When spring comes, everybody begins to think of the garden. A little
of the experience of one who has learned some by making many mistakes
will do you no harm.
TOO MUCH WORK LAID OUT.—When the winter lets us out, and we are
exhilarated with fresh air, singing birds, bland weather, and
newly-springing vegetation, our ambition is apt to lay out _too much
work_. _We_ began with an _acre_, in garden; we could not afford to
hire help except for a few days; and we were ambitious to do things as
they ought to be done. By reference to a Garden Journal (every man
should keep one), we find that we planted in 1840, _sixteen_ kinds of
peas; _seventeen_ kinds of beans; _seven_ kinds of corn; _six_ kinds
of squash; _eight_ kinds of cabbage; _seven_ kinds of lettuce; _eight_
sorts of cucumber, and _seven_ of turnips—_seventy-six varieties of
only eight vegetables_! Besides, we had fruit-trees to transplant in
spring—flowers to nurture, and all the etceteras of a large garden.
Although we worked faithfully, early and late, through the whole
season, the weeds beat us fairly; and every day or two some lazy loon,
who had not turned two spadefuls of earth during the season, would
lounge along and look over, and seeing the condition of things, would
very quietly say: “Why, I heard so much about your garden—whew! what
regiments of weeds you keep. I say, neighbor, do you boil that
_parsley_ for greens?” It nettled us, and we sweat at the hoe and
spade all the harder, but in vain; for we _had_ laid out more than
_could_ be well done. Nobody asked how much we _had_ done—they looked
only at what we had _not_ done. To be sure so many sorts were planted
only to test their qualities; but the laying out of so large a work in
spring is not wise. _A_ HALF _well done is better than a_ WHOLE _half
done_. Remember there is a _July_ as well as an April; and _lay_ out
in April as you can _hold_ out in July and August. We have profited by
our own mistakes and have no objections that others should do it.
VEGETABLE GARDEN.—Before you meddle with the garden, do two things:
first inspect your seeds, assort them, rejecting the shrunk, the
mildewed, the sprouted, and, generally, the discolored. Buy early,
such as you need to purchase. Do not wait till the minute of planting
before you get your seeds. Second, make up your mind beforehand just
what you mean to do in your garden for the season.
_Preparation._—Haul your manure and stack it in a corner; do not
spread it till the day that you are ready to turn it under; cut your
pea-brush and put it under shelter; inspect your bean-poles and
procure such as are necessary to replace the rotten or broken ones;
inspect every panel of the garden fence; one rail lost, may ruin, in a
night, two months’ labor, and more temper and grace than you can
afford to spare in a whole year. Clean up all the stubble, haulm,
straw, leaves, refuse brush, sticks and rubbish of every sort, and
cast it out, or burn it and distribute the ashes. If you intend to do
your work in the best manner, see that you have the _sorts_ of manure
that you may need through the season: ashes, fine old barn-yard
manure, green long manure, leaf-mold from the wood, top-soil from
pastures, etc., etc. Every florist understands the use of these.
Coarse manure may be put upon your pie-plant bed, as a strong and
succulent leaf-stalk is desirable. Let it be thoroughly forked, gently
near the stools and deeply between the rows.
With an iron-toothed rake go over your old strawberry beds that are
matted together, and rake them severely. Strawberries that have been
kept in hills and cleanly tended should be manured between the rows
and gently spaded or forked.
_Early Sowings._—Tomatoes, egg-plant, early cucumbers, cabbage,
cauliflowers, broccoli, lettuce, melons, celery for an early crop,
should have been, before this, well advanced in a hot-bed. If not, no
time is to be lost; and if a first sowing is well along, a second
sowing should be made.
You cannot get too early into the ground after the frost is out and
the wet a little dried, onions for seed or a crop, lettuce, radishes,
peas, spinage, parsnip, early cabbage, and small salads.
ASPARAGUS.—The beds should be attended to; remove all weeds and old
stalks; give a liberal quantity of salt to the bed—if you have old
brine, or can get fish brine at the stores, that is better than dry
salt. Asparagus is a _marine_ plant, growing upon sandy beaches along
the sea coast, and is therefore benefited by salt, to which, in its
_habitat_, it was accustomed. Put about three or four inches of old,
thoroughly rotted manure upon the bed; fork it in gently, so as not to
wound the crowns of the plant. Directions for forming beds belong to a
later period in the season.
ONIONS.—Should be sown or set early.
If you prefer seed, sow, across beds four feet wide, in drills eight
inches apart; young gardeners are apt to begrudge _room_—give it
freely to everything, and it will repay you; when they come up, thin
out to one for every inch; as you wish young and tender onions for
your table, draw these, leaving, at least, one every five inches in
the row. If your soil is deep and very rich, onions can be grown in
one season from the seed as well as from the set—we try it almost
every year and _never fail_, although told a hundred times: “You could
do that in the old States, but it won’t do out here.” It had to do,
and did do, and always will do, where there is no lazy men about; but
nothing ever does well in a slack and lazy man’s garden; plants have
an inveterate prejudice against such, and won’t grow; but he is a
darling favorite among weeds.
The white or silver skin, and the yellow Portugal have been favorite
kinds with us to raise from seed. They are tender, mild flavored, but
do not keep as well as the _Red_. _Strong onions always keep better
than mild ones._
If you prefer top-onion sets, or sets of any other kind, plant them
out at the same distances, viz. eight inches between the row and five
or six between the sets. Inexperienced gardeners are afraid that
_little_ sets no bigger than a pea, will not do well. It is a
mistake—they will make large onions; put them _all_ in, if they are
sound. Plant the sets so that the top shall just appear above the
surface.
If you plant out old onions for _seed_, let them be at least a foot
apart and stake them when they begin to blossom. If you plant the
_top-onion_ for sets you need not stake them, for they cannot shed out
their seed if they fall over. It is not generally known that the same
onions may be kept for seed for many years.
TRANSPLANTING.—All fruit-trees, most kinds of shade trees, shrubs,
_hardy_ roses, honeysuckles, pinks, lilacs, peonies, etc., may be
raised, divided, and transplanted in April unless your soil is _very
wet_. All _hardy_ plants may be safely transplanted just as soon as
the ground is dry enough to crumble freely—and not till then. In
planting out shrubs, remember that they will _grow_; if you put them
near together, for the sake of present effect, in a year or two they
will be crowded. We set at ample distances and fill up the spaces with
lilies, peonies, phlox, gladiolus, and herbaceous plants which are
easily removed.
FLOWER GARDEN.—Remove the covering from your bulb beds; as soon as the
earth is dry enough to crumble, with a small hoe carefully mellow the
earth _between_ the rows of bulbs, and work it loose with _your
hands_, in the row itself. Leave the surface convex, that superfluous
rain may flow off. Transplant roses that are to be moved. Divide the
roots of such lilies, peonies, irises, etc., as are propagated by
division, and replant.
As fast as the soil allows, spade up your borders, and flower
compartments, giving first a good coating of very fine, old,
pulverized manure.
If you have hot-beds you may bring forward most of your annuals, so as
to turn them out into the open beds as soon as frosts cease.
But defer sowing in the open air until the first of April; and then,
sparingly; sow again the middle of April, and on the first of May.
Only thus, will you be _sure_ of a supply. If you gain more than you
need by three sowings, should all succeed, you have friends and
neighbors enough, if you are a reasonably decent man, who will be glad
to receive the surplus.
MANURE.—Corn and potatoes will bear green and unfermented manure. But
all ordinary garden vegetables require _thoroughly_ rotted manure. If
the soil is sandy, leached ashes may be applied with great profit at
the rate of seventy or eighty bushels the acre. The soil is made more
retentive of moisture, and valuable ingredients are secured to it.
Salt may be used with great advantage on all garden soils, but
especially upon light and sandy ones. Thus treated, soils will resist
summer droughts and be moist when otherwise they would suffer. Salt
has also a good effect in destroying vermin, and it adds very valuable
chemical ingredients to the soil. Soapsuds should be carefully saved
and poured about currants, gooseberries and fruit-trees. Charcoal,
pulverized, is excellent, as it absorbs ammonia from the atmosphere,
or from any body containing it, and yields it to the plants. Let a
barrel be set near the house filled with powdered charcoal. Empty into
it all the _chamber-ley_. The ammonia will be taken up by the
charcoal, and the barrel will be without any offensive smell. But as
soon as the charcoal is saturated, it will begin to give out the
peculiar odor of urine. Let the charcoal then be mixed with about five
times its bulk of fresh earth and well worked together, and it will
afford a very powerful manure for vegetables and flowers. In Europe,
where manure is precious, it is estimated that the excrementitious
matter, slops, suds, scraps, etc., of a family, will supply one acre,
for each member, with manure.[3] There are few families whose offal
would not afford abundant material for enriching the garden, and with
substances peculiarly fitted for flowers, fruits, and esculent roots.
[3] See note, p. 98, Colman’s Tour, 2d part, where is given
an estimate by a distinguished agricultural chemist, Mr.
Haywood.