Tumbledown Farm .9 Acres (give or take an acre or two)

CHAPTER III
Model Plan of a French Garden

NOTWITHSTANDING all that has lately been said and written about French gardening, there seems to be a very hazy notion of what the term really means. Would-be authorities are suggesting quite a bewildering array of crops for one garden, but these suggestions prove their lack of knowledge.

A French garden is a plot of land equipped and worked in a special way for the pro­duction of special crops by intensive methods.

If every crop from which profit might be made were grown in the same garden, the grower would not be a specialist. He might he a good all-round gardener, but he would be less expert in the production of any particular crop than if he gave his attention to a few things; and his appliances, not being put to use under a regular system, would frequently be occupied by one crop when wanted for another.

The ordinary "culture maraîchère;" which is here taken as a model, is practically confined in its operations to a very few varieties of salads and vegetables, combined with either melons or cucumbers (sometimes both), and perhaps tomatoes. A fairly complete list of

12 French Gardening

varieties would be: Radishes, cos and cabbage lettuce, carrots, turnips, cauliflowers, spring cabbage, endive, spinach, celery, tomatoes, melons, and cucumbers. This range of sub­jects can easily be worked in combination, and lends itself to the complete economical utilization of the whole of the ground and the appliances. With careful planning a few other things may be added, such as French beans, vegetable marrows and ridge cucumbers brought on under cloches after these have been taken from the early cos lettuce, and a bed of strawberries may be managed by forwarding them under frames which would be used for the latest batch of melons.

The system is very suitable for the forced production of early potatoes, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans, and a variety of flowers, but it is not wise to attempt all these things in a garden worked for profit. When these are grown, there is need of a special set of frames reserved for them, of a system of crops arranged to follow them, and for a special grower, whose duty it is to attend to them. Thus, it almost becomes a second French garden, with a different range of crops side by side with the one wherein early salads are grown.

The ideal garden should be so planned and arranged that the space can be systemati­cally used to its utmost capacity for the production of certain crops in sequence, without waste of time, labor, or space, and

A Model Plan 13

without hurry or confusion. Thus, a gardener who grows salads and early vegetables on hot-beds fills up the empty beds for the latter part of the season with a limited number of varieties of small vegetables, and utilizes the empty frames and cloches for growing melons or cucumbers as his main summer crop; these are all cleared away in due course, so as not to interfere with the recurring cycle for the following season.

The plan given here is for such a garden. It is two acres in extent. The total number of lights required is 600 for the early beds and 30 for covering the last batches of plants in the early spring until they are needed for the beds. The number of cloches required is 2,800, of which 2,500 are for forcing and 300 for protecting later plants until needed.

The aspect is due south. A fence, 6ft. high, encloses the garden on all sides and joins up to the packing-shed and stables in the north­west corner. An entrance gate adjoins the packing-shed.

All around the outer margin of the garden, inside the fence, is a bed 12ft. wide. This is intended for the earliest open-air crops, or for those planted in autumn to stand through the winter. Adjoining this bed is a path 3ft. wide.

The space in front of the packing-shed is used for unloading and stacking manure. Any ground not required for this purpose is turned up, well manured, and planted with open-air crops.

14 French Gardening

The bed immediately below this is also used for open-air crops.

The space close to the front of the shed, being best protected from cold winds and frosts, should be devoted to hot-beds for raising melon, cucumber, celery, endive, and other similar plants in the early spring months.

The remainder of the garden is divided into sixteen equal sections. The system of cropping suggested on the plan will be found con­venient and economical. It is intended to come into operation after the third year, and can be efficiently worked with about 600 tons of manure each year.

The frame, cloche, and open-air beds should be interchanged so as to follow round the garden each succeeding year.

It is not necessary that there should be the exact number of lights and cloches herein set forth; but if there is any alteration, it should hold to the right proportion, so that all the sections of the garden will fit into one another.

In any case, whatever may be the size of the garden, a clear and definite arrangement should be decided upon before work is begun. If only a small portion of the ground is to be devoted to forcing work, that part, and the water-pipes, should be so planned that extensions may be made at any future time easily, and without any disturbance of the part already laid out.