LETTER X.

LAYING OUT A KITCHEN-GARDEN.--MAKING GRAVEL WALKS.--BOX EDGINGS.--CROPS OF CULINARY VEGETABLES.--CUCUMBERS, MELONS, AND MUSHROOMS.

I had not intended saying any thing about the kitchen-garden, as it hardly comes within a lady's province; but as you tell me you are so much annoyed by your old gardener never having the things you want when you want them, that you think of forming a small kitchen-garden near the house, I shall be very happy to give you my advice as to what appears to me to be the best method of doing so.

Every kitchen-garden ought, if possible, to be either square or oblong, for the convenience of planting the beds, and you will find a garden of one acre in extent quite as much as you will be able to manage. I would advise you to have it surrounded by a wall about ten feet high for fruit trees; and in front of this wall there should be a border ten or twelve feet wide; beyond which should be a gravel walk four feet wide, leaving a square or oblong plot of ground in the centre for culinary vegetables. This central plot may either have a main walk up the centre, and two or three side walks, or be left all in one bed, which may be divided into compartments, with paths between, to suit the convenience of the gardener. The best situation for your kitchen-garden will be as near the stable as possible for the convenience of manure; and, of course, it will join the reserve-ground. The surface of the ground should be level, or gently sloping to the south, and there should be no high trees near it. The whole of the garden should be well drained, and you should contrive it so as to have easy access to either pond or river water. A valley or a hill is a bad situation for a kitchen-garden; as the valley is very liable to injury from frost on account of the damps that hang over it; and the hill is not only cold, but exposed to injury from high winds.

I have already mentioned that the form of a kitchen-garden should be either square or oblong; and I may add, that the walks should always be straight, as, if they were serpentine, it would be difficult to wheel a barrow of manure along them without overturning it. The square form of the garden, however, is not only on account of the walks, but in order that the compartment in the centre may be divided into oblong beds, as it is most convenient to sow vegetables in straight lines to allow of weeding and hoeing between them, earthing them up, &c. The best soil for a kitchen-garden is a sandy loam, and the surface soil should be from two to three feet deep. You will find it very convenient to have a vinery or forcing-house close to the kitchen-garden; and you can either have a small separate garden for melon and cucumber-beds, called a melon-ground, or this may form a part of your reserve-ground.

The first thing to be done when you have fixed upon your ground is to form the _walks_, marking them out by two garden lines, and then digging out the space between in the shape of an inverted arch, which should be from one to two feet deep in the centre. The arch is then partly filled in with brick-bats, stones, or any other hard rubbish which can be procured, leaving a little hollow space exactly in the centre to serve as a drain. Care must be taken, when filling in the rubbish, to put the largest pieces in first, then pieces somewhat smaller, and then pieces broken very small, which are rammed down as hard as possible, so as to make a smooth surface immediately under the gravel. The gravel before laying it down should be sifted, and all pieces larger than a moderate-sized gooseberry should be thrown on one side. As soon as the small gravel is laid down and evenly spread it should be rolled, and this rolling should be repeated occasionally till the walk becomes quite hard and firm. If the gravel does not bind well, it may be improved by mixing with it powdered burnt clay, in the proportion of one wheelbarrow full of clay to a two-horse cart load of gravel. The clay may be burnt by making it into a heap, intermixed with, and surrounded by, faggot wood. Gravel walks should always be slightly raised in the middle, in order that the water may run off on each side. If you should have an old gravel walk that wants renovating, the gravel should be loosened with a pick, turned over, raked, and firmly rolled, adding a coating of fresh gravel if necessary. If weeds should appear on a gravel walk, they are best killed by watering them with salt and water, and this liquid will prevent any other weeds from appearing.

_Box edgings_ are the best for gravel walks, and March or April is a good season for planting them. The following is the mode of performing this operation, which requires some attention, as the beauty of the edging depends on its regularity. The margin of the bed for about a foot in breadth should be watered, and afterwards beaten firm and level with the back of a spade; a garden line should then be stretched along close to the walk, and a shallow trench opened, sloping towards it at an angle of rather less than 45°. Some dwarf box having been procured from the nurseryman, it should be divided into separate plants, and the branches and roots trimmed, so that the plants may be nearly of a size. These are laid along the sloping face as regularly as possible, with their tops rising about an inch above the soil, and the earth is drawn upon them, so as to fill up the trench and make them quite firm. The plants are then watered, and nothing further is required but to supply the place of any that may chance to die, and to keep the tips neatly trimmed.

The crops of culinary vegetables are of two kinds, those that are permanent, and those that are temporary. Of the _permanent crops_, the most important are the _asparagus_ beds, on account of the great length of time they take in preparing. The ground must be first trenched three or four feet deep, and plenty of stable dung buried at the bottom of the trench. The beds are then marked out four feet wide, and paths left between them; and the plants, which must be procured from a nurseryman (as they should be two years old when they are first put into the bed), must be planted in rows nine inches apart, and deep enough to have the crown of the root two inches below the surface of the ground. The beds are covered with rotten manure during winter, which is forked into the ground in the spring. The asparagus stalks are not cut till the second or third year after planting; but after that the beds continue to produce for twelve or fourteen years, or even more. All the shoots that push up from April to Midsummer may be cut off and used for the table; but those that spring after Midsummer should be suffered to expand their leaves, in order that they may elaborate their sap, and thus strengthen the roots.

_Sea-kale_ is planted in beds in the same manner as asparagus, when the plants are a year old. The first year the plants will require little care, except cutting down their flower stems whenever they appear; but the second year, each plant must be covered with river-sand, and then have a sea-kale pot turned over it, on which must be heaped stable dung fifteen or twenty inches high, in order that the heat may make the young shoots grow rapidly, and thus make them tender and succulent.

_Artichokes, tart-rhubarb_, and _horseradish_, are other permanent crops found in kitchen-gardens, but they do not require any particular care in their culture.

The _temporary crops_ in kitchen-gardens require a constant change, as it is found from experience that the same crop cannot be grown on the same ground for two years in succession, without becoming of an inferior quality; and thus it is found necessary to fix what is called the rotation of crops, and to arrange that in each compartment a fresh crop shall be grown every year, as different as possible from the one that grew in it the year before. Thus, onions may be succeeded by lettuces, carrots by peas, potatoes by cabbages, and turnips by spinach. These plants may of course be varied according to circumstances; but the principle is never to have two fleshy-rooted plants like the carrot and the potato succeed each other; but always to let a plant cultivated for its leaves or seeds follow one cultivated for its root, and so on.

The _cabbage tribe_ is very much improved by cultivation, but the plants contained in it require a great deal of manure and frequent watering to make them succulent and good. It seems strange that such different plants as broccoli, cauliflowers, cabbages, Scotch greens, and savoys should all spring not only from one genus, but from one species (_Brássica oleràcea_), which is, in fact, a British plant, and which I have no doubt you have seen growing on the cliffs at Dover, though you would have no idea that a tall straggling plant, with alternate leaves and very pretty yellow flowers, could be the wild cabbage.

The first change from this loose-leaved plant appears to be to what are called Scotch Greens, Borecole, or Kale; and these plants accordingly require the least care in their cultivation. They are generally sown in April, and transplanted in rows into the kitchen-garden, where they only need to be occasionally hoed and earthed up. There are a great many sub-varieties of these greens, all of which generally come true from seed.--Cabbages properly so called have a fine head or ball formed of leaves folded closely over each other; and when eaten young, before the heads have formed, they are called coleworts. Cabbages are sown three times, for the spring, summer, and autumn crops. The spring cabbages are sown in the first week of the August of the previous year, and in October or November they will be ready for transplanting into rows twelve inches apart, where they will remain till they are wanted for use the following spring. The summer crop is sown in February, and transplanted in April, the plants being eighteen inches apart every way; and the autumn crop is sown in May, and planted out in July. All kinds of cabbage require a soil well enriched with animal manure, frequent hoeing-up, and abundance of water, or they will become dry and tasteless instead of being succulent. The stalks of the summer and autumn crops are generally left standing to produce what are called sprouts; and some gardeners only grow one crop of regular cabbages, leaving the stalks standing during the rest of the season for sprouts.--Savoys are large cabbages with wrinkled leaves, which are sown in March, and transplanted in May or June to a bed where they stand two feet apart every way. The crop is generally ready in November, but savoys are never considered good till they have had some frost.--Brussels Sprouts are a variety of the Savoy cabbage, and, as they are said to be very inferior in quality if raised from seed ripened in Britain, you must inquire if the seed you purchase has been procured from abroad.--Broccoli should be treated like cabbage, the soil should be deeply trenched and manured before the plants are transplanted.--Cauliflowers require too much care in their culture for me to advise you to have any thing to do with them.

_Peas_ and _beans_ should be grown in an open sunny situation, and in a light soil that is tolerably rich, but not freshly manured; and hence they are well adapted to succeed the cabbage tribe, the soil for which is always well manured.

Some sow their early peas in November and December, but very little is gained by this; and, if the winter should be severe, the crop is sometimes lost. The best time, therefore, for sowing early peas is in February, and the late ones in two or three sowings from April to July. Before sowing, the ground should be marked for drills, by stretching a garden line along the length of the bed, and then making a drill or furrow along it with a dibber, pressing the earth firm at the bottom of each drill. As soon as the drill is prepared, the peas are regularly dropped along it, two or three to an inch, if they are small, and an inch apart if large, and then they are covered with the soil, which is firmly pressed down over them with a spade or roller. The drills should be an inch and a half deep, and from two to three feet asunder, according to the size of the peas, the marrowfats and blue Prussians requiring more room than the early kinds. A pint of peas will sow from twenty to thirty yards of drills, according to the size of the peas. Dried furze is sometimes put over peas when they are sown, and before they are covered with earth, to save them from mice. If the weather should be dry, the drills may be occasionally watered; and when the young plants are two or three inches high they should be hoed up, the earth being carefully drawn up to their roots. When about six inches high, they should be stacked with two rows of sticks to each row of peas, care being taken to have the sticks higher than the expected height of the peas, and not to let them cross at top. Many persons do not grow any early peas (which are always inferior to the larger kinds), but sow a crop of dwarf marrowfats and green Prussians in March and April for the principal crop, sowing the tall marrowfats and blue Prussians in June and July for a late crop. In this manner a supply of fine-flavoured peas may be obtained all the summer, and in open seasons till the end of September or October.

Beans are sown at the same time as peas, but they should be grown in stronger soil; they do not require sticks, and they are generally topped, that is, the upper part of the leading shoot of each plant is cut off; an operation that would be fatal to peas.

_Kidneybeans_ are of two quite distinct kinds. The dwarf kidneybeans are annuals, which should be sown in drills about two feet apart, the first or second week in May; but the scarlet runners are perennials, the seed of which should be sown two or three inches asunder, and very lightly covered; and the rows should at least be three feet apart. The plants will require sticks like peas. Kidneybeans are generally eaten in England only in an unripe state, the pods being eaten as well as the seeds; the ripe seeds are, however, commonly eaten in France under the name of _haricots blancs_.

_Potatoes_ are propagated by what are called sets, that is, pieces into which the tuber is cut, each of which contains a bud or eye. Before they are planted, the ground should be trenched and rotten dung dug into it. The early potatoes are planted in March, and the late ones in May or June. When the potatoes are to be planted, a garden line is stretched across the beds, and holes are made along it with a dibber, about six inches deep, and nine inches or a foot apart. The sets are then put into the ground, one in each hole, with the eye upwards, and the earth firmly pressed down on them. When the plants come up, they are frequently hoed and earthed up; and as soon as they come into blossom some cultivators cut off the tops, to prevent the formation of the seed.

The _Jerusalem artichoke_ is propagated by sets, like the potato; and the _turnip_, the _carrot_, and the _parsnep_ are propagated by seed sown in drills about March.

_Red beet_ is cultivated in the same manner, and plants that are sown in March will have roots ready for the table in September or October. Great care, however, must be used while taking them out of the ground, not to wound the outer skin; and in the kitchen they must be only washed and not scraped, as, if the outer skin should be removed, all the colouring matter will escape when the root is boiled, and the root, instead of its being of its usual bright red, will be of a dingy whitish pink.

_Radishes_ are sown at different seasons; generally every fortnight, from January to July or August.

_Spinach_ is of two kinds: the round-leaved variety, which is generally sown for the summer crop in January or February, and the roots of which may be pulled up and thrown away as soon as the leaves are gathered; and the Flanders spinach, which has triangular leaves, and which is sown for the winter crop in August. This last kind should have only the outer leaves pinched or cut off; and, thus treated, it will continue producing fresh leaves all the winter, as it is quite hardy, and not injured by frost. The seeds of this plant will keep good four years.

I do not suppose you will attempt to grow _onions_, as they will require a great deal of care; but you can sow a few in March for salads. If you wish to grow onions of an enormous size, you should raise the seed on a hotbed in February, and transplant them into the open ground in April or May. The soil into which they are transplanted should be very rich, and mixed with charcoal roughly powdered. The onions should be planted a foot apart every way, only the fibrous roots being buried in the soil, and they should be watered regularly every day. All the onion tribe require a very rich soil, which is very much improved for them by mixing charcoal with it. When it is wished to grow onions to a very large size, a hollow space or cup is made in the ground, in the middle of which the onion is placed when it is transplanted, the fibrous roots being buried in the ground at the bottom of the cup. The bulb of the onion, when thus treated, and well watered, swells to an enormous size, and becomes extremely delicate.

_Lettuces_ are of two kinds: the cabbage lettuces, which may be sown broad-cast at any time from February to August, and require no after care, except thinning out and watering; and Cos lettuces, which are generally blanched by bending the tips of the leaves over the heart, and tying them in that position with a bit of bast mat. Endive and succory are blanched in the same manner, and mustard and cress only require sowing, as they are cut for salads while in their seed leaves. In France, lettuces are often cut for salads in their seed leaves like mustard and cress.

_Celery_ requires a good deal of care in its culture. The seed must be sown in March or April, in a bed the soil of which is formed of equal parts of loam and rotten dung. When the young plants come up, they are transplanted into another bed of very rich soil, and when they are about a foot high they are removed into trenches for blanching. These trenches are made four feet apart, eighteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep, and they are filled nine inches high with a rich compost of strong fresh soil and rotten dung. The plants are taken up with as much earth as will adhere to their roots; and, their side shoots having been removed, they are set in the centre of the trench nine or ten inches apart. As they grow, the earth is drawn up to them, a little at a time, taking care never to let the earth rise above the heart of the plant; and this earthing up is repeated five or six times, at intervals of about ten days or a fortnight, till the plants are ready for use.

The _potherbs_, as they are continually wanted in cookery, are much better in a garden near the kitchen. One of the most important is parsley, which is generally sown in a drill in February or March, and the plants of which do not seed till the second year. Fennel is a perennial, which, when once introduced, requires no further care, except to prevent it from spreading too rapidly. Thyme, sage, pot-marjoram, and winter savory, are all dwarf shrubs, which require no care after they have been once planted. Mint, winter marjoram, and the common marjoram, are perennials; but the sweet or knotted marjoram, summer savory, and basil require sowing every year like parsley.

I would not advise you to grow _cucumbers_ or _melons_; but, should you feel inclined to try your skill, you have only to have a hotbed made like that for raising flower seeds; but with a two- or three-light frame, remembering that it will take a cart-load of stable dung for every light. The plants are raised in pots, and, when they are about five weeks old, they are planted three together in little ridges of earth made under each light. When the plants have produced two rough leaves, the ends of the shoots are generally pinched off, and this is called stopping the runners. When the plants come into flower, the pollen of the male flowers should be conveyed to the female ones, as otherwise the fruit very often drops off as soon as it is set. Seeds for the first crop of cucumbers are sown in December or January; but the principal crop is sown in March. The great difficulty is to grow the cucumbers long and straight, and to keep them green, and with a beautiful bloom. For the first purpose a brick may be placed under the fruit, and for the second, abundance of leaves should be left on the plant; and the ground in which it grows should be kept quite moist, as it is found that the plant succeeds best when it has abundance of heat and moisture, and has grown in the shade. Melons require the same treatment as cucumbers, with the exception of their beds being about 10° hotter; as, for example, the seed-bed should not be less than 65°, and the fruiting-bed should not be less than 75°.

_Gourds_ and _tomatoes_ should be sown in a hotbed in March, and planted out in May, the latter against a south wall.

_Mushrooms_ are generally grown in the back shed of a vinery or forcing-house, in beds made of fresh horse-dung, which has lain in a heap under cover, and been turned over several times for about a fortnight or three weeks, till every part has thoroughly fermented. A bed is then marked out about twelve or fourteen feet long, and five feet broad; and, if it is on the earth, a pit is made of that size by taking out the soil about six inches deep. The bottom of the bed should be formed by a layer of long fresh stable manure about four inches thick. On this several other layers must be placed of the prepared dung, each being beaten flat with the fork, so as to make the bed as close and compact as possible, till it is about five feet high, when the top should be finished off like the ridge of a house. In this state the bed should remain about a fortnight, and then some bricks of mushroom spawn having been procured from a nurseryman, they should be broken into pieces about an inch or an inch and a half square, and strewed regularly over the bed, each piece of the spawn being buried by raising up a little of the dung and inserting it. After this, the surface of the bed must be beaten flat with the spade, and the whole covered with a loamy soil, and beaten quite smooth. The bed is then covered about a foot thick with oat straw, and again with mats, and it will require no further care for a month or six weeks, by which time the mushrooms will be ready for the table. Care should be taken in gathering them to twist them up by the roots, as, if they are cut off, the root, which is left in the ground, will decay, and be injurious to the young plants. Mushrooms may be made to grow in lawns, by procuring some bricks of mushroom spawn, and, after breaking them into pieces about an inch or two inches square, burying these pieces by raising a little of the turf wherever the mushrooms are wished to grow, and placing the spawn under it. This is sometimes done in April or May; but if the season should be dry, the spawn will not germinate. Others put the spawn into the ground in August, or in the first week in September; the lawn is afterwards rolled, and no other care will be requisite until the mushrooms are ready for gathering, which will be in a month or six weeks after the spawn is buried.