286 
HORTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT. 
horticultural ^Department. 
BY L. F. ALLEN. 
HOW TO LAY OUT A KITCHEN GARDEN. 
As many of our suburban friends, as well as 
practical farmers, will, in all proability, this 
coming autumn, lay out a permanent kitchen 
garden—which, by the way, is a very important 
affair—we propose to. say a few words on the 
subject. 
A kitchen garden yields more necessaries and 
comforts to the family than any other piece of 
ground on the premises. It is, of consequence, 
necessary that it be so located and planned as 
to be ready of access, and yield the greatest pos¬ 
sible quantity of products for the amount of 
labor bestowed upon it; and as locality and 
plan have much to do with both the labor be¬ 
stowed upon it and the productions it may 
yield, both these subjects should be considered. 
As to locality, the kitchen garden should 
lie in the warmest and most sheltered spot which 
may be convenient to the kitchen of the house. 
It should, in connection with that, be convenient 
of access to the dung yards of the stables. The 
size may be such as your necessities or your 
convenience may demand. The shape, either a 
parallelogram or a square ; for it will be recol¬ 
lected that this is a plan allotted, not for a show 
or pleasure ground, but for profit. If the garden 
be large, this I hope will better allow the use 
of the plow to turn up the soil, which, in a large 
garden, is a much cheaper, and when properly 
done, a better mode, than to spade it; and if 
small, and it be worked with the spade, right 
lines are easier made with the spade than curv¬ 
ed ones. One or more walks, at least eight feet 
wide, should be made, leading from a broad gate 
or bars, through which a cart and horse, or oxen 
may enter, to draw in manure, or carry out the 
vegetables; and if such walk or walks do not 
extend around the garden, which, if in a large 
one, they should do, a sufficient area should be 
thrown out at the further extremity to turn the 
cart upon. If the soil be free and stony, the 
stones should be taken out clean , when large; 
and if small, down to the size of a hen’s egg, 
and the surface made as level as possible, for a 
loose soil will need no draining. If the soil be 
a clay or clayey loam, it should be underdrain¬ 
ed two and a half feet deep, to he perfect , and the 
draining so planned as to lead off to a lower 
spot outside. This draining warms the soil, 
opens it for filtration, and makes it friable. 
Then, properly fenced, thoroughly manured, and 
plowed deeply, and left rough—no matter how 
rough—in the fall of the year, and as late be¬ 
fore the setting in of winter as you dare risk 
it, and that part of the preparation is accom¬ 
plished. 
The permanent or wide walks of the garden, 
after being laid out and graded, should never 
be plowed nor disturbed, except by the hoe and 
rake, to keep down the weeds and grass; yet, 
if a close, and well-shorn grass turf be kept 
upon them, it is perhaps, the cheapest and most 
cleanly way of keeping the walks. They need 
only cutting off close with the hand hook in 
summer. 
We have known a great many people, after 
laying out a kitchen garden, and preparing it 
for use, fill it up with fruit trees, supposing that 
vegetables will grow quite as well with them as 
without. This is a great mistake. No tree larger 
than a currant or gooseberry hush should ever stand 
in a vegetable garden. These fruits being parti¬ 
ally used in the cooking department, as much in 
the way of vegetables as fruits, and small in 
size, may be permitted; and they, contrary to 
the usual practice, should always stand in open 
ground, where they can have all the benefits of 
sun and rain to ripen the fruit to perfection, as 
well as to receive the cultivation they need, in¬ 
stead of being placed under fences around the 
sides of the garden, where they are too fre¬ 
quently neglected, and become the resort of ver¬ 
min, or make prolific harbors for weeds. 
Along the main walks, or alleys, the borders 
for perennial plants, as well as the currant and 
gooseberry bushes, should be made, for the 
plow should run parallel to, and not at right 
angles with them. Here may stand the rhu¬ 
barbs, the sea kales, the various herbs, or even 
the asparagus beds, if a particular quarter be not 
set apart for them; and even, if it be important, 
a portion of these main borders may be appro¬ 
priated to the more common flowers and small 
shrubbery, if desired to cultivate them in a plain 
way ; but not a peach, apricot, nor any other 
larger tree than a currant or raspberry should 
come within it. They not only shade the small 
plants, but suck up and rob them of their food 
and moisture, and keep off the sun, and prevent 
the circulation of air, than which nothing needs 
all these more than garden vegetables, to have 
them in high perfection. If it be necessary, by 
means of a cold exposure on one side, to have 
a close plantation of shrubbery to screen the 
garden, let it be outside the fence rather than 
within it; but if within, let there be a broad 
walk between such shrubbery and the garden 
