MAT. 
Kitchen’ Garden’. — Vegetable marrow’s, cucumbers, aud melons 
may still be sown ; the latter require the most heat, aud cannot be 
well fruited unless they can enjoy a temperature of 70'’ to 80'’, and 
five more degrees of bottom-heat. Pumpkins and gourds of all 
kinds, as well as Stockwood, Southgate, and short prickly cucum- 
bers, may be grown to great perfection in the open air, by starting 
the seeds in a gentle heat, and when the plants have formed their 
rough leaves, turning them out on a bed of dung or loam well 
enriched, and gmug them the protection of hand-glasses for the 
first fortnight. Those who have no hand-glasses should protect 
them every night till June, by turning over each plant a flower- pot 
with the hole stopped. Ridge cucumbers bear well, and give little 
trouble; the simplest way of growing them is to cut a trench three 
feet wide and two feet deep, and fill this with any littery rubbish in 
a fermenting state ; long, half- fermented dung is, of cour.;e, the best. 
Soil it over nine inches deep with the stutf that was taken out, and 
then sow in patches of three seeds, eighteen inches apart. Pots or 
hand-glasses should be put over each patch of seed till they come 
up, when they should have air by degrees, and protection against 
night frosts, and to be thinned to the strongest plant in each patch, 
as soon as they have made their rough leaves. Cucumbers and 
gourds should not be stopped, but allowed to ramble as they will, 
either on the ground or a rough trellis. They should have abundance 
of manure water in dry weather, and the fruit cut as fast as it 
is ready, as, if one is left to ripen, the vines cease to be prolific. 
Trenches should now be made for celery, and six inches of rotten 
dung forked into the bottom of each. A dull or showery day should 
be chosen to put out the plants, aud plenty of water given during 
dry weather. Sow beet, marrow peas, broad beans, kidney beans, 
and runners ; turnips, lettuce, turnip-radish, and other salads, as 
required for succession. For successional crops of spinach the 
prickly sort will be found the best now, as less likely to run during 
hot, dry weather. Look to seed-beds, and transplant ; well hoe and 
clear the ground as may be necessary. The use of liquid manure 
and frequent stirring of the ground between growing crops will 
hasten aud improve the growth of all things. 
Flower Garden. — We would advise those who have not had 
much experience in bedding to defer the putting out of their stock 
till towards the end of the month. There is nothing gained by the 
attempt to save a week, for we frequently have bitter nights, ami 
north-east winds, even till the last week in May. The middle of the 
month is the earliest time at which we would put out bedding stock 
anywhere near London ; farther north, we would wait till another 
fifteen days ; but in the south they are always in advance of us Lon- 
doners. Successional sowings should be made of all hardy annuals 
that may be required to succeed those sown in March, and tender 
kinds, such as asters, zinneas, etc., may now be sown in the open 
ground. This is a good time to sow hardy and half-hardy perennials 
May. 
