Bayswater, May 21, 1840.
CONTENTS.
| Page | |
| [Introduction] | v |
| [CHAPTER I.] | |
| Stirring the soil | 1 |
| [CHAPTER II.] | |
| Manuring the soil, and making hotbeds | 23 |
| [CHAPTER III.] | |
| Sowing seeds—planting bulbs and tubers—transplanting and watering | 43 |
| [CHAPTER IV.] | |
| Modes of propagation by division; viz.: taking off suckers, making layers and cuttings, budding, grafting, and inarching | 70 |
| [CHAPTER V.] | |
| Pruning, training, protecting from frost, and destroying insects | 110 |
| [CHAPTER VI.] | |
| The kitchen-garden—the management of culinary vegetables | 134 |
| [CHAPTER VII.] | |
| The kitchen-garden continued—the management of fruit trees | 195 |
| [CHAPTER VIII.] | |
| The flower-garden, and the culture of flowers | 244 |
| [CHAPTER IX.] | |
| Management of the lawn, pleasure-grounds, and shrubbery, of a small villa | 301 |
| [CHAPTER X.] | |
| Rock-work, moss-houses, rustic baskets, and fountains | 329 |
| [CHAPTER XI.] | |
| Window gardening, and the management of plants in pots in small green-houses | 347 |
| [CHAPTER XII.] | |
| Calendar of operations | 374 |
GARDENING FOR LADIES.
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.