Instructions in gardening for ladies

by Mrs. Loudon

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.

CHAPTER II.

MANURING THE SOIL AND MAKING HOTBEDS.

Most persons imagine that manure is all that is wanted to make a garden fruitful; and thus, if the fruit-trees do not bear, and the flowers and vegetables do not thrive, manure is considered the universal panacea. Now, the fact is, that so far from this being the case, most small gardens have been manured a great deal too much; and in many, the surface soil, instead of consisting of rich friable mould, only presents a soft black shining substance, which is the humic acid from the manure saturated with stagnant water. No appearance is more common in the gardens of street-houses than this, from these gardens being originally ill drained, and yet continually watered; and from their possessors loading them with manure, in the hope of rendering them fertile.

As it is known to chemists that it is only the humic acid, and carbonic acid gas, contained in manure, which make that substance nourishing to plants; and as these acids must be dissolved in water before the roots can take them up, it may seem strange that any solution of them in water, however strong it may be, should be injurious to vegetation. The fact is, however, that it is the great quantity of food contained in the water that renders it unwholesome. When the roots of a plant and their little sponge-like terminations, are examined in a powerful microscope, it will be clearly seen that no thick substance can pass through them. Thus water loaded with gross coarse matter, as it is when saturated with humic acid, must be more than the poor spongioles can swallow; and yet, as they are truly sponge-like, their nature prompts them, whenever they find moisture, to attempt to take it up, without having the power of discriminating between what is good for them, and what will be injurious. The spongioles thus imbibe the saturated liquid; and, loaded with this improper food, the fibrous roots, like an overgorged snake, become distended, the fine epidermis that covers them is torn asunder, their power of capillary attraction is gone, and they can neither force the food they have taken up, into the main roots, nor reject the excrementitious matter sent down to them from the leaves, after the elaboration of the sap. In this state of things, from the usual circulation of the fluids being impeded, it is not surprising that the plant should droop, that its leaves should turn yellow, that its flowers should not expand, that its fruit should shrivel and drop off prematurely, and that in the end it should die; as, in fact, it may be said to expire of apoplexy, brought on by indigestion.