GARDENING
FOR
LADIES.
Mrs. LOUDON’s
GARDENING
FOR
LADIES.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1840.
INSTRUCTIONS
IN
GARDENING
FOR
LADIES.
BY
MRS. LOUDON,
AUTHOR OF “THE LADIES’ FLOWER GARDEN,” &c.
LONDON:
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.
1840.
LONDON:
PRINTED BY STEWART AND MURRAY,
OLD BAILEY.
TO
J. C. LOUDON, ESQ.
F.L.S. H.S. Z.S., ETC. ETC.
TO WHOM THE AUTHOR OF THE FOLLOWING
PAGES OWES ALL THE KNOWLEDGE OF
THE SUBJECT SHE POSSESSES,
_THIS WORK_
IS DEDICATED
BY HIS AFFECTIONATE WIFE,
J. W. L.
INTRODUCTION.
When I married Mr. Loudon, it is scarcely possible to imagine any
person more completely ignorant than I was, of every thing relating to
plants and gardening; and, as may be easily imagined, I found every one
about me so well acquainted with the subject, that I was soon heartily
ashamed of my ignorance. My husband, of course, was quite as anxious to
teach me as I was to learn, and it is the result of his instructions,
that I now (after ten years experience of their efficacy) wish to make
public for the benefit of others.
I do this, because I think books intended for professional gardeners,
are seldom suitable to the wants of amateurs. It is so very difficult
for a person who has been acquainted with a subject all his life,
to imagine the state of ignorance in which a person is who knows
nothing of it, that adepts often find it impossible to communicate
the knowledge they possess. Thus, though it may at first sight appear
presumptuous in me to attempt to teach an art of which for three
fourths of my life I was perfectly ignorant, it is in fact that very
circumstance which is one of my chief qualifications for the task.
Having been a full-grown pupil myself, I know the wants of others in
a similar situation; and having never been satisfied without knowing
the reason for every thing I was told to do, I am able to impart
these reasons to others. Thus my readers will be able to judge for
themselves, and to adapt their practice to the circumstances in which
they may be placed.
Such is the nature and purport of the present work, and I have only
to add that I have spared no pains to render it as perfect as I could
make it. The engravings have been made here from drawings of specimens
previously prepared, and I can therefore vouch for their accuracy.
J. W. L.
_Bayswater, May_ 21, 1840.
CONTENTS.
Page
INTRODUCTION v
CHAPTER I.
Stirring the soil 1
CHAPTER II.
Manuring the soil, and making hotbeds 23
CHAPTER III.
Sowing seeds--planting bulbs and tubers--transplanting
and watering 43
CHAPTER IV.
Modes of propagation by division; _viz._: taking off
suckers, making layers and cuttings, budding,
grafting, and inarching 70
CHAPTER V.
Pruning, training, protecting from frost, and destroying
insects 110
CHAPTER VI.
The kitchen-garden--the management of culinary
vegetables 134
CHAPTER VII.
The kitchen-garden continued--the management of
fruit trees 195
CHAPTER VIII.
The flower-garden, and the culture of flowers 244
CHAPTER IX.
Management of the lawn, pleasure-grounds, and
shrubbery, of a small villa 301
CHAPTER X.
Rock-work, moss-houses, rustic baskets, and fountains 329
CHAPTER XI.
Window gardening, and the management of plants in
pots in small green-houses 347
CHAPTER XII.
Calendar of operations 374
GARDENING FOR LADIES.
CHAPTER I.
STIRRING THE SOIL.
_Digging._--Every one knows that the first operation of the gardener,
whether a new garden is to be made, or merely an old one re-planted,
is to dig the ground; though but comparatively few persons are aware
why this is so essentially necessary to be done. When a piece of rough
ground is to be taken into cultivation, and a garden made where there
was none before, the use of digging is obvious enough; as the ground
requires to be levelled, and divided by walks, and thrown up into beds,
to give it the shape and appearance of a garden, which could not be
done without stirring the soil: but why the beds in an old garden
should be always dug or forked over, before they are re-planted, is
quite another question, and one that it requires some consideration to
answer.
When any soil, except sand or loose gravel, remains unstirred for any
length of time, it becomes hard, and its particles adhere so firmly
together as not to be separated without manual force. It is quite
clear that when soil is in this state, it is unfit for the reception
of seeds; as the tender roots of the young plants will not be able to
penetrate it through without great difficulty, and neither air nor
water can reach them in sufficient quantities to make them thrive. When
a seed is put into the ground, it is the warmth and moisture by which
it is surrounded that make it vegetate. It first swells, and the skin
with which it is covered cracks and peels off; then two shoots issue
from the vital knot, (a point easily discoverable in large seeds,) one
of which descends and is called the root, while the other ascends to
form the leaves, stem, flowers, and fruit.
This is what is meant by the germination of the seed, and this may be
effected by the aid of heat and moisture alone, as is done with mustard
and cress, when raised on wet flannel in a saucer. But plants raised
in this manner cannot be of long duration; as, though they will live
for a short time on the albumen contained in the seed, on which they
feed, as the chicken does on the nourishment contained in the egg, this
is soon exhausted, and the plant will die if not supplied with fresh
food, which it can only obtain by means of the root. Thus, the root is
necessary, not only to form a base to support the plant and to keep it
upright, but to supply it with food; and nature has given it a tendency
to bury itself in the ground, not only to enable the plant to take a
firm hold of the soil, but to preserve the root in a fitting state for
absorbing food, which it can only do when it is kept warm, moist, and
secluded from the light.
The manner in which the root is fitted for the purposes for which it
was designed, affords an admirable illustration of the care and wisdom
displayed by the Great Creator in all his works. In nature nothing
is superfluous, and yet everything has been provided for. It has
been already observed, that the two principal uses of the root are to
give the plant a firm hold of the ground, and to supply it with food.
For the first purpose the root either spreads so widely through the
surface soil as to form a sufficient base for the height of the plant,
or it descends a sufficient depth into the earth to steady the part
above ground; and in either case the growth of the plant is wisely
and wonderfully proportioned to the strength of the support which the
root affords it. For the second purpose, that of supplying the plant
with nourishment, the root divides at the extremity of each shoot into
numerous fibres or fibrils, each furnished at its extremity with a
spongiole or spongy substance, which affords the only means the plant
possesses of absorbing the moisture necessary for its support. It is
thus quite clear, that every thing that tends to nourish and increase
the growth of the root, must contribute to the health and vigour of
the rest of the plant; and that no plant can thrive, the root of which
is cramped in its growth, or weakened for want of nourishment. This
being allowed, it is evident that the first step towards promoting the
growth of any plant is to provide a fitting receptacle for the root;
and this is done by pulverizing the ground in which the seed is to be
sown so as to render it in a fit state for the roots to penetrate it
easily. Thus they will neither be checked in their growth for want of
room, nor be obliged to waste their strength in overcoming unnecessary
obstacles; such as twining themselves round a stone, or trying to force
their way through a hard clod of earth. The second point of affording
the root abundance of nourishment may also be obtained by pulverizing
the ground; as pulverization, by admitting the rain to percolate slowly
through the soil, enables it to absorb and retain sufficient moisture
to afford a proper and equable supply of food to the spongioles,
without suffering the surplus water to remain so as to be in danger of
rotting the main roots.
These then are the reasons why it may be laid down as a general rule,
that all ground should be stirred before seeds are sown in it; but
there are other reasons which operate only partially, and are yet
almost as necessary to be attended to. When manure is applied, the
ground is generally well dug, in order to mix the manure intimately
with the soil; and when the soil appears worn out, or poisoned with
excrementitious matter, from the same kind of plants being too long
grown in it, it is trenched; that is, the upper or surface soil is
taken off by spadefuls and laid on one side, and the bottom or sub-soil
is taken out to a certain depth previously agreed on, and laid in
another heap. The surface soil is then thrown into the bottom of the
trench, and the sub-soil laid on the surface, and thus a completely new
and fresh soil is offered to the plants. These partial uses of digging
should, however, always be applied with great caution, as in some
cases manure does better laid on the surface, so that its juices only
may drain into the ground, than when it is intimately mixed with the
soil; and there are cases when, from the sub-soil being of an inferior
quality, trenching must be manifestly injurious. Reason and experience
are, in these cases, as in most others, the best guides.
The uses of digging having been thus explained, it is now necessary to
say something of its practice, and particularly of its applicability
to ladies. It must be confessed that digging appears, at first sight,
a very laborious employment, and one peculiarly unfitted to small and
delicately formed hands and feet; but, by a little attention to the
principles of mechanics and the laws of motion, the labour may be much
simplified and rendered comparatively easy. The operation of digging,
as performed by a gardener, consists in thrusting the iron part of the
spade, which acts as a wedge, perpendicularly into the ground by the
application of the foot, and then using the long handle as a lever, to
raise up the loosened earth and turn it over. The quantity of earth
thus raised is called a spitful, and the gardener, when he has turned
it, chops it to break the clods, with the sharp edge of his spade, and
levels it with the back. During the whole operation, the gardener holds
the cross part of the handle of the spade in his right-hand, while
he grasps the smooth round lower part of the handle in his left, to
assist him in raising the earth and turning it, sliding his left hand
backwards and forwards along the handle, as he may find it necessary.
This is the common mode of digging, and it certainly appears to
require considerable strength in the foot to force the spade into the
ground,--in the arms to raise it when loaded with the earth that is
to be turned over,--and in the hands to grasp the handle. But it must
be remembered that all operations that are effected rapidly by the
exertion of great power, may be effected slowly by the exertion of
very little power, if that comparatively feeble power be applied for
a much greater length of time. For example, if a line be drawn by a
child in the earth with a light cane, and the cane be drawn five or six
times successively along the same line, it will be found that a furrow
has been made in the soil with scarcely any exertion by the child,
that the strongest man could not make by a single effort with all his
force. In the same way a lady, with a small light spade may, by taking
time, succeed in doing all the digging that can be required in a small
garden, the soil of which, if it has been long in cultivation, can
never be very hard or difficult to penetrate, and she will not only
have the satisfaction of seeing the garden created, as it were, by
the labour of her own hands, but she will find her health and spirits
wonderfully improved by the exercise, and by the reviving smell of the
fresh earth.
[Illustration: A LADY’S GAUNTLET.]
The first point to be attended to, in order to render the operation of
digging less laborious, is to provide a suitable spade; that is, one
which shall be as light as is consistent with strength, and which will
penetrate the ground with the least possible trouble. For this purpose,
the blade of what is called a lady’s spade is made of not more than
half the usual breadth, say not wider than five inches or six inches,
and of smooth polished iron, and it is surmounted, at the part where it
joins the handle, by a piece of iron rather broader than itself, which
is called the tread, to serve as a rest for the foot of the operator
while digging. The handle is about the usual length, but quite smooth
and sufficiently slender for a lady’s hand to grasp it, and it is made
of willow, a close, smooth, and elastic wood, which is tough and
tolerably strong, though much lighter than ash, the wood generally used
for the handles to gardeners’ spades. The lady should also be provided
with clogs,[1] the soles of which are not jointed, to put over her
shoes, or if she should dislike these and prefer strong shoes, she
should be provided with what gardeners call a tramp, that is, a small
plate of iron to go under the sole of the shoe, and which is fastened
round the foot with a leathern strap and buckle. She should also have
a pair of stiff thick leathern gloves, or gauntlets, to protect her
hands, not only from the handle of the spade, but from the stones,
weeds, &c., which she may turn over with the earth, and which ought to
be picked out and thrown into a small, light wheel-barrow, which may
easily be moved from place to place.
[Footnote 1: Perhaps the most useful covering for the feet is a kind
of clog and gaiter combined; which may be made of some soft elastic
leather, and rendered perfectly waterproof, by the new preparation
which is now employed instead of caoutchouc, and is preferable to that
gum, as it does not impede perspiration.]
A wheel-barrow is a lever of the second kind, in which the weight is
carried between the operator, who is the moving power, and the fulcrum,
which is represented by the lower part of the wheel. If it be so
contrived that the wheel may roll on a plank, or on firm ground, a very
slight power is sufficient to move the load contained in the barrow;
particularly if the handles be long, curved, and thrown up as high as
possible, in order to let the weight rest principally upon the wheel,
without obliging the operator to bend forward. When, on the contrary,
the handles are short and straight, the weight is thrown principally on
the arms of the operator, and much more strength is required to move
the load, besides the inconvenience of stooping.
All the necessary implements for digging being provided, the next thing
to be considered is the easiest manner of performing the operation.
The usual way is for the gardener to thrust his spade perpendicularly
into the ground, and then using the handle as a lever, to draw it back
so as to raise the whole mass of earth in front of the spade at once.
This requires great strength; but by inserting the spade in a slanting
direction, and throwing the body slightly forward at the same time, the
mass of earth to be raised will not only be much less, but the body of
the operator will be in a much more convenient position for raising and
turning it; which may thus be done with perfect ease.
The time for digging should always be chosen, if possible, when the
ground is tolerably dry; not only on account of the danger of taking
cold by standing on the damp earth, but because the soil, when damp,
adheres to the spade, and is much more difficult to work (as the
gardeners call it,) than when it is dry. The ground in fields, &c.
becomes very hard in dry weather; but this is never the case in a
garden, the soil of which is well pulverized by the constant digging,
forking, hoeing and raking it must undergo, to keep the garden
tolerably neat. Every lady should be careful, when she has finished
digging, to have her spade dipped in water, and then wiped dry; after
which it should be hung up in some warm dry shed, or harness room,
to keep it free from rust; as nothing lessens the labour of digging
more than having a perfectly smooth and polished spade. Should the
earth adhere to the spade while digging, dipping the blade in water
occasionally, will be found to facilitate the operation.
The purposes for which digging is applied in gardening are: simple
digging for loosening the soil in order to prepare it for a crop;
pointing; burying manure; exposing the soil to the action of the
weather; trenching; ridging; forming pits for planting trees and
shrubs, or for filling with choice soil for sowing seeds; and taking up
plants when they are to be removed.
In simple digging, as well as in most of the other kinds, it is
customary to divide the bed to be dug, by a garden-line, into two
parts: a trench, or furrow as it is called, is then opened across one
of these divisions or half of the bed, the earth out of which is thrown
up into a heap. The digging then commences by turning over a breadth
of soil into the furrow thus made, and thus forming a new furrow to be
filled up by the soil turned over from the breadth beyond it; and this
is continued till the operator reaches the end of the first division,
where the furrow is to be filled with the earth taken from the first
furrow of the second division; after which the digging proceeds
regularly as before, till the operator reaches the last furrow, which
is filled with the ridge of earth thrown up when the first furrow was
made. As few ladies are strong enough to throw the earth from the heap
where it was laid from the first furrow to fill the last, the best
way is to put it into a small wheel-barrow, which may be wheeled to
the place required, and filled and emptied as often as may be found
convenient; or the ground may be divided into narrower strips. It must
also be observed, that as a spitful of earth taken up obliquely will be
seldom found enough to loosen the soil to a proper depth, a second or
even a third should be taken from the same place before the operator
advances any further along the line. Or the whole of each furrow may
first be made shallow, and then deepened by successive diggings before
proceeding to the next furrow.
It is obvious that the great art in this kind of digging is to keep
the furrows straight, and not to take up more earth in one place than
in another, so that the surface of the ground, when finished, may be
perfectly even. To keep the furrows straight, the first ought to be
worked out with the rod and line, and every succeeding line should be
frequently and carefully examined. It is more difficult to keep these
lines straight than can be at first sight imagined; and in proportion
as the furrow is allowed to become crooked it will become narrower,
and be in danger of being choked up; or, if kept as wide as before,
the surface of the ground will be rendered uneven, and the last furrow
left without earth enough to fill it up. In digging each furrow also,
care must be taken to carry it quite up to the line of demarcation;
as, otherwise, what the gardeners call a baulk or piece of firm land
would be left there, and, of course, the bed would neither look well,
nor would the object for which it was dug be fully attained. Great care
must also be taken to keep the surface of the bed even, and this it is
extremely difficult for a novice to do. It is, indeed, very provoking,
after watching the ease with which a gardener digs a bed, and looking
at the perfectly smooth and even surface that he leaves, to find how
very hard it is to imitate him; and yet it is essentially necessary
to be done, for if there are any irregularities in the surface, the
hollow places will collect the moisture, and the plants in them will
grow vigorously, while those in the raised places will be speedily
dried by the sun and wind, and will look poor and withered. Practice
is certainly required to render digging easy, but, as the principal
points of keeping the furrows straight and the surface even, depend
on skill more than strength, the art of digging well may be acquired
by any one who thinks it worth while to take the trouble. Very little
strength will, indeed, be necessary, if the rule of thrusting in the
spade obliquely, and aiding it by the momentum of the body be always
attended to.
_Pointing_, as it is called by gardeners, is in fact shallow digging,
and it consists in merely turning over the ground to the depth of two
or three inches. In spring, or in the beginning of summer, when the
sun has only warmed the soil to the depth of a few inches, and when
the seeds to be sown (as of annual flowers for example) are wanted to
germinate as quickly as possible, pointing is preferable to digging;
because the latter operation would bury the warm soil, and bring that
up to the surface which is still as cold as in winter. Pointing is also
used in stirring the ground among trees and other plants, in order that
the spade may not go so deeply into the ground as to injure their roots.
_Burying manure._--There are two ways of digging the ground for the
purpose of burying manure: according to the first method, the manure
is spread evenly over the whole bed, and then the gardener proceeds
to dig as though the manure were in fact a portion of the surface of
the soil; and according to the second method, the manure having been
first brought to the spot and thrown into a heap, is deposited, a
small portion at a time, at the bottom of each furrow as it is formed,
and the earth from the next furrow thrown over it. In both cases,
the manure should be buried as speedily as possible; as if left long
exposed in small quantities to the air in hot dry weather, it loses a
great part of its nutritious qualities by evaporation.
Digging for the purpose of exposing the soil to the action of the
weather, trenching, and ridging on a large scale, are operations too
laborious to be performed by any one but a gardener’s labourer. To
be done well, the earth in all these cases should be mixed in large
spitfuls at a time, and turned over without breaking, on which account
they are best performed in moist weather, when the earth is in an
adhesive state. Ridging on a small scale may be useful in a flower
garden, when the soil is much infested with insects, or where there
are many weeds. It is performed by opening a trench, and throwing up
the earth out of it in the form of a ridge; and then opening another
trench, and forming another ridge in the same manner. The whole garden
is thus thrown into a series of ridges and trenches, which should
be suffered to remain all the winter, and be levelled in spring.
It is obvious that this mode of ameliorating the soil can only be
practised where the garden is not likely to be visited during winter,
as it destroys all beauty, and has a peculiarly desolate and forlorn
appearance. It is indeed a remedy only to be resorted to in extreme
cases, but fortunately there are very few flower gardens in which the
soil is in so bad a state as to require it.
The other kinds of digging, are to form pits for receiving plants, or
for filling with choice soil, and to remove plants. In the first case,
a hole of sufficient size to receive the plant is dug, and the earth
thrown up beside it, to be filled in round the roots of the plant; and
in the second case, the common garden earth is thrown out of a pit
a foot or eighteen inches deep, and about the same in diameter, and
its place supplied by peat, or whatever other kind of earth may be
required. In removing a young tree or shrub, the ground is generally
first dug out on one side, so as to form a small trench, and then the
spade is driven perpendicularly into the ground, below the depth to
which the roots descend, and the whole mass is raised like a spade
full of earth. Small plants are raised by the spade at once without
making any trench; and large trees require all the skill of a professed
gardener.
_Forking._--A broad-pronged garden fork may be defined as an implement
consisting of a number of small sharply pointed spades, united by a
shoulder or hilt, to which is fixed the handle; and forking differs
from digging principally in its being used merely to stir the soil, and
not to turn it over. In shrubberies, and among perennial herbaceous
plants, which are not to be taken and replanted, forking is very
useful; as it loosens the hard dry surface of the soil, and admits the
warm air and rain to the roots of the plants. This is very necessary,
as the earth is a bad conductor of heat; and where the surface of the
soil is become so hard as to exclude the air from the roots of the
plants, the ground in which they grow will be nearly as cold in summer
as in winter. Besides, when the surface of the ground is hard, the
rain instead of soaking gradually into it, runs off, or evaporates,
without being of any service to the roots. The operation of forking
consists merely in thrusting the fork a little way into the ground by
the application of the foot to the hilt, and then raising the ground
by pulling back the handle as in digging, so as to loosen the earth
without raising it. The ground may thus be roughly pulverized to a
considerable depth, without dividing the roots of the plants; which
would have been inevitable if the operator had used a spade.
_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.