The garden yard

At Maylands, Mr. Joseph Fels’ “colony” in England, all the land is under intensive cultivation, and the rules for getting the best results from hot-beds are simple enough for anybody to follow. They emphasize the advice given in this book and are, therefore, printed as an appendix, so they may be easily consulted. They are furnished by the superintending gardener of Maylands, Mr. Thomas F. Smith, Maylands, Essex, England, for this book, and are as follows:—

General Instructions to Maylands Smallholders.

“It is possible to put the frames to a variety of profitable uses during the winter and spring, but under the special circumstances of our community, and the arrangement for co-operation, it will be best for all to follow one plan, and the produce can then be handled in bulk. To this end, I suggest that the frames be used for radishes and cabbage-lettuce, then cleared for pricking out tomato plants; afterwards, during the summer, used for cucumber or melons.

“During the last week of September, prepare a bed of about a square yard by digging. Break it up fine; cover it with two inches of prepared, sifted, well-rotted manure and soil in equal proportions. Sow broadcast, thinly, a few inches of cabbage-lettuce seed—Watkin & Simpson’s Early French Gold Frame will be very suitable. Cover with ¼ inch prepared soil and press evenly all over. Place a wooden framework round the bed and cover with a sash. Do not water. If the sun shines brightly in the middle of the day, cover the sash, and uncover as soon as the sun’s power is gone. In 4 or 5 days the plants will be up, and as soon as they can be handled they must be pricked off in frames standing on beds prepared in a similar way to the seed-bed, except that the soil inside must come half way up the board. Prick them out 2 inches apart, and do not water. They will stand here during the winter and the work now is to watch them carefully, remove any decayed ones or any showing mildew. If any mildew shows, dust over lightly once or twice with flowers of sulphur. Keep as dry as possible. In hard, frosty weather cover the frames with mats, but remove these whenever possible, and give air on very mild days.

“Towards the latter end of January prepare the hot-beds, by mixing well together equal quantities of old, dry manure and fresh manure. In both cases this must be ‘long.’⁠[13] Shake out the lumps and lay the manure down to the depth of 18 inches. Keep level and beat down gently with the back of the fork. Make the beds wide enough to extend at least 9 inches beyond the frames. Tread the manure down and level up any hollows. Lay the frames on straight and level. Fill up inside one-third the depth with similar manure to that used for the bed, then add 2 inches or so of the prepared soil. Rake the soil well, to leave it level and remove lumps. Put on the sashes and cover with mats. Any of this work must be finished the same day it is begun and covered up. This is of importance, as frost, snow, or rain might set in, and spoil the bed. The remaining beds must be made in the same way, all joining up so as to form one entire bed without any spaces between. The frames are butted together at the ends, and are set 1 foot apart between rows.

“Two or three days after finishing the first bed, it will begin to get warm, which may be seen by the damp inside the glass. Now sow radishes (French Breakfast Radishes—white-tipped) thinly broadcast. Cover them up lightly with dry prepared soil, well sifted; press down evenly. Set out the whole bed with lettuces at 9 in. apart. Before planting, the lettuces must be carefully examined, all decayed leaves removed, and doubtful plants rejected. Use only the strongest plants. Handle very tenderly, so as not to bruise them. Cover the bed every night with mats. When the radishes are up, give a little air on the opposite side to the wind, but be careful not to overdo this, as the lettuces thrive better with very little air. If any decayed leaves are seen on the lettuces, remove them. If the heat in the frames slacks, as may be seen by the radishes not moving quickly enough, place littery manure all round and between the frames up to the lights. The radishes will be ready for gathering the fourth week from sowing, and should be cleared off a bed within 10 or 12 days. When they are all gone, water the bed well between the lettuces with a fine ‘rose’-nozzle hose. Choose a dull, mild day for this, between 11 and 12 o’clock. The lettuces will be ready for marketing five or six weeks after planting, which will be about the middle of March.

“About the beginning of March, make up a hot-bed for one frame of three lights or sashes. Make it two feet thick, and at least a foot beyond the frame all round. Fill up the inside as before, and pack round outside. When the heat is steady, sow the tomato seed, thinly, in rows about 1½ inches apart, keeping at least ½ inch between the seeds. Cover and press down, then scatter lightly all over, a sifting of fine rotted manure. Water well, cover up, putting mats on. In seven or eight days the seed should be germinated. Keep a watch on it and remove the mats the moment it is seen to be breaking through. Water gently with a fine rose, using chilled water. Give all the light possible now, and water as required, keeping the soil just nicely moist. As soon as the first pair of rough leaves show, begin to prick off; if the pricking off is not commenced early the plants will be getting ‘drawn’ before it is finished.

“After cleaning the beds from which the lettuces were taken, fork over lightly and add 3 inches more soil; press all down very firmly and prick out tomato plants 3 inches apart. Do not water. Keep close for a few days until the plants begin to move, and cover at nights. As the plants show growth, water gently and give air on mild days, gradually giving more water and air until the first week in May, when the lights may be taken off on all mild, genial days. By the middle of the month leave air on at night, and the last week the lights may be removed altogether. The weather must be carefully watched, as May is a very changeable and treacherous month; it is very usual for frosts and cold weather to return about the middle of the month, and protection must be given if necessary.

“The ground where the tomatoes are to be set out, should have been prepared during the winter by digging or deep ploughing; a moderate dressing of natural manure should have been added if the ground is poor, but the ground which has previously been heavily manured and cropped with vegetables will be preferable, no manure being added for the tomatoes. After digging, give a dressing of basic slag 10 cwt. to the acre. Have all finished not later than end of February.

“About the middle of May, if the ground is dry, dress with sulphate of potash 1 hundredweight and sulphate of iron, ground fine, ¼ hundredweight to the acre, then go over all with a hoe and chop down all weeds and level all hollows; do not rake. At each end of each row, where it is intended to plant the tomatoes, drive in a pointed stake of 2 by 4 in. broadway to the row, at a slight angle away. The stake should enter the ground 2 ft. and stand out 1 ft. 9 in. Then in direct line with the stakes, at intervals of 10 ft. drive in studding boards ¾ inch × 2 in. × 2 ft. 6 in. long, to stand out of ground 1 ft. 9 in. The narrow way of the board should be in the line of the row. Now fix 16s gauge galvanized wire to the stake at one end, and draw tight and fix to stake at the other end. Fix wire to top of stakes by small wire staple. This should all be done before the plants are set out.

“During the last week in May and first week in June, the plants should be set out. Water well in the frame, then gently pull the plants and place as many upright in a basket as it will hold. Drop about twenty at 18 in. apart; then one person with a small, thin graft, or a garden trowel, should insert it about 4 in. into the ground at an angle, and press upwards, slightly raising the soil without disturbing it. A second person should insert the damp roots of the plant in the nick and tuck them carefully to the bottom, into the damp soil; remove the tool gently and press the soil firmly on to the plant with the heel. Do not water. I have tried many ways of planting tomatoes in the fields, and this I found to be the best method where large numbers have to be planted. Where only a small quantity are being handled it is best to grow them in strawberry baskets or pots, and put the plants out with the roots undisturbed.

“In a week or two, if the weather is genial, growth will be observed, and then a dressing of nitrate of soda may be given, about 2 hundredweight to the acre. It should be crushed fine and mixed with three times its bulk of dry earth or ashes. At the end of June the plants should be thoroughly sprayed with strawsonite. After spraying, it will be time to go over the plants, and remove all the side shoots, keeping the plants to one stem only. When the plants have grown long enough to reach 6 in. above the wire, they should be again trimmed of shoots and tied to the wire, resting the stem of the leaf on the wire before tying. Leave the tie rather slack for expansion of stem. After trimming and tying, spray again with strawsonite. This work should all be completed by the beginning of August, if the season is suitable to growth. If rain falls immediately after spraying, repeat it.

“The fruit should begin to show color by the middle of August, but this varies considerably with the season and the age of the plants when set out.

“As soon as the fruit shows pink, it should be gathered and taken to the packing shed. Do not gather the fruit green if it can be helped, but wait for a change of color. These gatherings should be continued at least twice a week so long as the fine weather continues. If the weather changes to wet after a long dry spell, it is very probable that many of the fruit will crack, and then it is advisable to gather the fruit green, if quite fully matured; this will save them from cracking. If the weather is cold and dull, the plants should be sprayed with Evans’ Aseptic Spray. This will not leave a stain on the fruit. After the second week in August, the plants may be topped, as this will help the fruits to swell, and fruit setting after this date will probably be useless. Keep the side shoots removed, and remove and shorten bottom leaves to let the sunlight into the plants. Remember this: plants allowed to grow close and crowded are much more liable to disease, and spraying does not thoroughly cover them; also plants with many shoots make less fruit, of a smaller size, and take longer to ripen; therefore anyone taking the trouble to raise plants and set them out, and neglecting them afterwards, is acting very foolishly.

“Continue to gather the fruits as ready, keeping a sharp look-out after the end of September for signs of frost. When this is feared, gather all the full-grown fruit on the plants whether green or not—they will ripen in-doors; but exercise some judgment, and do not gather fruit which is not full grown. This may color, but even if it does, it will be shrivelled and a bad color, and will spoil the market for better fruit. It is better to leave the immature fruit on the plants, as the frost may pass without doing any material damage, and there may be several weeks more of mild weather, which will give several more pickings of full-grown green fruit. I have picked in this way until the first week in November, some years.

“The fruit must be graded into ‘best smoothing,’ ‘small smooths,’—which description does not include very small fruits, but only those just too small for an even sample,—‘seconds,’ and ‘thirds.’ Seconds are good sound fruit, but include all the misshapen ones. Thirds are sound odds and ends—it is better to avoid the grade if possible. The fruit is sent to markets in baskets.

“Tomatoes may be obtained from the open in July by sowing the seed a month earlier, and growing on with more room in pots. If each plant has 9 in. square of space, and is properly attended to, it will have small fruits set when planted out, and ripe fruit can be gathered in July.

“Ridge Cucumbers. Prepare a good hot-bed as for tomato seed, and on the last day of April, sow the cucumber seed, two together, at 1½ in. apart all over the bed; cover with soil, press down, do not water, close up and cover with mats. The seed will be up in 2 or 3 days. Give water, plenty of light, but no air; cover at night. Have ready a mild hot-bed—the bed the lettuces were removed from, if forked over, will probably do. As soon as the rough leaves are showing, lift each pair of plants gently with a little soil and pot into large 60s, burying up to seed leaves. Water as required. Harden gradually by end of May, and plant out first week in June at 2 ft. apart in rows, and 4 ft. between the rows. A bed into which a heavy dressing of manure has been dug during the winter will do very well. As soon as set out, the plants must be protected by some means, such as placing a flower-pot at night over each plant, or with paper cones pegged down. It is also advisable that hurdles covered with straw be run down every 3 or 4 rows to break the wind. If the plants are helped in this way for a week or two, they will repay it later on. After planting they should be watered, and this should be repeated if the weather continues dry. Before they begin to run, mulch all down each side of the rows with long straw stable manure. Fruit should be ready middle of July.

“For using the frames after the above plants have been removed, I recommend Frame Cucumbers. Melons would do equally well, but are rather more difficult to grow, and I advise cucumbers for a year or two until experienced. Make up a hot-bed precisely the same as for Ridge Cucumbers. Fill as many 60s pots as are needed half-full of prepared soil after covering the drainage hole with broken china. Put one seed of Telegraph Cucumber on the soil in each pot, fill half the remaining space with soil and press down with the bottom of a pot. The soil should be of a nice dampness when used, as the seeds are better unwatered; the pots, if new, should be soaked in water before use. Cover up close and keep mats on until seed is up, then only mat at night. Give no air, water with tepid water as required, shade from strong midday sun and keep interior of frame moist by dewing over early each morning. Give the plants room for the leaves to spread. As frames are emptied of the tomatoes and ridge cucumbers, without waiting for all of them, fork them over lightly and raise slightly in centre; on this mound put half a bushel of prepared soil, which should consist mainly of chopped sod with the grass removed, a little decayed manure, and a little finely sifted burnt earth or old mortar rubbish. Cover up close for a day or two for the sun to warm the soil, and then put two plants in the middle of the light, about 6 in. apart. Pinch out the centres, allowing only one shoot to grow from each plant. These should be taken from one plant upwards and the other downwards in the frame. Keep the growth thin; remove old leaves, one now and then; avoid overcrowding; if this seems likely, cut some of the shoots right out. Keep the frame moist, give plenty of tepid water, whiten about half the glass in the centre and splash the remainder. If these instructions are carried out, there will be an abundance of cucumbers to cut for market.

“The frame cucumbers are packed in flats, numbered according to size, but usually 3 to 4 doz. Put a little hay at the bottom, then cover with paper, put one layer of fruit very carefully on this and a sheet of paper over, a little more hay, another sheet of paper, then a layer of fruit and so on. Three layers generally fill the flat.

“Ridge cucumbers are generally sold by count or in bushels, but when grown especially fine may be sent in flats as above.”