The Epicure in the Garden 
HOW THE GARDENER AND THE COOK COLLABORATED TO SUPPLY THE TABLE WITH TASTY DISHES-A 
VEGETABLE GARDEN PLANNED TO PLEASE THE APPETITE AND KEEP THE TABLE SUPPLIED ALL YEAR 
C|OME considerable portion of the term of ex- 
istence to which I am entitled has been spent 
in trying to bring the mind of Charlemagne 
(alias Charles Mann), the gardener, into 
agreement with my own, and that of Char¬ 
lotte, the cook, into unison with both. The 
following account is witness to the measure 
of my success in this undertaking. 
Necessity for peace, a quiet life, 
and simple diet, the physi¬ 
cian’s prescription, had led 
the Better Half and me into 
choosing a home in 
the country. Even¬ 
tually we met with a 
house and garden 
suited to our require¬ 
ments. It was an old 
house, much out of 
repair, and inconve¬ 
niently planned, but it 
had an exceptionally 
well-situated kitchen 
garden, and this decided us in its favor. Its 
previous owner had been a better gardener 
than architect, and if only for that reason 
we have had cause to be grateful to him. A good kitchen-garden 
has generally to be made. 
This kitchen-garden was a piece of land of nearly two acres, 
innocent of all trees save those which grew by the walls and a 
few espaliers down the middle paths. It was sheltered, open to 
the south and sloping. 
I explained to Charlemagne that it was our intention to live 
principally upon vegetables and fruit; that simple diet, with very 
little meat, was essential to our health; that Charlotte, the cook, 
was an importation from France, and would require many things 
to be grown for her to which she had been accustomed in her 
native country, and finally that I myself had a firmly-rooted con¬ 
viction that it was quite possible to have, all the year round in 
perpetual supply, every vegetable which mortal man might desire 
to eat, providing that sufficient energy and enterprise were 
brought to bear on their production. I hinted at a forcing-house 
and frames, and a cool cellar, and I saw his eyes brighten. His 
imagination was touched, and this was well; the main thing, all 
the same, was to get vegetables. 
After that we came to questions of detail. We have, I think, 
always been occupied with questions of detail. Sometimes I am 
exasperated with Charlemagne’s attention to detail as I watch 
him slip and cut, and stipple over his work; sometimes he breaks 
out into open rebellion at my insistence that every letter of my 
plans shall be accurately followed. I am winning Charlemagne 
-over, and inspiring him with an enthusiasm for intensive cultiva¬ 
tion. 
Therein lies the secret of such success as we have achieved. 
With intensive cultivation you may do wonders with quite a 
small plot of land; without it, the finest acreage will yield but 
little. 
Our ground is oblong in shape, with its longest diameter from 
east to west. This gives a good stretch of both warm and cool 
borders. The bush fruits grow together in squads instead of 
being planted promiscuously here and there, and if they had not 
already been so placed, we should soon have brought 
them together. Bigger fruit trees, such as apple and 
plum, are found in the small orchard, and the only 
good pear tree that we possess fills the 
whole west side of the house wall. 
The kitchen-garden has been, figura¬ 
tively speaking, the cockpit of 
strife, where our battles have 
been waged and a few triumphs 
won, for now that we have 
brought it to the point where 
it yields for us not only a 
never-failing supply 
of roots and legumes, 
but also a continu¬ 
ance of the rarer 
dainties, we have 
good reason to tri¬ 
umph. It has all been 
a matter of manage¬ 
ment, of careful rota¬ 
tion of crops, of fre¬ 
quent sowings, and 
prompt clearings, helped by the use of mov¬ 
able frames and a little forcing. 
I have been insistent about having only 
small sowings made at a time, but of having these kept up at reg¬ 
ular intervals, so that as fast as one row had furnished its crop, 
it should be cleared to make way for another. Nothing has been 
left to run to seed, nor have we saved for our own seed. This 
may seem to some an extravagance, but we have found that it 
pays best to buy fresh seed grown elsewhere. By liberal trench¬ 
ing and a little manuring of the soil we secure quick growth, and 
the rule is to gather everything when it is somewhat under rather 
than over its prime. Quality, rather than size and quantity, i? the 
best aim where consumption is small, but were I growing for sale, 
I should still prefer to sell the well-flavored small bean or marrow 
to the mammoths without taste— things which have to be cooked 
in pieces because they are too big to be cooked whole — it must 
have been these which a French satirist had in mind when he 
talked of legumes a I’eau! 
A dozen strong young plants, properly set out and attended to, 
amply suffice for our requirements at one time. We do not wish 
to be condemned to eat cauliflowers day after day simply because 
it is their season, and they are clamoring for consumption, or to 
fatten on beans when we would prefer to have a salad, or to be 
surfeited with salads when we desire a mess of pottage. But we 
are never without the material for a salad at any time of the 
year. We have peas from April to August; we have beans prac¬ 
tically always on hand; young carrots and turnips ready for pull¬ 
ing in May; crisp radishes and cress in the late summer. The 
mushroom house supplies us with early seakale and rhubarb and 
chicory, as well as with edible fungi, while our first tomatoes and 
cucumbers come from the warm brick pits. 
Experience has shown us that it is not needful to grow so many 
different kinds of vegetables, even though you are desirous of 
having a perpetual supply, as it is to keep up the regular succes¬ 
sion of the crops. What is most important is to have facilities 
for growing winter crops, and for some forcing, so as to be inde¬ 
pendent of weather and season. This we have managed by care¬ 
ful use of a small hot-house, a larger cool-house, and frames. 
by Lucy H. Yates 
(188) 
