A YEAR’S WORK IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN
The following monthly notes are not intended to supersede the detailed instructions on the several kinds of Vegetables which appear in the preceding pages. The present object is to call attention to the work that must be done, and the work that must be prepared for, as the changes of the seasons require and the state of the weather may permit; yet some amount of detail is included. Merely to offer reminders would be to exclude the great mass of amateurs, and the less experienced of practical gardeners, from participation in the advantages of these monthly notes, and to restrict their use to a few practical men who are masters of every detail of the business of gardening. The routine under each month is generally in harmony-with that already recommended, but certain variations of practice are suggested which may prove of service in some districts and under particular circumstances.
A work on gardening demands of the reader the exercise of judgment. If blindly followed, it may prove as often wrong as right; for it is not in the power of the authors to influence the weather in favour of their directions, or to insure to those who may follow their guidance a single one amongst the many conditions requisite to success. Although the times named for certain operations are the best as an average, peculiarities of climate and of season will require some modifications, which each one must discover for himself; and after the seed of any vegetable has been sown it is not always needful to give subsequent reminders of successional sowings. These naturally follow in accordance with the requirements of each particular garden. With such allowances duly made, these notes will, it is hoped, prove thoroughly practical, and tend materially to aid the cultivator in obtaining from the vegetable garden an abundance of everything in its season, and of a quality of which he need not be ashamed.
JANUARY
Work in the garden during the opening month of the year is entirely dependent on the weather, and it is futile to enter on a vain conflict with Nature. When heavy rains prevail keep off the ground, but immediately it will bear traffic without poaching be prepared to take advantage of every favourable hour. Much may be done in January to make ready for the busy spring, and every moment usefully employed will relieve the pressure later on. Survey the stock of pea-sticks, haul out all the rubbish from the yard, and make a ‘smother’ of waste prunings and heaps of twitch and other stuff for which there is no decided use. If properly done, the result will be a black ash of the most fertilising nature, such as a mere fire will not produce. Should the soil be frost-bound wheel out manure and lay it in heaps ready to be spread and dug in where seed-beds are to be made. If the weather is open and dry, trench spare plots and make ready well-manured plots for sowing Peas and Beans. So far as may be convenient, all preparatory work should be pushed on with vigour, and every effort must be made to lay up as much land in the rough as possible; for the more it is frozen through the greater will be its fertility, and the more beautiful, as well as more abundant, the crops.
It is a matter of the most ordinary prudence to be prepared to resist the shock of a severe frost. When this event occurs, many suffer loss because they are not prepared for it. Good brick walls and substantial roofs are needed for the safe keeping of fruits and the more valuable kinds of roots; but when rough methods are resorted to, such as clamping and pitting, there should be a large body of stuff employed, for a prolonged frost will find its way through any thin covering, no matter what the material may be. As there is not much to do now out of doors, it is a good time to look over the notes which were made concerning various crops in the past season, and to attend to the seed list.
Seed sowing should be practised with exceeding caution; but great things may be done where there are warm, sheltered, dry borders, and suitable appliances for screening and forwarding early crops. Under these favourable conditions, we advise the sowing of small breadths of a few choice subjects towards the end of the month; and, this being done, every care should be taken to nurse the seedlings through the trying times that are before them. Such things as tender young Radishes, Onions, small Salads, Spinach, Cabbage, and Carrots never come in too early; the trouble often is that they are seen in the market while as yet they are invisible in the garden. Hedges of Hornbeam, Laurel, or Holly, to break the force of the wind, are valuable for sheltering early borders, and walls are great aids to earliness by the warmth they reflect and the dryness they promote.
The soil for these early crops should be light and rich, and the position extra well drained, to prevent the slightest accumulation of water during heavy rains. Supposing you have such a border, sow upon it, as early as weather will permit, any of the smaller sorts of Cabbage Lettuce, Onion, Long Scarlet Radish, Round Spinach, Cabbage, and Carrot. All these crops may be grown in frames with greater safety, and in many exposed places the warm border is almost an impossibility. Reed hurdles and loose dry litter should be always ready when early cropping is in hand; and old lights, and even old doors, and any and every kind of screen may be made use of at times to protect the early seed-beds from snow, severe frost, and the dry blast of an east wind.
Forcing is one of the fine arts in the English garden. It is an art easily acquired up to a certain point, but beyond that point full of difficulty. Every step in this business is a conflict with Nature, and in such a conflict the devices of man must occasionally fail. A golden rule is to be found in the proverb ‘The more haste the less speed.’ Whatever the source of heat, it should be moderate at first, and should be augmented slowly. The earlier the forced articles are required the more careful should be the preparation for them, and the more moderate the temperature in the first instance. There must be at command a constant as well as sufficient temperature: when a forced crop has made some progress a check will be fatal to success. The beginner should acquire experience with Rhubarb and Sea Kale, then with Asparagus and Mushrooms and Dwarf French Beans, and so on to ‘higher heights’ of this branch of practical gardening.