It is astonishing how much produce is taken off one of these small intensive gardens during the year, and especially during the worst months when prices usually run fairly high. The fact that rents are so heavy around Paris is in itself an indication of the money that is realized by the growers not only in the Paris markets, but also in Covent Garden.
During the winter season narrow beds are made up of manure, either quite fresh or mixed with old manure, according to the amount of heat required. These beds are covered with a few inches of the fine old mould obtained from the decayed manure of previous years. In the early stages seeds of carrots and radishes are sown simultaneously on the same beds, and over them young lettuces that have been raised in advance are planted. In this way three crops are actually on the same beds at the same time. Owing, however, to the difference in their vegetative growth, they mature one after the other instead of simultaneously. Thus with the genial warmth and moisture of the hotbeds, all crops grow rapidly, but the radishes mature first, then the lettuces are taken off in due course, thus leaving the beds to finish up with the carrots by themselves. Later on in the season, perhaps small cauliflowers will be planted along the margins of the beds where the carrots are growing, and will be developing into larger plants requiring more space by the time all the carrots have been picked and marketed. So on throughout the year with other crops, this system of intercropping or overlapping of one crop with another is carried out in a most ingenious manner, not only under glass lights, but also in the open air. Spinach, corn salad, radishes and carrots are the favourite crops for sowing between others such as lettuces and cauliflowers.
Although enormous quantities of water are required during the summer season, great care must be exercised in applying water to the winter crops. When severe frost prevails the lights or cloches are rarely taken off except to gather mature specimens; and no water is given directly overhead to the plants for fear of chilling them and checking growth. They must secure their supply of moisture from the rain that falls on the glass, and flows into the narrow pathways from 9 in. to 12 in. wide between each range of frames. As the beds are only about 4½ ft. wide, the water from the pathways is soaked up on each side by capillary attraction, and in this way the roots secure a sufficient supply.
Besides an abundance of water in summer there must also be an enormous quantity of good stable manure available during the winter months. This is necessary not only to make up the required hotbeds in the first place, but also to fill in the pathways between the frames, wherever it is considered advisable to maintain the heat within the frames at a certain point. As it is impossible to use an ordinary wheelbarrow in these narrow pathways, the workman carries a specially made wicker basket called a “hotte” on his shoulders by means of two straps. In this way large quantities of manure are easily transported to any required spot, and although the work looks hard to an English gardener, the Frenchman says he can carry more manure with less fatigue in half a day than an Englishman can transport in a day with a wheelbarrow.
This is merely an outline of the system, which is now being taken up in various parts of the United Kingdom, but not too rapidly. The initial expenses for frames, lights, cloches, mats and water-supply are in many cases prohibitive to men with the necessary gardening experience, while on the other hand those who have the capital lack the practical knowledge so essential to success.
For full details of this system see French Market-Gardening, with details of Intensive Cultivation, by John Weathers (London, 1909).
VIII.—Calendar of Garden Operations (A) for Great Britain.
January
Kitchen Garden.—Wheel out manure and composts during frosty weather; trench vacant ground not turned up roughly in autumn. Sow early peas in a cold frame for transplanting. Sow also first-crop peas, early in the month, and William I. towards the end; Early Seville and Early Longpod beans; and short-topped radish in two or three sowings, at a week’s interval, all on a warm border; also Hardy Green and Brown cos lettuce in a frame or on south border. Plant shallots and Ashleaf potatoes on a warm border. Protect broccoli as it becomes fit for use, or remove to a dry shed or cellar; lettuces and endive, which are best planted in frames; and parsley in frames so as to be accessible.
Fruit Garden.—Plant fruit trees in open weather, if not done in autumn, which is the proper season, mulching over the roots to protect them from frost, and from drought which may occur in spring. Prune fruit trees in mild weather or in moderate frosts, nailing only in fine weather. Wash trees infested with insects with one of the many insecticides now obtainable. Take off grafts, and lay them aside in moist earth in a shady place.