Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

Sea-kale is raised either from seeds or cuttings of the roots. In either case, when the plants are a year old, they are put into a bed thoroughly prepared as if for asparagus, and planted in the same manner. The first year the plants will require little care, except cutting down the flower-stems wherever they appear; but the second year they will be ready for forcing. This is performed by covering the plants first with river-sand; then turning what are called sea-kale pots over them, and lastly, covering the pots to the depth of fifteen or twenty inches with fresh stable dung, the heat from which will draw the shoots up, and make them succulent and fit to eat.

Artichokes are another kind of permanent crop, but they are not suitable for growing in a small garden. The artichoke is a native of Italy, said to have been introduced in the reign of Henry VIII. It is propagated by division, and requires a light, rich, and rather moist soil. Manure should be laid between the rows every autumn, and the plants covered with straw in severe weather in winter. Artichoke-plants do not continue to produce good heads longer than six or seven years; but young plants come into bearing the second year after transplanting.

Strawberries.—Though strawberries should be properly included in the list of fruits, they are generally classed by gardeners among the permanent herbaceous crops in a kitchen-garden. There are a great variety of named sorts grown in gardens; but they are mostly varieties or sub-varieties of three species, viz.: the Pine (Fragaria grandiflora), which is supposed to be originally from Surinam; the Chili (F. Chilensis), and the Scarlet (F. Virginiana). Of these the pine-strawberries are large, pale in colour, but with scarlet flesh, and of a very fine and delicate flavour. The best strawberries are Keen’s seedling, and the old pine; the Chili strawberries (one of which is Wilmot’s Superb) have very large fruit, with white flesh, but possess very little flavour; and the scarlet-strawberries have small, bright-red, slightly acid fruit, which is principally used for ice-creams and preserving. To these may be added the Hautbois (F. elatior), which, though so often mentioned by the street vendors, is in reality very seldom grown, from the fruit, which is small and blackish, being rarely produced in any quantity; the Green strawberries (F. collina and F. virides); the Alpine strawberries (F. semperflorens); and the common wild Wood strawberry (F. vesca).

Strawberries should be grown on rich loamy soil, and they are generally planted in beds three feet wide, three rows in a bed. Every year, the strongest of the runners should be taken off, and planted to form a succession crop, as the beds seldom remain good more than three or four years. When the old beds are suffered to remain, they should be covered with manure in winter to be forked in in spring. When strawberries are wanted for forcing, pots are placed near the beds, and the runners are placed over them, and kept down with a stone, or hooked down with pegs to root.

Tart Rhubarb.—The part of the rhubarb used for making pies and puddings is the footstalk of the leaf; and the kinds usually grown in gardens for this purpose are Rheum Rhaponticum, a native of Asia introduced in 1573, and Rheum Undulatum, a native of China introduced in 1734. Rheum Palmatum, the leaves of which are very deeply cut with pointed segments, is generally supposed to be the kind, the root of which is used in medicine, under the name of Turkey Rhubarb. Buck’s Elford, or Scarlet Rhubarb, has slender stalks, but is valuable for its beautiful colour; and the Tobolsk, the Giant, and the Victoria Rhubarb, are remarkable for the enormous size of their stalks. Rheum Australe, which is by some said to be the medicinal kind, and which is only lately introduced, has also enormous leaves, and very long thick stalks, the skin of which is rough, while the pulp tastes like that of apples.

Rhubarb is either raised from seed, or propagated by offsets, or dividing the crown of the root. The seed is sown in April, in light rich soil, and the plants are pricked out in autumn into a bed of rich sandy loam which has been dug over, or trenched to the depth of eighteen inches or two feet. The plants require no other care than an occasional autumn or spring coating of manure to be slightly forked in, this dressing to be only applied, when, from the leaves and stalks produced being smaller than usual, the roots appear to want nourishment; and if they seem crowded, they may be occasionally taken up and replanted further apart. Rhubarb may be forced by covering it with pots and manure, like sea-kale; or the roots may be planted in a box, and kept in the house on a stove, or near the fire in the kitchen, covering the box with a bast mat to keep the plant in darkness and free from the dust, and watering it frequently.

Horse radish grows best in rich alluvial soil; and it is propagated by cuttings of the crowns of the roots, each about two inches long. The ground is then prepared by trenching at least two feet deep, and the cuttings or sets are planted in a kind of furrow about fifteen inches deep, with their crowns upwards. The second year the roots may be taken up, and the crowns cut off and replanted. As the sets are planted in March, and the leaves seldom begin to appear till the following June or July, it is customary to sow a light crop, of lettuce for example, or spinage, on the surface of the ground over the horse radish sets; which crop is cleared off in time to make way for the leaves of the true crop. When the sticks of horse-radish are taken up, they may be kept in sand in a cellar or out-house till wanted for use.

Temporary Crops, and their Rotation.—It has been already observed, that temporary crops should never be grown two years in succession on the same ground; and the reason for this has been already alluded to under the head of transplanting. It is, that the roots of plants every year throw out a quantity of excrementitious matter that they either will not reimbibe, or that is injurious to them; and that thus, the ground in which they have been grown one year, becomes unfit for them to grow in the next. This danger is obviated in the case of perennial plants, and trees and shrubs, by the constant elongation of the roots, which spread farther and farther every year, beyond the influence of the unwholesome soil. This, however, is not the case with annuals, as the roots of the plants of one year are no longer than those were of the plants of the preceding year; and consequently as every year’s plants occupy exactly the same ground, when annuals are sown for several years in the same soil they must degenerate; or, in other words, become weak and small, from not having enough of wholesome food, or from being forced to take food unwholesome for them. Now it has been found, that excrementitious matter, though poisonous to the plant that exudes it, is extremely nourishing to other plants, completely differing from the first in nature; and what is meant by the rotation of crops, is the art of making plants of opposite natures succeed each other, till the ground shall be so completely cleared of the excrementitious matter exuded by the first crop, as to be ready to receive it again. It is true that the same ground may occasionally be made to bear the same crops for several successive years, by copious manuring, or by trenching; but in both cases the evil is overcome by supplying the plant with abundance of nourishment, and thus preventing it from being driven to the necessity of taking unwholesome food. In fixing the rotation of crops, plants differing as much as possible in their habits should be chosen to succeed each other; as, for example, onions may be succeeded by lettuces; carrots by peas; potatoes by cabbage; turnips by spinach, &c.

The Cabbage Tribe.—Few persons unacquainted with botany will be able to believe that brocoli, cauliflowers, cabbages, Scotch or German Greens, Brussels sprouts and savoys, not only all belong to one genus, but are actually varieties of one species of a genus, viz. Brassica oleracea; and that the turnip, the Swedish turnip, and the rape (the seed of which is used for oil), belong to other species of the same genus. The cabbage, in its wild state, is a biennial which grows naturally on the sea-coast in different parts of England, and is a tall straggling plant with loose leaves, and a rather pretty yellow cruciferous flower. The borecole or kale is the first improvement effected by cultivation; and the cauliflower the last. Indeed it is impossible to imagine a greater difference between any species and variety, than exists between the cauliflower and the original wild cabbage plant. All the varieties of the cabbage tribe require a soil which has been enriched with abundance of animal manure; and when decaying, they have all a peculiarly offensive smell like that of putrid meat, from the large quantity of azote that they contain.

The Cabbage.—The word “cabbage,” in its original signification, means a firm head or ball of leaves folded closely over each other; and thus, there is a cabbage lettuce, and a cabbage rose. The cabbages grown in gardens are usually sown at three different times; for the spring, summer, and autumn crop. The spring cabbages are sown in summer generally about the first week in August, in an open airy situation, and in light soil. When they come up, they are thinned; and in October or November they are ready for planting out in rows, twelve or eighteen inches apart, into the beds where they are to cabbage. In small gardens, cabbages are seldom raised from seed; but the plants are purchased when ready for planting out. The summer crop is sown in February, and planted out in rows eighteen inches or two feet apart; and the autumn crop is sown in May, and planted out in July, generally eighteen inches apart every way. All cabbages require a rich soil, and frequent hoeing up; and in dry weather they should be watered to make them succulent. The stalks of the spring cabbages are generally pulled up and carried to the refuse heap as soon as the cabbages are cut; but the stalks of the summer and autumn kinds are left standing, that they may throw out what are called sprouts. The culture of the red cabbage is exactly the same; except that there is no spring crop, and the stalks are never left standing for sprouts. Some gardeners sow only one crop of green cabbages, and leave the stalks standing to produce sprouts all the rest of the year. When the cabbage stalk is left for sprouts, it is customary, after cutting the cabbage, to give the stalk two cuts across, so as to divide the top into four; as when this is done, it is thought to produce sprouts with more certainty.