PRACTICAL GARDENING. 
OPERATIONS FOR JANUARY. 
The practice of the gardener in each month 
of the year is so much alike in all places, that 
it seems almost unnecessary to apologize for 
directing the same as other persons have di- 
rected before, for that is inevitable. We may, 
perhaps, be more plain and familiar than some 
have been, but it is impossible to be original 
with a subject that has been handled in every 
conceivable way for the last century. That 
the practice has been improved, as compared 
with that of Miller and Abercrombie, there 
can be no doubt; but the principles laid down 
by those writers have prevailed to the present 
day, although new ones have been introduced. 
It must be mentioned, too, that although the 
practice for each month will be given in detail, 
it will be found advisable to vary it a little in 
particular localities. The round of operations 
for the year will be found complete ; but the 
difference of climate, in the extremes of north 
and south, can suggest the beginning, middle, 
or end of a month for the operations mentioned 
therein. It will occur, that in some months 
the weather will defeat us altogether; for ex- 
treme wet is nearly as bad as frost and snow. 
Better, indeed, is it to let all the men be idle, 
than to let them tread about the ground when it 
is saturated with rain, although it is good to 
plant when there has been some wet. Inter- 
ruptions by extreme wet, and by frost and 
snow, will occasionally delay operations of 
many kinds, but there should be the greater 
care taken to keep well a-head with every- 
thing, and great diligence must be used to 
bring up arrears of work when any unavoid- 
able delays have taken place. The operations in 
a garden require, perhaps, a little explanation 
to the novice ; but to those who are familiar 
with them all, it may seem quite unnecessary. 
They should remember, however, that there 
are many persons to whom the terms trenching, 
thinning, hoeing, earthing, dibbing, pruning, 
&c, are as strange as some chemical terms are 
to even intelligent gardeners. The explana- 
tions will, however, be short. Digging, is the 
act of slicing out the earth the depth of a 
spade, by thrusting it down with the foot, 
bending it backward so as to lift out the spade- 
ful and turning it bottom upwards, by which 
means the whole of the soil, to the depth of 
nine or ten inches, or more, is completely 
turned over bottom to top and top to bottom. 
To do this properly, the earth has to be taken 
out half along the intended breadth of the 
piece to be dug, and wheeled to another part, 
generally as handy as you can to the place 
where the digging will leave off, because there 
will be a trench left there, which must be filled 
up with the stuff taken out at first: this is called 
digging. Trenching, is what may be called 
double digging ; that is to say, the trench made 
at first must be twice as wide, and two spades 
deep instead of one. This trench is to re- 
ceive the top spit, which is thrown into the 
bottom, and in digging down the second spit, it 
is thrown on the top ; thus the earth is turned 
up two spits deep instead of one. Earthing, 
is drawing earth into a ridge or heap round the 
stems of plants, such as peas, beans, brocoli, 
and especially celery, which requires it to 
make it white, or bleach it. Hoeing, is chop- 
ping off weeds to destroy them, or plants to 
thin them. Making, is sweeping the ground, 
as it were, with an iron comb or rake, by 
which all weeds, stones, and rubbish are drawn 
off the beds, paths, &c. Drilling, is drawing 
a deepish mark with the corner of the hoe, by 
which a sort of gutter is made of any depth 
you please for the purpose of sowing seeds. 
Planting, is placing a plant in the earth. 
Transplanting ', is the same thing, but gene- 
rally applied to the removal of plants from the 
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