RAKING.
When seeds are sown, the beds should be nicely raked. Some seeds, such as carrot and parsnip seeds, should be beaten down with the flat part of the spade, and laid very evenly and nicely. The edges of the little cross-paths should be sharp and straight, and the whole put into a ship-shape order. The stones should be raked off into the cross-paths, and may remain there until the land is dug up in the autumn or winter, when they may be removed. There is a good deal to be done with the rake in many ways, besides the raking of beds. It is a very useful tool to job over a bed when some kinds of seeds are sown: it also makes a very good drill, and is especially useful in getting leaves from the paths and borders; but it should be used with a light hand, and care taken not to scratch the ground into holes with it, as many young gardeners do.
HOEING.
Dibber.
The hoe is of very great use, both to hoe up weeds and to form drills. We have spoken about its former use, and shall now say a word or two about the latter. In forming a drill for peas, beans, or other seed, one thing is above all things requisite, namely, that it should be straight. A drill resembling a dog's hinder leg, never looks well in a garden, and therefore the little gardener must have recourse to his line. This ought to be long enough to stretch quite across his ground, and when he wants to strike a drill, he should stretch it across from path to path, and, taking his hoe in his hand, cut or scrape a little furrow, about three or four inches deep, by the side of his line. In sowing peas and beans, the drills are generally a yard apart, and between them other crops are sometimes sown. Very often a crop of spring-spinach or of radishes is sown between lines of peas, and so on of other intermediate crops.
The line is very useful in all kinds of planting. In planting broad-beans, they are put into the ground by a dibber, which is a piece of wood with a pointed end and a handle. The holes are to be dibbed along the side of the line. The same tool is used in a similar way in planting potatoes, strawberries, cabbage-plants, and a variety of other roots, which require to be planted in straight and equidistant lines.
TRANSPLANTING.
There are a great many vegetables which require to be transplanted,—some from the hot-bed, and some from the open ground, where they have sprung from seeds, to their destination in the garden. All transplanting should be done with care. Some plants, such as cabbage plants, do not require so much care as others, but every plant to do well should be well planted. Young gardeners are liable to many mistakes in transplanting; one is, that they often put the root of the plant into the ground bundled together; another is, that they make the hole too large with the dibber, and are not careful in pressing the mould to the root at the bottom of the hole, so that the root of the plant has nothing to feed upon. All this the thoughtful little gardener will avoid; and when he puts a plant into the ground, he will reflect that if it be not well planted it will not grow. The young plants of the more delicate flowers should be moved with the greatest care into spots congenial with their natures. Some plants require a warm, some a cool situation, some a moist, some a dry one, and these will be ascertained by studying the nature of the plant.