October is the great storing month. Take up all beet, carrots, and parsnips; but artichokes and salsify are best left where they are.
Corn salad can be sown, to come up in early spring. Cauliflowers should be pricked out into a cold frame where they can be protected from frost.
All leaves should be swept up and stored in a heap, to make leaf mould. In the process they will generate steady heat, and if a frame can be spared it should be put over them. Tender plants can be stored in it, or winter salad grown in it.
By now the work will have got into swing, and the routine of it has consequently been acquired. Any mistakes or omissions that have occurred will have been rectified.
As the crops come off, settle what it is intended to put in next, and prepare the ground accordingly. Some things require little or no manure; others need much. All ground is better for being stirred, therefore keep on digging. War must be waged against all weeds between the rows of greens, decayed leaves should be removed. All crops that are likely to be injured by frost must be protected.
Now is a good moment to see about obtaining a supply of pea and bean sticks, flower stakes and canes. Two important matters can be done in bad weather, when the land cannot be worked. Stakes may be sorted out in sizes, pointed and tied into bundles, and put away in a shed. Any painting of stakes, tubs, or labels can also be done, and it will be found a good plan to go over the stock of tools.
There is much more work that I could suggest, but if the hints already given are carried out, a good start will have been made. By taking in a practical garden paper, such as “The Gardener” (1d. per week), “The Journal of Horticulture” (2d. per week), or the “Gardener’s Chronicle” (3d. per week), a reminder of the regular rotation of work will be secured. By reading these it will be seen exactly when to harvest fruit, prune shrubs and roses, clean over borders, layer carnations, etc. All details connected with these different operations will have been learned at college, so I need not add another to the many gardening books that will already have been read.
I want to draw attention to one quality that a lady head-gardener may find herself in need of. It is humility. I do not know a profession in which this is more necessary than in gardening. Because all difficulties of the soil in a chalky southern county have been learned, the requirements of that poor land mastered, and preparations made to guard against the violent attacks of the south-west wind, do not suppose that these same torments exist necessarily in other counties. Enemies and insect pests will be found, but they may not always be the same kind. The good advice and hints, therefore, that may be obtained from smock-frocked residents in the neighbourhood should not be despised. They have, perhaps, never been further than the nearest town close by; reading and writing are difficulties which they cannot overcome, but they have fully taken in how to grow vegetables and flowers on their own bit of land. Watch the time of year they undertake different simple operations, and learn to do likewise. Disappointment may be saved if they are humbly watched. Bitter experience has taught these men, and, by taking their advice, one may learn quickly what a lifetime has shown them.
MISS E. DOUGLAS IN HER GREENHOUSE AT SHEDFIELD GRANGE, BOTLEY HANTS.