150 
t he gardening world. 
Noy. 8th, 1884. 
act as a mulching to keep out the frost, and give the 
plants a fair chance to get quick hold of the ground. 
Any plants of doubtful hardiness should be protected 
by having a covering of cocoa-nut fibre, half-decom¬ 
posed leaves, ashes, or sawdust, the leaves being the 
best, as they are light and are good for the plants.— 
Alpha. 
FORCING FRENCH BEANS. 
Our first batch of French Beans are now setting 
freely, and the plants are 2 ft. high from the pots and 
in every respect satisfactory. To obtain a crop at this 
time we usually sow in the first week in September in 
8-in. pots, which are placed in the open-air, in a sunny 
position, where they remain as long as the weather is 
deemed favourable. When it is desirable to get them 
under cover, they are moved into a pit or to the early 
vinery, 1 which by that time has become destitute of 
leaves. If a sufficient number is sown, a portion if 
desirable may be introduced into heat in advance of 
the others, and a score of good pots will yield a 
quantity of Beans at the present time, so that two- 
thirds should be left for the suceessional ones. Later 
in the season the proportion must be still greater to 
keep up the same supply. We have accommodation 
for two hundred pots, one-half of which may be said 
to be in various stages of fruiting ; but this only gives 
a meagre supply during the worst part of the year as 
compared with the couple of dozen from which we 
shall soon commence to pick. We might indeed be 
doing so now had not our sowing been unavoidably 
deferred to the end of the second week in September ; 
and I consider one day’s delay at that period counts 
for two now, unless the plants are unduly hastened. 
This is a point that should not be overlooked if the 
Beans are specially required at a certain date. 
In most establishments there is a much greater 
demand for these during October than in the months 
when they were plentiful, and to meet it we have sown 
in frames and in a portion of a heated pit in August, 
the heat being turned on and off by a valve as desired, 
and the lights put on or taken off according to the 
weather. In the north French Beans are not very 
plentiful out-of-doors after the middle of October even 
if not visited by a frost, and we never rely on them 
after the end of September. 
The arrangements and movements of the family at 
times call for an unusual supply for two or three 
weeks in succession, followed by a cessation of the 
demand for as long, if not for a longer period, owing 
to their absence, and when that is known to the 
gardener it is possible for him to double the supply of 
this vegetable at any time by sowing a sufficient 
number of pots at one time to occupy all the available 
space allotted to these plants, and which hitherto may 
have been shared by plants in two or three stages. 
The suceessional sowings may be made in 4-in. pots, 
which can be placed in half-a-dozen positions that 
would not admit the usual Bean pots. As soon as the 
pots are full of roots the plants must be transferred 
into then - fruiting pots with as little root disturbance 
as possible, and the soil to pot them in should be 
warmed before it is used. In the middle of winter 
from three to five weeks are gained by this little 
expedient, and its importance cannot be overrated in 
establishments where the chef is prohibited from 
using tinned vegetables, and the gardener has no fund 
at his disposal from which to pay for what he receives 
from the greengrocer. By proceeding in the usual 
way of sowing in 7-in. or 8-in. pots, it is obvious that 
the same space is occupied by the batch not yet 
through the soil and that from which fruit is being 
picked. It also involves the necessity for as many more 
large pots, providing space could be found for them 
when filled. We have often availed ourselves of the 
small pots when unable to find a sufficient number of 
large ones, so as to maintain an uninterrupted supply. 
Som for French Beans. —For mid-winter sowings 
I am an advocate for the use of fresh turfy loam that 
has been laid in a heap for at least six months, 
enriched and lightened with horse-droppings. This 
compost will give the best return at all times, but a 
fair amount of success may be attained with early 
and late sowings, with soil that has been used for 
Melons, Cucumbers, and Mushrooms. Permission to 
cut a few turve3 is grudgingly granted in many estab¬ 
lishments, and the loam heap has to be cautiously 
dealt with, so that its use is prohibitory excepting for 
a few subjects, and the gardener has to resort to 
inferior soil for French Beans and other things. 
When compelled to use this kind of soil, we have, 
when laying it aside, exposed as much of its surface 
to the elements as possible by spreading it out, and 
each time a portion has been required only a few 
inches of the top has been moved, and the surface of 
that left forked up two or three inches for further 
exposure. Soil of this description contains many 
worms and other pests, but I find that the former 
move from the forked portion and penetrate lower 
down. Another method of dealing with this second¬ 
hand soil is to move the surface frequently in frosty 
weather and store it apart from the rest. This may 
appear frivolous to those who have a free run at the 
park or meadow, but those who have only a limited 
supply, or who have to pay 12s. or 15s. per load for 
turfy loam, can well comprehend our anxiety to make 
the best of our soil, and I would advise all to adopt 
the above plan, instead of cutting into the heap 
perpendicularly, as is usually practised. 
If to this soil one-eighth of partly fermented horse- 
droppings is added, as already remarked, Beans will 
do well during that part of the season when they are 
favoured by more light and sun, as well as larger 
pots, which contain more soil, even if the quality is 
not so good. Given a good soil and a position near 
the glass, and forcing Beans becomes a very simple 
problem. 
The best Sorts to Sow.—I have grown more of 
Negro than any other, but I made a comparative trial 
one year by sowing a dozen pots in January of about 
six sorts, which included the Negro, and Osborn’s, 
Sion House, Sir J. Paxton, and Canadian Wonder, 
and, I think, Newington Wonder was the other. 
Canadian Wonder produced the finest Beans, but 
I failed from that trial to select one that was 
preferable to another, and so I keep to the Negro. 
The pots were placed on a bed of ashes and sand 
mixed, and they all grew from 2 ft. to 3 ft. high. I 
never saw such vigorous plants in pots before nor 
since. The house they were grown in was not at 
liberty in November; if it had been it is possible 
there might have been greater difference between 
them. The number of plants that each pot should 
contain varies in our present batch from four to 
eight, and as they have all been stopped the four 
seem almost sufficient. Our usual practice is to 
sow seven at this time of the year in 8-in. pots, and 
the same in winter in 7-in. pots, and 9 in the 8-in. 
size.— North. 
—s=^!S=0-~fc=-=a— 
CLIMBERS. 
Little trouble is taken as a rule by amateurs in 
the choice of plants for covering walls—not a tithe as 
much, for instance, as is exercised in the choice and 
arrangement of pictures for indoor walls, and yet 
the connoisseur in art who can afford to indulge 
in the luxury of high-class pictures, cannot, at 
a hundred times the price, produce a finer display 
of form and colour than an amateur with a 
few yards of wall-space at disposal. The latter’s 
pictures are none the less beautiful because they 
are real, and possess not only elegance of form 
and colour, but also fragrance. Nor should they 
be less regarded from the circumstance that the 
floral pictures can be produced at a hundredth part of 
the cost of the so-called works of art. Be it remem¬ 
bered, moreover, that the enjoyment of the outdoor 
pictures cannot be monopolized entirely by the owner 
and his friends; they are so to speak public property, 
their beauties of form and colour, and sometimes 
delicious fragrance, can be enjoyed by the passer-by. 
Now it occurs to us that the man who makes the 
house in which he lives—perhaps in some smoky 
town, less hideous by a clothing of even Ivy or 
Virginian Creeper, is in a small way a benefactor to 
his kind; for even a bit of greenery is refreshing to 
the eye of the jaded citizen. 
The author of that pleasant and thoughtful book, 
The Recreations of a Country Parson, tells how, when 
living during his youth with an uncle in London, he 
would walk miles up the New North Boad to see a few 
trees and little plots of grass. But with pure air and 
light how much may be done not only to make a 
home and its surroundings attractive, but to set an 
example of industry and good tas'te to his neighbours. 
Any respectable nurseryman will advise the tyro what 
best to use; there are an embarrass de richesse at his 
disposal, and something suitable for every aspect. 
With a view, however, to elicit the opinions of some 
of your correspondents who are thoroughly well 
qualified to give advice, I submit a few remarks on 
the choice and disposal of suitable plants for the front 
of a house facing west. Most of them are already 
planted in the positions they are to occupy on what 
one might call “ a Wall Garden.” 
The house in question has a frontage of 35 ft., 
stands 20 ft. back from the road, and has a bay- 
window on each side of the door. It is built of red 
brick, and the top of each bay is flat and guarded by 
a parapet wall 18 ins. high. This gives opportunity 
for plants in pots to be trained round the bed-room 
windows. Perhaps the arrangement of pots will be 
understood by the following figures 
4 4 4 4 
3 3 3 3 
876 21 12 C 7 8 
The object was to produce in as short time 
as possible an effective display of flowers and 
handsome foliage. The colours are chosen with 
especial regard to the colour of the bricks, for this 
reason no red or crimson Boses have been employed. 
If the reader will trace a pencil line immediately under 
the figures it will give him an outline of the ground plan 
of the house-front. On each side of the door are strong 
plants of Gloire d’Dijon Bose; 2-2, are Clematis 
Jackmanni. The Japanese Golden Honeysuckle 
might have been used in place of the Bose, as it forms 
a charming combination of colours with the deep 
purple of the Clematis. 3-3, 3-3, are purple Passion¬ 
flowers. 4-4, 4-4, the space at disposal here is only 
9 ins. wide, and it is allotted to the graceful Clematis 
montana, bearing snow-white, star-shaped flowers and 
elegant foliage. Beneath the centre of the bays 
at 5-5 is the Tea-Bose Homere. 6-6 is Gloire 
d’Dijon again; 7-7 are Wistaria, and 8-S planted, with 
a view to soften the angles, is the noble-leaved 
Aristolochia Sipho. Ampelopsis Veitehii, about 
which your correspondent “ C. H.” is so enthusiastic, 
is some years in mailing a good start, and I therefore 
cannot wait. Its relative, the common Virginian 
Creeper, is too coarse and rampant in growth and the 
charming reds and crimsons in its autumn tints too 
fleeting. In the two outside spaces the yellow and 
white Banksian Boses might serve the purpose if 
glossy, dark-green foliage is a desideratum. Had the 
w T alls been of white brick instead of deep red, high- 
coloured Boses would have been chosen, such as Glory 
of Waltham and Chestnut Hybrid, in place of Gloire 
d’Dijon, and Pyrus Japonica or Cotoneaster and 
Pyraeantha substituted for Clematis montana.— Luke 
Ellis. 
KITCHEN GARDEN WORK. 
Where not already done, no time should be lost in 
cutting down the Asparagus stems and removing 
them, together with any weeds which may have sprung 
up among them, to the rubbish-heap. This done, the 
loose surface soil should be raked off the beds into the 
alleys, and in its stead 2 ins. or 3 ins. thick of good 
rotten dung should be laid on, thus making the Aspa¬ 
ragus roots and “crowns” underneath secure from 
the effects of frost. Bemove dead leaves from Seakale 
and Bhubarb plants, and then cover tire crowns with 
a little wood or coal ashes and long dung or litter, 
to prevent the crowns from being injured by frost. 
Where no better accommodation is provided for the 
forcing of these much-esteemed vegetables, cover a 
few dozen crowns of each — more or less according to 
circumstances—with suitable pots or boxes, and the 
latter with a good thickness of leaves with sufficient 
long dung on the top to prevent them from being 
blown about the garden by the wind. 
Take up a sufficient number of roots of Asparagus 
to fill an ordinary three-light Cucumber frame. But, 
before taking up the roots, the old bed on which the 
frame rests, should be freshened up a little by adding 
thereto 8 ins. or 9 ins. thick of slightly fermenting 
manure and leaves, and a couple of inches thick of 
short dung, following this with a surfacing of garden 
