230 
GARDEN MECHANICS. 
GARDEN MECHANICS. 
Allow me to describe a portable garden frame, which I have 
recently constructed, mainly for the protection of picotees and 
carnations in winter, but which is convertible to a number of 
useful purposes. In the course of a rather extensive practice, it 
has frequently occurred to me that the common frame is but an 
inefficient protection, especially for such half-hardy plants as are 
mainly injured by damp. There are a great number of valuable 
species lost annually, not in consequence of frost, though that 
is the cause usually assigned, but that have been rotted or 
“ fogged,” as it is termed, by the continued presence of stagnant 
damp air, and believing the ordinary cold frame, when placed on 
the ground, to be a prolific scource of this evil, I set about a 
remedy last season, which has answered admirably. The struc¬ 
ture, which, by reason, of its suitability to nearly every purpose 
required, I propose to call the “ florist’s frame,” is formed like 
a miniature span-roofed greenhouse, with perpendicular legs, 
three feet apart, and two feet six inches high, they have strong 
castors screwed on to the bottoms, and are there kept in their 
places by longitudinal ties ; at twenty inches from the ground 
other ties running the length of the frame, are screwed into the 
uprights, and on them the bearers for the pots rest; these are 
formed of half-inch battens, three inches wide, with spaces of an 
inch between each, and being let into corresponding sockets or 
notches cut in the side tie-pieces or plates, they never get out of 
position ; on the top of the uprights is another slight plate pro¬ 
jecting beyond the face of the legs about two inches, to the 
underside of which, is hung with hinges, moveable flaps to fit 
between the legs and down to the floor, on which the pots stand, 
these form the side of the frame, and may be closed in bad weather 
or opened when air is required. The ends are gable-shaped, and, 
from the apex of each, a ridge board traverses the length of the 
frame, supported by slight rafters opposite each upright or leg : 
the lights are attached to this with hook-and-eye hinges, and 
they are made three feet wide to match the supports. 
The plants stand on the battens, and when the frame is opened, 
receive as much air as though they stood in the open ground. 
