With a garden of this size I would have hotbeds, cold frames and rich
seed beds of fine light soil; these I would not have in the garden
itself unless that be the most convenient place. Where there is time
to attend to them, they will be a measure of economy, it being much
cheaper to raise than to buy the plants, if you use more than a few
dozens, while, if you have the time and room, quite a business can be
done by supplying your neighbors who do not garden on such an extensive
scale. It is best to locate the frames on the sunny side of a barnyard
wall, or against a building that will shield them from the north wind
and make a warm nook for them on sunshiny days. They should be situated
conveniently near both to the manure pile and to a good supply of
water, where they will constantly be under the eye in passing to and
from the farm work and will not suffer neglect from being forgotten or
overlooked. It is quite important that there should be good drainage
from these beds, as they are most needed at a rainy time of the year;
dampness is not only injurious to the young plants, but it also takes
up a great deal of the heat which should go toward forwarding the
growth of the young plants. The sashes can be bought, ready painted
and glazed, at the planing mills in most cities, and this is much the
cheapest way to procure them, as they can often be bought for what the
bare sash would cost in a small order at a country shop. They come 3¼
feet wide by 6 feet in length, and are 1½ to 2 inches in thickness, and
if stored in the dry when not in use, and are treated to an occasional
coat of paint, will last a lifetime.
Three or four sash would be amply sufficient for a garden of an acre if
used in succession, sowing one lot of seed as the preceding planting
is set out in the garden; though, of course, more sash can be handled
without any great increase of labor, and the season much advanced by
growing radishes, lettuce, beets, etc., to maturity under the glass.
[Illustration: Illustration showing the manner of making the
hotbed when sunk below the surface of the ground.]
In making the hotbed, dig a trench a few inches short of six feet in
width, or as wide as the sashes will cover, about two feet in depth
and as long as the combined width of the number of sashes which you
wish to use. This is then to be boarded up with rough boards, but they
should be neatly joined and plastering laths or building paper tacked
over the cracks, so as not to waste the heat. The back or north side of
this frame should be 6 or 8 inches higher than the front, so that the
rain may run off the sashes. The sashes held at an angle in this manner
will also receive more sunlight for the front part of the bed than if
front and back were level. The whole frame of the bed should be banked
round with the dirt thrown out, or better with fresh stable manure,
which will help to keep it warm and will make a bank to drain away any
surface water, which, being very cold in the spring, would, if allowed
to penetrate the bed, tend to chill the heat of the fermenting manure,
and consequently check the growth of the young and tender plants, even
if it did not generate that great enemy of all young plants, fungus or
mildew, causing them to rot or “damp off.”
[Illustration: Illustration showing the manner of
constructing a hotbed above the surface of the ground.]
Or, if there is plenty of fresh stable manure at hand, it can be corded
in a pile two feet high and extending a foot wider than the sash frame
on all sides; and when the frame has been put in position on the heap,
the manure should be carried up on the outside nearly to the top of the
boards, making a warm jacket for the plants within. A portable frame of
boards is made for the sash to rest on, twelve inches high at the back
and eight inches in front. This style of bed does away with any digging
and secures good drainage for the bed. It would probably be the most
satisfactory way for the gardener, who is also a farmer, as the bed can
easily be removed as soon as it has served its purpose for the season,
and the manure, which has become well rotted by this time will make an
excellent compost for corn, melons, celery, etc. The frame and sash can
also be set on a good piece of ground in the fall and filled with young
lettuce plants in the early part of October, which will furnish salad
throughout the winter.
The manure and litter which are to produce the heat for the bed should
be thoroughly forked over and heaped together a week or ten days before
the beds are to be started. While a large proportion of the material
should be fresh horse stable manure, where a large quantity of heating
material is needed, it can be mixed with any litter obtainable, such as
straw, leaves from the woods, weeds, cut fodder, or anything that will
furnish bulk and that will decay rapidly, and, by decaying, produce
heat; when the material has all been gathered and heaped solidly
together, a good sprinkling with water, hot, if possible, will aid in
starting the fermentation. In about a week or two, when the heat of the
heap has gone down to 95° or 100°, the manure should be placed in the
beds and well trampled down; it should come up to within eight inches
of the front of the frame and should be covered with about three and a
half or four inches of fine, rich soil. It is a good plan to sift the
dirt through a coal sieve, as it then makes a fine bed for the seeds
and young plants.
Place the sashes on as soon as this is done; handling the manure and
repacking it will produce some fresh heat and it will still be too warm
to sow any seed, but the heat will destroy such weed seeds as may be in
the soil, and the steam and gases arising from the manure will tend to
put the soil in the finest possible condition for forwarding the growth
of the young plants. A thermometer should be placed in the soil of the
bed every day or two, to see if the temperature has fallen sufficiently
to admit of sowing the seeds. As soon as the temperature has fallen
to about 75°; or, if no thermometer is at hand, as soon as the top
sod is only perceptibly warm to the palm of the hand, the bed should
be sprinkled, and as soon as this has dried off a little, rake it up
thoroughly and sow the seed. The seed will produce finer and stockier
plants if sown in drills about six inches apart, which will admit light
and air to the roots of the plants, and will permit a weekly hoeing. In
planting seeds, the depth of their covering should be about five times
the diameter of the seed, and this covering should be firmly packed
around them after planting. The starting and planting of these beds
must be calculated, so as to have the plants ready to set out as soon
as the garden can be worked. In this vicinity (Philadelphia) the first
sowing of cauliflowers, lettuce, beets and early cabbage should be made
about February 15th, or even earlier, depending on the forwardness of
the season or of your own particular garden. The plants will then be
of a suitable size for transplanting by the time the early part of the
garden has been plowed. If the sashes are covered with old carpets or
straw on cold nights, it will be a great saving of the heating power
of the manure and will prevent the young plants from being chilled.
The young plants should be treated to fresh air whenever the outside
temperature is not too cold, that they may not become “drawn,” or
“spindle up” into long, slim stems. As planting-out time approaches,
the young plants should be left uncovered as frequently as is safe,
that they may become sufficiently hardy not to miss the covering when
removed to the open ground.
Tomatoes, peppers and egg plants and a second sowing of early cabbage
should be sown in the same manner about the middle of March. If a
few extra early plants are wanted, they can be transplanted into the
earliest beds when the cabbage and other plants have been set out in
the garden, and the sash again put on. If some sweet potatoes are
buried about two inches deep in the dirt of one of the cabbage frames,
and kept warm, they will produce a fine lot of sprouts, or, as they are
called, “sets,” which can be broken off and planted in the garden when
the weather has become sufficiently warm. If a number are wanted, or
there is danger of their growing too large, they can be taken off and
“heeled in” in another sash until planting time, and the potatoes put
back again, as they will produce two or three crops of the sets. Or a
hill of cucumbers can be planted in the centre of each sash as a second
crop, and by the time it would be warm enough to leave them uncovered,
these will have filled up the frame with bearing vines, gaining at
least a month on those planted in the open ground.
While the cabbage, cauliflower, beets and lettuce may be planted out as
soon as all danger of frost is over, the tomatoes, peppers, egg plants,
etc., should not be set out until the thermometer stands at over 60°
all night, or until the oak leaves are as large as a five-cent piece.
In a small hotbed it is best to have a partition between each sash and
the one next to it, so that such as are tender varieties may be kept
warm and the more hardy cabbage may have plenty of fresh air, for if
the latter should become “drawn,” all the advantages of an early start
will be lost and the plants may become entirely worthless.
Sowings of seeds for early plants may be made in the same manner as
above described for hotbeds, in cold frames, which are the same without
the artificial heat germinated by fermenting manure, depending solely
on the heat of the sun and the protection of the sash to forward the
plants. They can be planted about two weeks later than the dates given
for the respective vegetables in hotbeds, and the plants will be ready
for setting out about the same length of time later than those raised
with the artificial heat. These frames can also be used for wintering
over a few fall-sown cabbage plants, which are useful in a very early
season and can be kept full of parsley, lettuce, etc., making a
pleasant variety of greens for the table during the winter.
As soon as it is warm enough to dig them and bring them into fine
order, seed beds should be made in a sheltered spot of the garden, for
the sowings of late cabbage and celery, which will be spoken of in
detail under the special directions for growing these vegetables.