Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

The Apricot is a native of Armenia, introduced about 1562. The culture is the same as that of the peach, excepting that it is not trained quite so much in the fan manner, but somewhat horizontally. It also bears, not only on the side-shoots of the last year, but on close spurs formed on the two-years’ old wood. The whole of the fruit is also generally suffered to form, and is thinned out while it is green, in May or the beginning of June, as green apricots are generally thought delicious in tarts. The best apricots are the Moorpark for the table, and the Breda for preserving. This last is frequently grown as a standard. Large branches, or rather arms of apricot-trees, particularly of the Moorpark, are very apt to die off without any apparent cause. The finest apricots I ever saw were grown on a tree trained against a cottage, the owner of which was an old woman, who took in washing, and who was in the habit, nearly every day, of pouring down about the roots of the tree a quantity of soap-suds. Apricot-trees should be twenty-five feet apart, as the tree spreads rapidly, and does not bear cutting in.

The Plum.—No plum-tree, except perhaps the green-gage, should be planted on a south wall; and, as a north wall is too cold for the finer kinds, they do best planted against a wall facing to the east or west. Any common garden soil will suit plum-trees; and when the soil appears exhausted, it may be renovated by a little rotten dung laid on the surface, and frequently watered to wash its juices into the soil, without disturbing the roots. Plum-trees bear on what are called spurs, which are short rugged-looking little branches, jutting out from the shoots of two or three years’ growth. The same spurs bear more than once, and often continue fruitful several years. Plum-trees are generally trained horizontally. The kinds are very numerous, but the Green-gage and Orleans are, perhaps, the most popular. Plum-trees should be twenty feet apart, if all dwarfs; but dwarfs and riders alternately may be only fifteen feet apart.

The Cherry.—Only the finer kinds of cherries are grown against walls; and the tree, in its native localities, delights in a dry sandy soil, and elevated airy situation. When cultivated, it will thrive in any common garden soil which is tolerably open; and it is not injured by manure applied moderately, and in a perfectly rotten state. The cherry is trained horizontally, and bears on spurs springing from both the old and the new wood. As the branches are continually throwing out fresh spurs from their extremities, it is a maxim with gardeners never to shorten the bearing branches of a cherry-tree. The morello is, however, an exception to this rule, as its mode of bearing resembles that of the peach; and it is always pruned and trained like that tree. The cherry-trees grown against walls are the different varieties of May Duke, Circassian, the large black Tartarian, the Morello, and the Bigarreau. Cherries need not be more than fifteen feet apart for the common kinds, and twenty feet for the morello.

Fig-trees grow and bear quite well in the neighbourhood of London, and they even thrive and bear in many street-gardens in the City. The fig requires less care in training and pruning than any other tree; it should indeed rarely be touched with the knife, and only the ill placed shoots removed by disbudding. The fruit is produced on the young wood at the extremity of the branches, but it does not ripen till the wood on which it grows is a year old. The best soil for figs is a light fresh loam not above a foot or fifteen inches deep, on a hard, well-drained bottom. This is essential; as the fig will not grow with any stagnant water about its roots, though it requires to be constantly and abundantly supplied with moisture. Many country persons throw soap-suds on the roots of their fig-trees with very great success. The tree may be trained in any shape; and the long branches should be bent backwards and forwards, not only to make them throw out side-shoots, but to cover the wall. The best figs for general bearing are the black and brown Ischias and the large blue or purple fig. A tree of the last kind, which is trained against our house at Bayswater, under the glass veranda, has never failed, during the last ten years, to produce a good crop every summer. Fig-trees should be thirty feet apart if the branches are trained horizontally; but they may be placed rather nearer, if the branches are bent backwards and forwards to cover the wall.

Espaliers.—Espaliers, though they are nearly as troublesome to train as wall-trees, have none of their advantages. They are indeed only superior to standards in taking up less room, in having a neater appearance, in their fruit being more easily gathered, and in their roots being more under the control of the gardener. The latter is an important advantage, and one of which every gardener should avail himself. It has been already observed, when speaking of the laying out of a kitchen garden, that beyond the fruit-border there is generally a walk, enclosing the compartments devoted to culinary vegetables in the centre. Now where espaliers are grown, there should be a second chambered border, exactly like the fruit border under the wall, which should be shut out from the culinary compartments by a low wall under ground, or flat stones placed edgeways, or boards, or, in fact, any thing to prevent the roots of the espaliers from spreading into the ground devoted to the culinary crops. When due precautions have been taken, the espaliers should be planted near the boundary, and their roots carefully spread out over the chambered border, those parts being cut off which cannot be brought to lie flat in the proper direction. The ground is then pressed firmly upon the roots, and espalier rails, either of iron or wood, are fixed near the trees to tie them to. Espalier trees are seldom suffered to grow higher than five feet or six feet, on account of the trouble of training them when they are of a greater height; but to make amends for this loss of space, their branches are allowed to spread as widely as possible, according to the nature of the trees. Thus apples should be planted thirty feet apart, and cherries about the same distance; pears thirty-five feet, and plums twenty-five feet. The finer kinds of fruits are seldom planted as espaliers; and apples and pears are more commonly thus treated than cherries and plums. The continual cutting necessary to keep the trees in a proper shape for training, and the unnatural position of the roots, are indeed very unsuitable to trees so apt to gum and canker as the cherry and the plum. The width of the border destined for the roots of the espaliers is generally five feet; and it should only be cropped with a few herbaceous or annual flowers, that will not require the ground to be deeper stirred than can be done with a rake. Some persons suffer the roots of their espalier trees to extend under the gravel walks, which are purposely left hollow; but this defeats the purpose for which they are to be attracted to the surface, for the spongioles will be as effectually excluded from the air under a compact coating of gravel, as if they were buried many feet deep in the soil. If an underground wall is built along the inner side of the espalier border to confine the roots of the trees, stones should be fixed in it at intervals, with holes made in them for the reception of the espalier rails, which should be run in with pitch. These rails should be about nine inches asunder, and they may be kept together at the top with a transverse rail, to which they should be nailed. The inconveniences of espaliers are the very great trouble of training them and keeping them within bounds; the rough and untidy appearance which their spurs assume when the trees begin to get old; and the numerous diseases to which the trees are liable, from their unnatural position and constant cutting in, and which always render espalier trees short-lived.

Standard fruit-trees.—Tall standard trees should never, on any account, be planted in a kitchen-garden; as from their drip and shade it is impossible to grow good culinary vegetables under them; while, on the other hand, the constant digging and trenching necessary to cultivate culinary vegetables, force the roots of the trees to descend so far that it is impossible for them to produce good fruit. Dwarf standards are, however, by many preferred to espaliers; as they are susceptible of all the advantages, without any of the disadvantages attendant on that mode of training. A chambered border may be prepared for the dwarf standards in the same manner as for the espaliers; and they may be placed in the centre of it, instead of on one side. The dwarf standards are generally grafted very near the collar of the plant, and are trained to form bushes rather than trees, but in various manners. Some are trained round a hoop placed inside, and others have their branches trained upwards for a few feet, and then bent downwards like an umbrella; some are trained en quenouille, with a single stem; others en pyramide; and others have their branches spread out horizontally, and supported by stakes placed at a regular distance in a circle round the tree. In short, there are no limits to fancy in this respect. The trees generally grown in gardens as dwarf standards are apples, pears, and morello cherries. The other kinds of cherries may also be grown in this manner; but they are generally grown as tall standards in a detached orchard near the kitchen-garden, or adjoining the pleasure-grounds. The common kinds of plums and damsons are also grown as tall trees in the same manner, as are the kitchen and keeping apples. Mulberry-trees are generally planted on the lawn, as well for the picturesque form of the tree, as for the convenience of the fruit, which drops as soon as it is ripe, and is spoiled if it falls on dry earth or gravel. Sweet chesnuts are grown in the park or pleasure-grounds among other trees; and walnuts in similar situations, or in a back-court, or stable-yard, for the convenience of their shade. Filberts and hazels are generally planted on each side of a walk in the garden or pleasure-ground, which they are trained over; and barberries and elderberries in the shrubberies; the last four being the only kinds of trees which should ever be planted as standards in the slips to the kitchen-garden.

Kernel fruits.—The principal of these are apples and pears, but the division also includes the medlar, the quince, and the true service.

The apple is universally allowed to be the most useful of all fruits; and it is certain that there is no fruit more extensively cultivated. The list of apples is as numerous as that of peas; and it is almost as difficult to make a selection from. Apples are, however, generally divided into three kinds; the dessert or eating apples, the kitchen or baking apples, and the cider apples. The last are good for nothing but to make cider, and can never be mistaken; the line of demarcation between the first two is, however, not so strongly marked, as many of the kinds will serve both purposes. Many dessert apples, for example, possess the chief merit of a good kitchen apple, viz. that of falling well, or in plainer terms, of becoming quite soft when baked or boiled; and many of the baking apples are very good to eat raw. The Ribstone pippen, one of the best of all apples, but rather a shy bearer, and the hawthorn dean, a most abundant bearer, but an apple that does not keep well, are both alike excellent for the kitchen and the dessert. The best keeping apple is the French crab, of which some specimens have been preserved quite fresh and plump for more than three years.

The most common way of propagating apple-trees is by grafting the best kinds on crab-stocks, either standard high, that is, on stocks suffered to grow to the height of about six feet; or as dwarfs, that is, about six inches or eight inches from the collar of the stock. Sometimes trees intended to be grown as dwarf standards in a kitchen-garden are grafted what is called half standard high; that is, about two or three feet from the collar. When apple-trees are planted in the kitchen-garden where they are to remain, each tree should always be placed on a little hillock; as no tree is more liable to become cankered from having its collar buried. The tree succeeds best in a deep strong loam, provided it be well drained, and rich rather than poor; and when the soil appears exhausted, it may be renovated by laying on it what the farmers call a top-dressing of manure, taking care not to bury or even to touch the collar of the tree. Apple-trees will, however, flourish in any soil except sand or gravel. They are very apt to become cankered, and to be attacked by the woolly aphis, sometimes called the American blight. Canker is generally caused by some defect in the drainage or the soil, and of course no remedy can be efficacious till the cause of the disease is removed; when, however, the soil has been renovated or drained, the effects of the disease may be obviated by heading down the tree, when it will produce new and healthy branches; or cutting out the cankered part, if they should be so low as to make it inconvenient to cut off the trunk of the tree below them. The American blight is best cured by brushing the parts affected all over with soft soap and water; and repeating the operation whenever any fresh insects appear.

The Pear.—The culture of the pear as a standard differs very little from that of the apple; and though it is naturally rather a deeper-rooted plant, it requires its fibrous roots to be kept near the surface. There is a general complaint in gardens against pear-trees as bad bearers, and very healthy-looking trees have been known to exist twenty years in a garden without ever even showing any blossoms. Various causes have a tendency to produce this effect. The pear being naturally inclined to send down its roots, will do so, unless effectually prevented by a chambered border, or a hard rocky sub-soil; and if the spongioles of the roots are allowed to descend out of the reach of the air, the stagnant moisture of the sub-soil will produce the same effect on them as on those of the apple. Planting pear-trees in a very rich stiff soil has a similar effect. Injudicious pruning, particularly in summer, is another cause; as cutting in young shoots, while the sap is in motion, has a tendency to make the tree throw out two new shoots in the room of every one removed, and thus to exhaust itself in producing branches. Summer shoots should either be checked by disbudding as soon as they appear, or suffered to remain till winter, when they may be cut in, without exciting the tree to fresh efforts to replace them. Much of the fertility of pear-trees also depends on the habit of the stock being similar to that of the graft; and much also on a judicious manner of training. As a wall-tree, the pear is always trained horizontally, and spurs are left on all the branches for producing fruit. These spurs used formerly to be left large, and standing out a foot or eighteen inches from the wall; but they are now found to bear best when kept short. According to this plan, every spur is allowed to bear only once, viz.—in its third year; and after this, it is cut out to give place to another spur, which has been trained to succeed it. By this mode of treatment, a constant succession of young spurs is kept up, and fruit is produced all over the tree; whereas, by the old method of pruning and training, in the course of a few years, the projecting spurs became barren, and fruit was produced only at the extremity of the branches. Pears are frequently grafted standard high, when intended for training against a wall, in order that they may be used as riders between dwarf plums or peaches. Pear-trees generally bear better as espaliers, or dwarf standards than against a wall, and this has been attributed to rather a curious reason. The stamens of the pear have naturally very little farina; and where the blossoms are exposed to great heat, and have little air circulating round them, as is the case with wall-trees, the pollen is very apt to dry up without fertilizing the stigma. The blossoms of espaliers and dwarf standards are exposed to less heat and more air than those of wall-trees; and thus their pollen is more likely to perform its natural functions. The truth of this observation has been proved by shading the blossoms of a wall pear-tree during the whole period of their expansion, and fanning them with an artificial current of air by means of bellows, when it was found that more than twice the usual quantity of fruit was produced. Espalier pear-trees have generally a very rough appearance, from their rugged projecting spurs; but dwarf standards both look and bear well. It has, however, been asserted by some gardeners, that riders on the walls, and tall standards in the orchard, come into bearing earlier than dwarf standards, unless the branches of the dwarfs are suffered to grow very long, and are curiously bent and twisted to produce depositions of sap. Probably, however, the true cause of the dwarf standards not bearing is, that, in some cases, they have been planted in the deep rich soil of the kitchen-garden, intended for culinary vegetables; while the trees in the orchard, compared with them, were in poor light soil, and those against the wall in a prepared border.