Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

Kidney-Beans differ from the other leguminous vegetables, in their pods being eaten. There are two distinct kinds, the Dwarf Kidney-Beans, and the Scarlet-Runners; and these are again divided into numerous subdivisions. The soil for the dwarf kinds should be similar to that for peas: viz., rich, light, and dry, but not newly manured; and it should have been well pulverized to the depth of a foot or eighteen inches. The drills are generally made about two inches deep; and two feet or two feet and a half apart. The seeds are sown the first or second week in May. As the plants grow, they may be earthed up; and if the plants are very vigorous, and appear disposed to run to haulm, a few of the leading shoots may have their tops pinched off; but this should be done carefully, and the operation confined to a few of the strongest growing plants. The scarlet-runners require nearly the same culture, except that the seeds should be sown two or three inches asunder, and only lightly covered; and that the rows should be at least three feet apart. The seeds are covered lightly, as abundance of both air and moisture are required to make seeds enveloped in so thick a skin germinate; and the rows must be wide apart on account of their height, as otherwise the crop would not get enough sun and air. The scarlet-runner is properly a perennial, and if the plants are cut down to the ground after producing their crop, and their roots are covered with dry litter, they will produce an early and abundant crop the following summer. Kidney-beans are very frequently forced nearly in the same manner as peas; viz., by sowing them in pots plunged in a hot-bed, and then removing them to a hot-house or green-house (according to the season) to fruit. Sometimes they are sown in the earth of the hot-bed, and fruited there like cucumbers. The dwarf kidney-bean is a native of India, and was introduced before the time of Gerard; but the scarlet-runner is a native of South America, and was not introduced till 1633, when it was at first only cultivated in the flower-garden as an ornamental plant, and it is treated as such by all the early writers on flowers.

The Potatoe is a native of South America, but it was first brought to England by Sir Walter Raleigh, from Virginia. It was hence called the Potatoe of Virginia; and it was at its first introduction thought very inferior to the Convolvulus Batatus, which was called the Spanish Potatoe, and to the Jerusalem Artichoke, which was called the Potatoe of Canada, from its having been first taken from South America to Canada, before it was brought to England. About twenty or thirty sorts of the common potatoe are now cultivated for the table; but so large a quantity is wanted in almost every family, that few persons attempt to grow their main crop in a garden. A few early potatoes are, however, grown frequently; and the best of these is decidedly the ash-leaved kidney. The soil for potatoes should be a light, fresh, unmanured loam, and when manure is applied, it should be mellow dung, or well-rotted leaves. Potatoes are generally planted by dividing the root into what are called sets, with an eye in each; but sometimes the tubers are planted whole. Seeds are never used, except where it is wished to raise new sorts. Potatoes are seldom good forced; but an early crop may be raised by planting the sets in October. The principal early crop is, however, planted early in March; and the principal late crop in May or June. When the potatoes are to be planted, the ground should be first well pulverized, and then, the garden-line being stretched across the beds, holes should be made along it with the dibber from two to four or five inches deep, and about a foot apart. The sets should then be put one in each hole, with the eye upwards, and the earth pressed firmly down on each. When the potatoes come up, they should be hoed, and again in about a fortnight or three weeks; and when the plants are eight or ten inches high, they should be carefully earthed up. As soon as the plants go into blossom, some cultivators cut off the tops, to prevent the roots from being exhausted by the formation of the potatoe apples, or fruit. When the tubers are ripe, the stalks begin to wither, and may be taken up; but most persons have not patience to wait so long, and they begin to take up their early potatoes before the tubers are half-grown.

The Jerusalem Artichoke is a tuberous-rooted sun-flower, a native of Brazil; the epithet Jerusalem being a corruption of the Italian word ‘girasole,’ signifying to turn to the sun, from the supposed habit of the flower. The Jerusalem artichoke is planted in February or March, by sets, like the potatoe; and the tubers will be ready for use in September or October. It was introduced in 1716.

The Turnip succeeds best in a dry, sandy, or gravelly soil, which has been well manured, and dug to a considerable depth. The beds should be four or five feet wide, and the seeds having been strewed very thinly over them, the surface should be raked smooth, and then slightly beaten with the back of the spade. The first sowing is generally made in March, or the first week in April; and as soon as the young plants shew their rough leaves, they should be hoed up separately. They will then seldom want any other culture till the end of May, when, if the weather has been favourable, they will be ready for use. A second sowing is generally made about the middle of May; and a third, for the main crop, towards the end of June. Besides the turnips usually sold in seed shops, the Teltow, or small yellow German turnip, the French long white, and the Scotch yellow, are well deserving of cultivation for their excellence. The common turnip, the carrot, and the parsnip, are natives of England.

Carrots are of two kinds—the long carrots, the root of which tapers gradually from the crown to the point, and the horn carrots, the root of which continues of nearly the same thickness for three-fourths of its length, and then abruptly diminishes to a very slender tap root. There are numerous sub-varieties of both kinds. The goodness of the carrot depending entirely on the ease with which the root can penetrate the soil, it is obvious that the soil, in which these roots are grown, must not be of a very adhesive nature; and thus the best carrots are grown in pure sand, or peat. When soils of this nature cannot be procured, the ground should be trenched two spades deep, and a very little thoroughly rotten dung, or vegetable mould, should be well mixed with the earth in digging the lower spadeful. If manure, in a fresh state, be laid on a carrot-bed, or if the soil be not thoroughly pulverized, the roots will become forked, fibrous, and worm-eaten. The seeds of the carrot being each furnished with a pappus, or feathery wing, are apt to become entangled with each other, and can only be separated by rubbing them between the hands, and mixing them with sand. They are then to be sown very thinly, the ground slightly raked over to cover them, and then beaten flat with the back of the spade. When the young plants are up, the ground should be occasionally loosened, from time to time, with a small hoe, round each. When the leaves begin to change colour, the roots should be taken up, dry weather being chosen for that purpose; and the tops being cut off, the carrots should be carried into a cellar, or outhouse, and there buried in sand. Early carrots are generally sown in February, and the principal crop about the middle of March.

The Parsnip requires the same culture as the carrot, except that there is no early crop. The seed is sown in February or March, and the roots are ready for use about the latter end of September, or beginning of October.

The Red Beet is a native of the sea-coast on the south of Europe, and was introduced in 1656. The seed should not be sown till the last week in March, or the beginning of April. The ground should previously be dug to the depth of a foot or eighteen inches, and mixed with a little sea or river sand, and vegetable mould, or rotten dung. The roots will be ready for the table in September or October. In taking them up, and boiling them, great care must be taken not to wound the outer skin; as, if they are scraped or broken, all the colouring liquid will escape, and the root will become of a dull, dingy, whitish pink, instead of its usual brilliant red.

The Skirret, the Scorzonera, and the Salsify, are all tap-rooted plants, which require the same culture as the carrot.

The Radish is a native of China, and was introduced into England before 1584. There are numerous varieties; but they may be all divided into three or four kinds:—the spring radishes, which are sub-divided into the spindle-rooted, and the turnip-rooted; the autumn kinds, which are frequently oval, or turnip-rooted; and the winter kinds, which are oblong and dark-coloured. The seed may be sown at any season when the ground is open; but the very early spring kinds are generally sown in October or November to stand the winter, and be ready to draw in February and March.

Spinach.—The round-leaved variety is generally sown for a summer crop, on rich moist soil, in January or February, if the ground be open; and the triangular-leaved kinds, of which the Flanders is the best, are sown for the winter crops in August. The summer crop, when gathered, may be pulled up by the root; but the winter crop should only have the outer leaves gathered, and it will thus continue producing fresh leaves for many months.