Part 41

Comparatively few realise the continuity and quantity of good green vegetables that can be raised from a small plot of garden ground, therefore it seems well that a few pages should be devoted to a simple description of successions cropping, which is the basis of success for the small garden.

First the gardener must remember that if he propose to take crops continuously out of the earth that earth must be continuously supplied with soluble plant food. Therefore heavy dressings of fat, well-matured stable manure, must be dug in as often as possible, and lime must be applied freely every third year.

Lime is best given, after the ground has been trenched, at the rate of as much as half a pound to the square yard. It may either be in the form of ground chalk, or, better, slaked lime. We prefer to buy quicklime in sacks, and to make heaps of it over the ground, about a bushel of lime to a heap. Earth is turned over these heaps, and they are left to slake for a fortnight. At the end of that time the heaps are scattered evenly over the bed, and it is all forked in. A fortnight later it will be quite safe to sow.

Lime applied in this way destroys all sorts of insect and fungoid pests, including club. It acts chemically on the constituents of the soil, releasing valuable plant food in a soluble form, and itself, though very slowly soluble, is invaluable for many crops, especially peas and beans.

Deep digging at every possible opportunity is absolutely essential to success where heavy cropping is pursued. And in dry weather the steady use of the Dutch hoe where possible is invaluable both in keeping weeds down and in preserving a friable moisture-holding top to the soil.

In making his plans for the year’s work the gardener will at first consider what vegetables are desired by his household, and in what probable quantities; he will not strive for unduly early, or late crops, especially if he employ but one man a day or two a week, but he will try to have a useable amount of vegetables in hand, the year round, not wasting his ground either by excess or undue thrift of any one crop.

Taking a small plot of ground of about one-tenth of an acre as our text, it will be the simplest way to describe one form of successions cropping which should freely supply a household of at least six people with vegetables the year through. But not with main crop potatoes, these are better and cheaper field grown, and it is a waste of ground and labour to grow them.

(From “The Small Garden Useful”)

Scale.--The ground divided into 2-foot squares]

Plan I describes itself, and it will be seen to be divided into three main plots for successions cropping, each forty-one by twenty-two feet, and lettered A, B, and C. The cropping of these plots should be so arranged that year by year the scheme for one plot may be moved forward to the next, ensuring a different class of subject being grown on the ground in successive seasons, resulting in the least exhaustion of the ground. Of course in a garden of this size this is rather a counsel of perfection, difficult to reach, yet where the rule has to be broken, deep digging, manure and lime are used to minimise the evil.

This succession may be expressed in a formula:

First year A B C Second year C A B Third year B C A

Supposing that our scheme of successions cropping has already been in operation, it must be remembered that the ground at the beginning of the year will be pretty fully occupied, and we shall point out the crops already in possession of the various plots as we discuss them month by month. Taking then Plan I as the text, we will proceed to briefly discuss the year’s routine, beginning with New Year’s day.

TABLE OF SUCCESSIONAL CROPPING

Each plot 22 × 41 feet. The rows of plants = 41 feet.

+-----+-----------+-------+--------+-----------+-------+--------++-----------+ | | |Planted| | Followed |Planted| || Followed | |Plot | Crop | or |Gathered| by | or |Gathered||Next Season| | | | Sown | | Crop | Sown | || by | +-----+-----------+-------+--------+-----------+-------+--------++-----------+ | A |Onions | 2-3 | 8-9 |Spring | 8-9 | 4-7 || Runner | | | (6 rows) | | | Cabbage | | || Beans | | | | | | (4 rows) | | || | | |Parsnip | 3 | 10-3 | | | || | | | (1 row) | | | | | || | | |Salsify | 4 | 10-3 | | | || Early | | | (1 row) | | | | | || Potatoes | | |Carrots | 4 | 8-9 |Endive and | 8-9 | 11 || | | | (2 rows) | | | Chicory | | 11-2 || | | |Beet | 4 | 8-9 | | | || | | | (2 rows) | | | | | || | | |Celery | 6 | 10-3 | | | || | | | (2 double| | | | | || | | | rows) | | | | | || | | |Lettuce | | | | | || | | | (between)| | | | | || | +-----+-----------+-------+--------+-----------+-------+--------++-----------+ | B |Broad Beans| 12-3 | 6-7 |Turnip | 7 | 8-9 || Onions | | | (2 double| | | | | || | | | rows) | | |Couve | 7 | 11-1 || | | |Dwarf Peas | 2-3 | 6-7 | Tronchuda| | || | | | and | | | | | || | | |Spinach | | |Savoys | 7 | 11-12 || Parsnip | | | (between)| | | | | || Salsify | | | 2 rows | | |Broccoli | 7 | 3-4 || Carrots | | |Kidney | 4 | 7 | | | || Beet | | | Beans and| | |Chicory | 7-8 | 11-2 || | | |Lettuce | | | | | || | | | (1 row) | | |Late Spring| 7 | 4-5 || Celery | | |Dwarf Peas | 4 | 7 | Broccoli | | || | | | and | | | | | || | | |Lettuce | | |Endive | 8 | 10-11 || | | | (2 rows) | | | | | || | | |Peas | 5 | 7-8 |Leeks | 5 | 10-3 || | | | (2 rows) | | | | | || | | | Leeks | | | | | || | | | between | | |Lettuce | 8 | 9 || | +-----+-----------+-------+--------+-----------+-------+--------++-----------+ | C |Runner | 4 | 7-10 | | | ||Broad Beans| | | Beans | | | | | || | | | (1 row) | | | | | || | | |Early | 3 | 6-7 |Cauliflower| 5 | 9 || | | | Potatoes | | | (1 row) | | || | | | (7 rows) | | |Broccoli | 5 | 9-10 || Peas | | | | | | (1 row) | | || | | | | | |Brussels | 5 | 10-2 || | | | | | | Sprouts | | || | | | | | | (5 rows) | | || | +-----+-----------+-------+--------+-----------+-------+--------++-----------+

JANUARY

=Plot A.=--Contains kale, spring broccoli, and leeks, a six-foot breadth of ground where savoys and couve tronchuda stood must be cleared and trenched and heavily manured as early in the month as possible, as onions are to come here, a good dressing of lime and soot forked into the top spit will do good. Nothing more can be done in this plot during the month, beyond blanching chicory which still stands in it.

=Plot B.=--Contains Brussels sprouts; if not already done during December, the ground from which runner beans and cauliflower and broccoli came last autumn, must now be trenched and manured, and a dressing of superphosphate of lime, two ounces to the square yard, should be forked into the top spit. If the weather be propitious two double rows of broad beans may be sown across this ground now.

=Plot C.=--Contains spring cabbage, parsnips, salsify, and celery, probably a row or two of chicory also, and may be conveniently left for a month or six weeks until all but the first are cleared away.

=Permanent Crops.=--Seakale and rhubarb should have a few crowns of each covered up with fern or clean straw for blanching and to induce early growth.

FEBRUARY

=Plot A.=--If the onion bed was made last month, no further digging can be done here, but the onion ground must be prepared now, if the weather was impossible in January.

=Plot B.=--This is a good month to plant broad beans if they are not already in, but if the weather is bad leave them till March, there is no sense in setting beans to rot in sodden soil. The Brussels sprouts must now go, and as they and the early potatoes have pretty well exhausted the ground, and have well paid for their manure, trench the ground well, and give a good dose of manure and lime also; either as superphosphate, two ounces to the yard, or as lime pure and simple if it has not been given for a couple of years.

About the end of the month a sowing of dwarf peas may be made, if the weather be open. They should go thirty inches from the broad beans, and we know no better sort than the Little Marvel. Place eighteen-inch wire netting along the row at the time of sowing, and run a row of spinach fifteen inches on the hither side of the peas. Continue to blanch chicory.

=Plot C.=--By the middle of the month the crops still in this ground must be cleared away. The few roots of salsify and parsnip left should be stored in sand in a dry place, and the celery laid in in the open, where the cook can easily get to it. Immediately this is done the ground must be trenched and heavily manured, as it is to bear two exhausting crops without any further help. In addition we like to fork kainit into the top spit, an ounce to every square yard, and find that if done in February, this does not interfere with the early growth of the potatoes, but helps them and the Brussels sprouts very mightily later on.

=Frames.=--Make up the hotbed about the middle of the month.

=Seed Bed.=--Sow a little early lettuce, radishes, and if there be good conditions it may be worth while to sow early peas in the early border, besides spinach, at the beginning of the month.