Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

CHAPTER I.

STIRRING THE SOIL.

Digging.—Every one knows that the first operation of the gardener, whether a new garden is to be made, or merely an old one re-planted, is to dig the ground; though but comparatively few persons are aware why this is so essentially necessary to be done. When a piece of rough ground is to be taken into cultivation, and a garden made where there was none before, the use of digging is obvious enough; as the ground requires to be levelled, and divided by walks, and thrown up into beds, to give it the shape and appearance of a garden, which could not be done without stirring the soil: but why the beds in an old garden should be always dug or forked over, before they are re-planted, is quite another question, and one that it requires some consideration to answer.

When any soil, except sand or loose gravel, remains unstirred for any length of time, it becomes hard, and its particles adhere so firmly together as not to be separated without manual force. It is quite clear that when soil is in this state, it is unfit for the reception of seeds; as the tender roots of the young plants will not be able to penetrate it through without great difficulty, and neither air nor water can reach them in sufficient quantities to make them thrive. When a seed is put into the ground, it is the warmth and moisture by which it is surrounded that make it vegetate. It first swells, and the skin with which it is covered cracks and peels off; then two shoots issue from the vital knot, (a point easily discoverable in large seeds,) one of which descends and is called the root, while the other ascends to form the leaves, stem, flowers, and fruit.

This is what is meant by the germination of the seed, and this may be effected by the aid of heat and moisture alone, as is done with mustard and cress, when raised on wet flannel in a saucer. But plants raised in this manner cannot be of long duration; as, though they will live for a short time on the albumen contained in the seed, on which they feed, as the chicken does on the nourishment contained in the egg, this is soon exhausted, and the plant will die if not supplied with fresh food, which it can only obtain by means of the root. Thus, the root is necessary, not only to form a base to support the plant and to keep it upright, but to supply it with food; and nature has given it a tendency to bury itself in the ground, not only to enable the plant to take a firm hold of the soil, but to preserve the root in a fitting state for absorbing food, which it can only do when it is kept warm, moist, and secluded from the light.

The manner in which the root is fitted for the purposes for which it was designed, affords an admirable illustration of the care and wisdom displayed by the Great Creator in all his works. In nature nothing is superfluous, and yet everything has been provided for. It has been already observed, that the two principal uses of the root are to give the plant a firm hold of the ground, and to supply it with food. For the first purpose the root either spreads so widely through the surface soil as to form a sufficient base for the height of the plant, or it descends a sufficient depth into the earth to steady the part above ground; and in either case the growth of the plant is wisely and wonderfully proportioned to the strength of the support which the root affords it. For the second purpose, that of supplying the plant with nourishment, the root divides at the extremity of each shoot into numerous fibres or fibrils, each furnished at its extremity with a spongiole or spongy substance, which affords the only means the plant possesses of absorbing the moisture necessary for its support. It is thus quite clear, that every thing that tends to nourish and increase the growth of the root, must contribute to the health and vigour of the rest of the plant; and that no plant can thrive, the root of which is cramped in its growth, or weakened for want of nourishment. This being allowed, it is evident that the first step towards promoting the growth of any plant is to provide a fitting receptacle for the root; and this is done by pulverizing the ground in which the seed is to be sown so as to render it in a fit state for the roots to penetrate it easily. Thus they will neither be checked in their growth for want of room, nor be obliged to waste their strength in overcoming unnecessary obstacles; such as twining themselves round a stone, or trying to force their way through a hard clod of earth. The second point of affording the root abundance of nourishment may also be obtained by pulverizing the ground; as pulverization, by admitting the rain to percolate slowly through the soil, enables it to absorb and retain sufficient moisture to afford a proper and equable supply of food to the spongioles, without suffering the surplus water to remain so as to be in danger of rotting the main roots.

These then are the reasons why it may be laid down as a general rule, that all ground should be stirred before seeds are sown in it; but there are other reasons which operate only partially, and are yet almost as necessary to be attended to. When manure is applied, the ground is generally well dug, in order to mix the manure intimately with the soil; and when the soil appears worn out, or poisoned with excrementitious matter, from the same kind of plants being too long grown in it, it is trenched; that is, the upper or surface soil is taken off by spadefuls and laid on one side, and the bottom or sub-soil is taken out to a certain depth previously agreed on, and laid in another heap. The surface soil is then thrown into the bottom of the trench, and the sub-soil laid on the surface, and thus a completely new and fresh soil is offered to the plants. These partial uses of digging should, however, always be applied with great caution, as in some cases manure does better laid on the surface, so that its juices only may drain into the ground, than when it is intimately mixed with the soil; and there are cases when, from the sub-soil being of an inferior quality, trenching must be manifestly injurious. Reason and experience are, in these cases, as in most others, the best guides.

The uses of digging having been thus explained, it is now necessary to say something of its practice, and particularly of its applicability to ladies. It must be confessed that digging appears, at first sight, a very laborious employment, and one peculiarly unfitted to small and delicately formed hands and feet; but, by a little attention to the principles of mechanics and the laws of motion, the labour may be much simplified and rendered comparatively easy. The operation of digging, as performed by a gardener, consists in thrusting the iron part of the spade, which acts as a wedge, perpendicularly into the ground by the application of the foot, and then using the long handle as a lever, to raise up the loosened earth and turn it over. The quantity of earth thus raised is called a spitful, and the gardener, when he has turned it, chops it to break the clods, with the sharp edge of his spade, and levels it with the back. During the whole operation, the gardener holds the cross part of the handle of the spade in his right-hand, while he grasps the smooth round lower part of the handle in his left, to assist him in raising the earth and turning it, sliding his left hand backwards and forwards along the handle, as he may find it necessary.

This is the common mode of digging, and it certainly appears to require considerable strength in the foot to force the spade into the ground,—in the arms to raise it when loaded with the earth that is to be turned over,—and in the hands to grasp the handle. But it must be remembered that all operations that are effected rapidly by the exertion of great power, may be effected slowly by the exertion of very little power, if that comparatively feeble power be applied for a much greater length of time. For example, if a line be drawn by a child in the earth with a light cane, and the cane be drawn five or six times successively along the same line, it will be found that a furrow has been made in the soil with scarcely any exertion by the child, that the strongest man could not make by a single effort with all his force. In the same way a lady, with a small light spade may, by taking time, succeed in doing all the digging that can be required in a small garden, the soil of which, if it has been long in cultivation, can never be very hard or difficult to penetrate, and she will not only have the satisfaction of seeing the garden created, as it were, by the labour of her own hands, but she will find her health and spirits wonderfully improved by the exercise, and by the reviving smell of the fresh earth.

A Lady’s Gauntlet.

The first point to be attended to, in order to render the operation of digging less laborious, is to provide a suitable spade; that is, one which shall be as light as is consistent with strength, and which will penetrate the ground with the least possible trouble. For this purpose, the blade of what is called a lady’s spade is made of not more than half the usual breadth, say not wider than five inches or six inches, and of smooth polished iron, and it is surmounted, at the part where it joins the handle, by a piece of iron rather broader than itself, which is called the tread, to serve as a rest for the foot of the operator while digging. The handle is about the usual length, but quite smooth and sufficiently slender for a lady’s hand to grasp it, and it is made of willow, a close, smooth, and elastic wood, which is tough and tolerably strong, though much lighter than ash, the wood generally used for the handles to gardeners’ spades. The lady should also be provided with clogs,[1] the soles of which are not jointed, to put over her shoes, or if she should dislike these and prefer strong shoes, she should be provided with what gardeners call a tramp, that is, a small plate of iron to go under the sole of the shoe, and which is fastened round the foot with a leathern strap and buckle. She should also have a pair of stiff thick leathern gloves, or gauntlets, to protect her hands, not only from the handle of the spade, but from the stones, weeds, &c., which she may turn over with the earth, and which ought to be picked out and thrown into a small, light wheel-barrow, which may easily be moved from place to place.

[1] Perhaps the most useful covering for the feet is a kind of clog and gaiter combined; which may be made of some soft elastic leather, and rendered perfectly waterproof, by the new preparation which is now employed instead of caoutchouc, and is preferable to that gum, as it does not impede perspiration.

A wheel-barrow is a lever of the second kind, in which the weight is carried between the operator, who is the moving power, and the fulcrum, which is represented by the lower part of the wheel. If it be so contrived that the wheel may roll on a plank, or on firm ground, a very slight power is sufficient to move the load contained in the barrow; particularly if the handles be long, curved, and thrown up as high as possible, in order to let the weight rest principally upon the wheel, without obliging the operator to bend forward. When, on the contrary, the handles are short and straight, the weight is thrown principally on the arms of the operator, and much more strength is required to move the load, besides the inconvenience of stooping.

All the necessary implements for digging being provided, the next thing to be considered is the easiest manner of performing the operation. The usual way is for the gardener to thrust his spade perpendicularly into the ground, and then using the handle as a lever, to draw it back so as to raise the whole mass of earth in front of the spade at once. This requires great strength; but by inserting the spade in a slanting direction, and throwing the body slightly forward at the same time, the mass of earth to be raised will not only be much less, but the body of the operator will be in a much more convenient position for raising and turning it; which may thus be done with perfect ease.

The time for digging should always be chosen, if possible, when the ground is tolerably dry; not only on account of the danger of taking cold by standing on the damp earth, but because the soil, when damp, adheres to the spade, and is much more difficult to work (as the gardeners call it,) than when it is dry. The ground in fields, &c. becomes very hard in dry weather; but this is never the case in a garden, the soil of which is well pulverized by the constant digging, forking, hoeing and raking it must undergo, to keep the garden tolerably neat. Every lady should be careful, when she has finished digging, to have her spade dipped in water, and then wiped dry; after which it should be hung up in some warm dry shed, or harness room, to keep it free from rust; as nothing lessens the labour of digging more than having a perfectly smooth and polished spade. Should the earth adhere to the spade while digging, dipping the blade in water occasionally, will be found to facilitate the operation.

The purposes for which digging is applied in gardening are: simple digging for loosening the soil in order to prepare it for a crop; pointing; burying manure; exposing the soil to the action of the weather; trenching; ridging; forming pits for planting trees and shrubs, or for filling with choice soil for sowing seeds; and taking up plants when they are to be removed.

In simple digging, as well as in most of the other kinds, it is customary to divide the bed to be dug, by a garden-line, into two parts: a trench, or furrow as it is called, is then opened across one of these divisions or half of the bed, the earth out of which is thrown up into a heap. The digging then commences by turning over a breadth of soil into the furrow thus made, and thus forming a new furrow to be filled up by the soil turned over from the breadth beyond it; and this is continued till the operator reaches the end of the first division, where the furrow is to be filled with the earth taken from the first furrow of the second division; after which the digging proceeds regularly as before, till the operator reaches the last furrow, which is filled with the ridge of earth thrown up when the first furrow was made. As few ladies are strong enough to throw the earth from the heap where it was laid from the first furrow to fill the last, the best way is to put it into a small wheel-barrow, which may be wheeled to the place required, and filled and emptied as often as may be found convenient; or the ground may be divided into narrower strips. It must also be observed, that as a spitful of earth taken up obliquely will be seldom found enough to loosen the soil to a proper depth, a second or even a third should be taken from the same place before the operator advances any further along the line. Or the whole of each furrow may first be made shallow, and then deepened by successive diggings before proceeding to the next furrow.

It is obvious that the great art in this kind of digging is to keep the furrows straight, and not to take up more earth in one place than in another, so that the surface of the ground, when finished, may be perfectly even. To keep the furrows straight, the first ought to be worked out with the rod and line, and every succeeding line should be frequently and carefully examined. It is more difficult to keep these lines straight than can be at first sight imagined; and in proportion as the furrow is allowed to become crooked it will become narrower, and be in danger of being choked up; or, if kept as wide as before, the surface of the ground will be rendered uneven, and the last furrow left without earth enough to fill it up. In digging each furrow also, care must be taken to carry it quite up to the line of demarcation; as, otherwise, what the gardeners call a baulk or piece of firm land would be left there, and, of course, the bed would neither look well, nor would the object for which it was dug be fully attained. Great care must also be taken to keep the surface of the bed even, and this it is extremely difficult for a novice to do. It is, indeed, very provoking, after watching the ease with which a gardener digs a bed, and looking at the perfectly smooth and even surface that he leaves, to find how very hard it is to imitate him; and yet it is essentially necessary to be done, for if there are any irregularities in the surface, the hollow places will collect the moisture, and the plants in them will grow vigorously, while those in the raised places will be speedily dried by the sun and wind, and will look poor and withered. Practice is certainly required to render digging easy, but, as the principal points of keeping the furrows straight and the surface even, depend on skill more than strength, the art of digging well may be acquired by any one who thinks it worth while to take the trouble. Very little strength will, indeed, be necessary, if the rule of thrusting in the spade obliquely, and aiding it by the momentum of the body be always attended to.

Pointing, as it is called by gardeners, is in fact shallow digging, and it consists in merely turning over the ground to the depth of two or three inches. In spring, or in the beginning of summer, when the sun has only warmed the soil to the depth of a few inches, and when the seeds to be sown (as of annual flowers for example) are wanted to germinate as quickly as possible, pointing is preferable to digging; because the latter operation would bury the warm soil, and bring that up to the surface which is still as cold as in winter. Pointing is also used in stirring the ground among trees and other plants, in order that the spade may not go so deeply into the ground as to injure their roots.

Burying manure.—There are two ways of digging the ground for the purpose of burying manure: according to the first method, the manure is spread evenly over the whole bed, and then the gardener proceeds to dig as though the manure were in fact a portion of the surface of the soil; and according to the second method, the manure having been first brought to the spot and thrown into a heap, is deposited, a small portion at a time, at the bottom of each furrow as it is formed, and the earth from the next furrow thrown over it. In both cases, the manure should be buried as speedily as possible; as if left long exposed in small quantities to the air in hot dry weather, it loses a great part of its nutritious qualities by evaporation.

Digging for the purpose of exposing the soil to the action of the weather, trenching, and ridging on a large scale, are operations too laborious to be performed by any one but a gardener’s labourer. To be done well, the earth in all these cases should be mixed in large spitfuls at a time, and turned over without breaking, on which account they are best performed in moist weather, when the earth is in an adhesive state. Ridging on a small scale may be useful in a flower garden, when the soil is much infested with insects, or where there are many weeds. It is performed by opening a trench, and throwing up the earth out of it in the form of a ridge; and then opening another trench, and forming another ridge in the same manner. The whole garden is thus thrown into a series of ridges and trenches, which should be suffered to remain all the winter, and be levelled in spring. It is obvious that this mode of ameliorating the soil can only be practised where the garden is not likely to be visited during winter, as it destroys all beauty, and has a peculiarly desolate and forlorn appearance. It is indeed a remedy only to be resorted to in extreme cases, but fortunately there are very few flower gardens in which the soil is in so bad a state as to require it.

The other kinds of digging, are to form pits for receiving plants, or for filling with choice soil, and to remove plants. In the first case, a hole of sufficient size to receive the plant is dug, and the earth thrown up beside it, to be filled in round the roots of the plant; and in the second case, the common garden earth is thrown out of a pit a foot or eighteen inches deep, and about the same in diameter, and its place supplied by peat, or whatever other kind of earth may be required. In removing a young tree or shrub, the ground is generally first dug out on one side, so as to form a small trench, and then the spade is driven perpendicularly into the ground, below the depth to which the roots descend, and the whole mass is raised like a spade full of earth. Small plants are raised by the spade at once without making any trench; and large trees require all the skill of a professed gardener.

Forking.—A broad-pronged garden fork may be defined as an implement consisting of a number of small sharply pointed spades, united by a shoulder or hilt, to which is fixed the handle; and forking differs from digging principally in its being used merely to stir the soil, and not to turn it over. In shrubberies, and among perennial herbaceous plants, which are not to be taken and replanted, forking is very useful; as it loosens the hard dry surface of the soil, and admits the warm air and rain to the roots of the plants. This is very necessary, as the earth is a bad conductor of heat; and where the surface of the soil is become so hard as to exclude the air from the roots of the plants, the ground in which they grow will be nearly as cold in summer as in winter. Besides, when the surface of the ground is hard, the rain instead of soaking gradually into it, runs off, or evaporates, without being of any service to the roots. The operation of forking consists merely in thrusting the fork a little way into the ground by the application of the foot to the hilt, and then raising the ground by pulling back the handle as in digging, so as to loosen the earth without raising it. The ground may thus be roughly pulverized to a considerable depth, without dividing the roots of the plants; which would have been inevitable if the operator had used a spade.

Hoeing.—There are several different kinds of hoes which are used for getting up weeds, for loosening the soil, for drawing it up round the stems of growing plants, and for making a shallow furrow or drill for sowing seeds. The different kinds all belong to two great divisions: viz. the draw hoe and the thrust hoe, which may be seen at any ironmonger’s shop. Either kind may be used for destroying weeds; as the weeds may either be loosened and lifted out of the soil by the thrust hoe, or torn out of it by the draw hoe. Both kinds may also be used for pulverizing the soil, or a third kind with two prongs may be substituted. In all these operations, the thrust hoe is best adapted for a lady’s use, as requiring the least exertion of strength, and being most easily managed; but the draw hoe is best adapted for making a drill or furrow for the reception of seeds, and also for the last and most important use of hoeing, viz. the drawing up of the earth round the stems of growing plants.

The operation of hoeing up, though very commonly practised, is only suitable to some kind of plants, and it is intended to afford additional nourishment to those which have tap-roots, by inducing them to throw out more lateral fibres.

The plants which will bear to be hoed or earthed up, are those that throw out fibrous roots above the vital knot, like the cabbage tribe, &c.; or that are annuals with long bushy stems, and very weak and slender roots like the pea. Ligneous plants should never be earthed up, to avoid injuring the vital knot, which forms the point of separation between the main root and the stem, and which gardeners call the collar, crown, neck or collet. This part in trees and shrubs should never be buried, as if it be injured by moisture so as to cause it to rot; or if it be wounded in any way, the plant will die. A deciduous tree may be cut down close above the collar, and it will throw up fresh shoots, or the roots may all be cut off close below the collar, and if that part be uninjured fresh roots will form; but if a tree be cut through at this vital part it never can recover.

A trowel is another instrument used in stirring the soil, but of course it can only be employed in boxes of earth in balconies, &c.

Raking is useful in smoothing the soil after digging, and in collecting weeds, stones, &c., and dragging them to one side, where they may be easily removed. An iron-toothed rake is generally used for the ground, and a wooden one for collecting grass after mowing. When it is wished that the teeth of the rake should enter the ground, the handle should be held low; but if the object be the collection of weeds, &c., the handle should be held high. Dry weather is essential to raking the ground, as the principal use of the operation is to break the clods left by the spade; but raking together grass or weeds may be performed in wet weather.

The degree of strength required for raking depends partly upon the breadth of the head of the rake, and the number of its teeth, but principally upon the manner of holding it. If the rake be held low, it is obvious that greater strength will be required to drag it through the ground than if it is held high, in which case very little labour will be required to overcome the resistance it will meet with.