THE GARDENER’S ASSISTANT 
INTRODUCTORY 
CALENDAR OF OPERATIONS IN THE FLOWER-GARDEN 
it is necessary to observe, that no calendarial 
directions can be made to justify the expectation 
that they can be strictly followed in all cases. 
The climate of the locality, the season, soil, 
and other circumstances, may render deviation 
expedient or absolutely necessary. It will be 
found, however, that in preparing the following 
Calendar most of the circumstances that lead 
to exceptions have been noticed, and suitable 
directions given accordingly. It is obviously 
impossible to provide for every contingency; 
but any intelligent person will easily adopt 
such modifications as his particular case may 
require. On the whole, it is presumed that 
the following Calendar will be generally appli¬ 
cable throughout the United Kingdom. It may 
be said that over this extent the climate is 
exceedingly variable, and therefore no one 
Calendar can be applicable; but within certain 
limits of elevation the difference between the 
temperatures of any two places is much less 
than frequently occurs between the tempera¬ 
tures of two different seasons at the same place. 
For example, if we take March—the principal 
spring month for seed-sowing—we find that 
over nearly ten degrees of latitude, extending 
from Paris to Wick, in Caithness, the mean 
temperature of that month differs very little on 
the average of a number of years, as will be 
seen by the following table:— 
Latitude. 
Mean Temperature 
of March. 
Paris, . 
. 43-79 
Rouen,. 
. 49 26 ... 
. 41-12 
Brussels,. 
. 50 51 ... 
.42-78 
Chiswick, London,. 
.51 29 ... 
. 42-23 
Boston, Lincolnshire,.... 
. 52 48 ... 
.41-67 
Dublin,. 
. 53 21 ... 
.42-46 
Liverpool, . 
. 53 25 ... 
.44-44 
Edinburgh,. 
. 55 58 ... 
. 40-53 
Dundee,. 
. 56 27 ... 
.42-20 
Aberdeen,. 
. 57 9 ... 
. 42-80 
Elg-in, Morayshire, . 
. 57 38 ... 
. 40-53 
Wick, Caithnesshire, . 
VOL. I. 
. 58 29 ... 
. 41-94 
From the above it appears that the mean 
temperature of March is nearly the same at 
London, Dublin, Dundee, and Aberdeen, al¬ 
though the last-named of these places is nearly 
400 miles north of the first. At Elgin, the 
month of March is just as warm as it is at Edin¬ 
burgh; and at Wick, furthest north of the towns 
noted, the mean temperature at that period of 
the year is higher than at Edinburgh. It will 
also be seen that at all the above places the 
difference of temperature in March is not such 
as to materially affect the Calendar of Opera¬ 
tions. In fact its scope may include all those 
widely-distant places. 
But in different seasons, at the same place, a 
greater variation than that arising from latitude 
frequently occurs, in consequence of which con¬ 
siderable modifications of usually applicable di¬ 
rections have to be made. The mean tempera¬ 
ture of the month to which we have referred 
varies as much as ten degrees in different years; 
and operations such as sowing and planting, 
which in ordinary seasons would be properly 
done in the first week of March, may not be at 
all practicable, in consequence of frost and snow, 
till the very end of the month. 
The adaptation of a Calendar, therefore, is 
more affected by the variations of the seasons 
than by any circumstance connected with lo¬ 
calities fit for gardens throughout the extent of 
Britain. If, then, a Calendar is carefully made 
for one place, it may be considered suitable for 
this country in general. By gardeners in the 
south, as well as in the north, calendarial direc¬ 
tions must be understood with the proviso— 
weather and state of the soil permitting. If these 
are favourable the earliest practicable oppor¬ 
tunity should be taken to carry out the opera¬ 
tions indicated. 
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