THE COTTAGE. GARDENER AND CO 
QUERIES AND ANSWERS. 
CONVERTING A GREENHOUSE INTO A VINERY. 
“ In requesting your advice regarding alterations to be 
made on converting a greenhouse into a vinery, I shall endea¬ 
vour to describe the present arrangements so as to enable you 
to say what I should do under the circumstances. 
“ The house is a lean-to, measuring twenty feet by twelve, 
inside measurement. It is ventilated by three air-boards in 
the front brickwork, and the same number in the highest part 
of the back wall, under the glass. There is a front stage 
about two feet broad, a three feet passage, and then the stage 
rises up in the usual way. The pipes for heating are under 
the front stage, the one over the other. 
“ Now, what I more particular!}' require is your advice 
how to form the border for the Vines, and cause the least 
possible alterations in the present arrangements. I can re¬ 
move the roadway back from the house to the extent of six 
to seven feet. Must the pipes be removed from their present 
position? The bottom of the border, if outside, will be 
quite dry and hard, and is on an incline.”—R. W. 
[We could have decided better if you had stated the height 
of your front wall to the glass, and how much the ground 
outside naturally slopes. In all other respects your obvious 
plan of operations can scarcely be more simple. We would 
leave everything exactly as it is in the internal arrangements, 
as respects heating pipes, &c. If the bottom of the border 
should be dry and hard, and the soil good, you will most 
likely want very little doing in the way of border making, 
farther than adding a little lime rubbish, broken bones, and 
old manure. As you speak, however, of having the border 
where a roadway is at present,—if you must bring soil in, it 
woidd be best to have it of fresh brown loam, such as you 
may obtain from the sides of most highways. The best thing 
to mix with it is old lime rubbish, some bones, broken 
small, and a little leaf mould, when the Vines are first planted. 
You can add nourishment afterwards, by surface dressing. 
Be sure you can secure dryness at bottom; if not, drain. 
Be sure, also, that the subsoil is of a healthy nature; if not, 
I concrete the bottom, to prevent the roots getting down. 
Once more, be sure you do not sink your border by making a 
deep hole for your compost. Prefer rather to make the most 
of it above the present ground level, and the more, in modera¬ 
tion, the surface of the border slopes to the south the better it 
will be. Let the stems of the Vines be taken into the house, 
below (or, if at all likely that it would be desirable to move 
them out at any time, above) the wall plate; and if any part 
of the Vine stem is against the waif outside, cover it by 
placing three sides of a small square box against it, stuffing 
: it with sawdust, or charcoal, and placing a sloping lid over 
it, to keep out the wet. Thus protected, the Vine will suffer 
from no alternations of temperature. Two feet will be a good 
medium deptli of compost. Wo have had fine Vines with 
much less depth.] 
KEEPING PLANTS IN UNHEATED GREENHOUSES 
AND GLASS COVERED EARTH, OR TURF, 
PITS. 
“ I am a young gardener, and my master and mistress, being 
very fond of flowers, expect to see a large supply at all possible 
seasons of the year. 1 have no artificial heat whatever ; but 
there is a large lean-to glass-house, with a southern aspect, and 
some cold pits, made of glazed frames, with turf walls. I 
have a beautiful stock of late seedling Cinerarias, Calceolarias, 
Carnations, and Picotees. I wish to know whether I shall 
be able to keep these through the winter, in this climate, with¬ 
out aid from fire. Into the glass-house and cold pits I shall 
have to remove the bedding-plants and tender Roses ; some¬ 
thing, therefore, must occupy the worst places. Pray tell me 
what plants I may make sure of saving under such shelter as 
I have; and the rest I must allow to take their chance. 
“ I see that ‘ Peter,’ in The Cottage Gardener, seems 
in about the same condition as myself; but I wish to know 
more decidedly which of the plants I have named will best 
bear the outside place.”'— Geo. McCall, Lochmalea , N.li. 
[We give your master and mistress full credit for their 
^NTRY GENTLEMAN, August 10, 1858. 297 
love of flowers, and you every commendation for your desire 
to supply them plentifully at all seasons; but it would only 
lead to disappointment, were we to show that you could do 
this in the winter and spring months when you have “ no 
artificial heat whatever, and only a large glass-house, with 
a southern aspect, and some cold pits, made of glazed frames 
and turf walls.” Such a greenhouse would be of little use in 
winter, unless for preserving your tender Roses, Picotees, and 
Carnations, and such plants as Wallflowers, Polyanthuses, 
Auriculas, &c., you wished to bloom early; and even these, 
as well as all your bedding plants and seedling Cinerarias, and 
Calceolarias, we should prefer wintering in the turf pits, just 
because you could easily use protection over the glass to any 
extent; and if the turf walls are at all dry, such pits will 
keep out more frost than one built of bricks. In your green¬ 
house, with its fine southern exposure, the plants will be excited 
into growth in fine weather, only to be destroyed whenever 
the frost is at all severe. Of course, this would be obviated 
if you could cover it thickly on the outside; or if, as was 
shown in an early volume, the plants were so placed that they 
could be covered with a thick, warm tarpauling, or woollen 
covering, inside the house. Without such means of defence, 
the turf pits would constitute the best hybernatory for every¬ 
thing at all tender. But with such a love of flowers in all 
parties, employers and employed, and the getting glazed 
sashes for the turf pits, surely it would be wise economy to 
get a common stove, as used in shops in winter,—a brick ! 
Arnott’s stove, which would be better; a small flue better 
still; or one of Thompson’s small retort boilers, which, unless 
the house was very large, would not cost much above £5 or £6, 
for boiler, furnace, pipes, &c., suitable merely to keep out the j 
frost. Then you would be safe in all weathers, with merely i 
common care, and you might have your Cinerarias, Primulas, I 
and many other things in bloom all the winter. In fact, j 
merely in an economical point of view, if you bloomed little in 
such a house in winter, but merely kept the plants at the i 
point of safety, you would, by means of such fire-heat when ! 
necessary, and keeping your bedding plants in a small state 
in winter, save a vast deal of labour and trouble in covering 
earth pits, and keeping the plants in them from damp. The 
expense of some simple heating medium, and the expense for 
fuel, which for such a place would be trifling, would be found 
in a year or two to be sound economical saving. We use 
turf and earth pits largely ; but we prefer cramming houses 
that may be heated in winter, and thinning out the hardier 
plants first into these pits, in February and March and on¬ 
wards. Of course, Roses and Carnations and such plants 
will keep in such pits admirably all the winter; but if tender 
things can be made safe in houses, such pits may be made 
useful in many ways for helping the kitchen in winter.] 
CLOTHING THE BACK WALL OF A GLAZED 
CORRIDOR. 
“ You were kind enough to advise me, last year, about 
a narrow greenhouse, or corridor, I have erected. It is 
built of stone, seven feet high in front, twelve feet at the back, 
and about seven feet wide; glazed at the top with large sheets 
of Hartley’s glass, and to the ground in front with crown 
glass. At your suggestion, Vines have been planted in a 
border under the walk in front, and Camellias in a narrow 
bed at the back, to train against the wall under the windows 
of the house. There is, however, a considerable space above 
the windows which looks bare, and which I am desirous 
of covering with some good evergreens that may suit the 
place. At present I have no artificial heat; but I have made 
provision for this, if I should like it. Will you kindly let me 
know the three or four plants that would best suit my present 
requirements.”— Tyro. 
[As you have Vines up the front glass and along the roof, 
and Camellias planted at the base of the back wall, we would, 
so far as the ultimate success of these Camellias are concerned, 
be inclined to persuade you to put little on the wall above 
them. Whatever is put there will be apt to interfere with 
their well-being. As you have no heat, two strong plants of 
Passiflora coerulea , in tubs, or large pots, or planted in little 
stone or brick divisions,—so that the roots do not get among 
the roots of the Camellias,—trained to single stems, until 
