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A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN — FEBRUARY. 
A STROLL THROUGH THE GARDEN, 
BY A TUTOR AND HIS PUPIL, IN THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY. 
Here we have a hard frost again, and the 
earth is as hard as a stone. If you are dis- 
posed for a walk in the garden we must clothe 
accordingly ; not that we shall see much be- 
yond the numerous modes of protecting things 
that are not under glass, but where there is 
no expense spared, there are very few shifts 
made, for all things necessary are provided. 
Nevertheless, we will, after looking about at 
home, go into neighbour Jones's garden : he 
has nothing proper, and accordingly has to 
make all sorts of shifts, and has all sorts of 
contrivances against hard weather, because 
in spring he is as gay as other people. 
Now for the kitchen-garden. There are 
two men trenching the ground, although 
it is so hard on the surface that they are 
obliged to use a pick-axe. If you observe, 
the axe disturbs large lumps that are com- 
pletely frozen through, and these large lumps 
are merely broken into somewhat smaller ones, 
and in this lumpy state they are thrown into 
the bottom of the trench ; the soil below will 
bear digging in the ordinary way. Again, 
observe tliat instead of leaving it flat at the top 
it is left in ridges : the object of all this is, 
first, to get the frozen portions, which is the best 
possible preparatory state, to the bottom, and 
next, to leave as large a surface as possible 
exposed to the weathei*, so that this also may 
be frozen. That which is already frozen 
will thaw in the bottom, while the top may be 
freezing, and when all has been subject to the 
frost it will be in the finest condition for 
cropping. No doubt it is harder work to dig 
or trench in frosty weather, but the labour is 
as good for the body as the effect is for the 
earth. Yonder the men are wheeling barrow- 
loads of manure from the yard to the un- 
cropped portions of the ground, while one 
man is spreading it equally over the surface, 
that it may be dug in regularly in every part 
of the ground. If this frost continues awhile 
they may use the pick-axe again, and so turn 
the lumps and manure undermost, but it 
will, if there be other work to do, lie there 
till either a thaAv comes to tempt them to the 
job, or until they have nothing else to do of 
any importance. Observe, all the cabbages 
and other plants are completely whitened 
with frost, but these are so hardy that they 
will be none the worse for it unless it be very 
severe indeed ; a few degrees of frost will not 
cause a leaf to be discoloured. It is the rapid 
changes that hurt plants, sttch, for instance, 
as we had last month, a few degrees of frost 
one day, and actual warm weather the next; 
for as freezing contracts the juices and thaw- 
ing expands them again, when the change is 
sudden it ruptures the vessels and destroys 
the texture, and the younger the growth is 
the more susceptible it is of injury. The 
wheelbarrows seem very much in request: the 
gardener taking advantage of the slack time 
for out-of-door operations is doing everything 
in the moving way ; first, because the walks 
are so hard that the barrows, however much 
loaded, make no impression on the ground, 
and secondly, because he has little else for the 
men to do. Observe, one is removing soil 
from one place to another ; he takes it from 
the poultry-yard to the new-made hot-bed : 
another is removing pots of strawberries which, 
though small, are well-established plants, and 
strong enough for forcing ; he is removing 
them from the frozen ground to the top shelf 
of a vinery, that they may be forced at the 
same time as the grapes and figs. In the shed 
the men are variously employed; one is cut- 
ting and painting wooden labels, another is 
breaking old pots, or rather potsherds, small, 
and with these two sieves he separates them 
into three sizes ; those which will go through 
the smaller sieve form merely dust and small 
stuff not larger than peas; those which come 
through the large one go up to the size of 
nuts ; and the larger, perhaps, some of them 
reach an inch. The two smaller sizes are 
for mixing with the soil in potting, and 
almost all gardeners have different ways of 
mixing soils for potted plants ; you are not, 
however, to presume that all their different 
whims and fancies are necessary. We find 
certain conditions necessary to the success of 
plants, but it is in supplying these conditions 
that gardeners differ. How many modes are 
there of compounding a rich light compost I 
we can hardly number them, yet half a dozen 
gardeners will differ materially in their 
methods of forming the compost, while the 
plant is so indifferent as to thrive with one 
as much as another. I have, however, seen 
these broken potsherds, or crocks as they are 
called, mixed advantageously with the com- 
post for Botany-bay plants ; the dust is far 
better than sand, for while it lightens the 
soil and renders it pervious to the water, it 
absorbs moisture enough to supply the plant 
a much longer period than they would be 
sustained by a sandy compost. In this yaid 
there are all the various soils which are used 
in gardening. That long heap is a pile, or 
rather vv^as a pile, of turves cut thin from a 
pasture, which have lain and rotted, so that 
you see upon examination no remains of what 
they were, but a little fibrous texture; this is 
a valuable, indeed the most valuable soil. It 
consists of loam and decayed vegetable, which 
