Situation Of The Kitchen Garden

In selecting the site, and in erecting the inclosures, as well as in the after preparation of the soil, the ingenuity and 6cience of the horticulturist are essentially requisite. He will be called upon to rectify the defects and to improve the advantages which nature affords; for it is very seldom that the natural situation of a mansion, or the plan of the grounds, allows him to construct it in the most appropriate spot.

A gentle declination towards the south, with a point to the east, is the most favourable aspect; to the northeast the least so: in short, any point to the south is to be preferred to one verging towards the north. A high wall should inclose it to the north and east, gradually lowering to the south and west. If, however, a plantation or building on the east side, at some distance, shelter it from the piercing winds, which blow from that quarter, and yet are at such a distance as not to intercept the rays of the rising sun, it is much to be preferred to heightening the wall. It is a still greater desideratum to have a similar shelter, or that of a hill on the south-west and northwest points. The garden is best situated at a moderate elevation; the summit of a hill, or the bottom of a valley, is equally to be avoided. It is a fact not very difficult of explanation, that low lying ones are the most liable to suffer from blights and severe frosts; those much above the level of the sea are obviously most exposed to inclement winds.

Size Of The Kitchen Garden

To determine the appropriate size of a kitchen garden is impossible. It ought to be proportionate to the size of the family, their partiality for vegetables, and the fertility of the soil.

It may serve as some criterion to state, that the management of a kitchen garden occupying the space of an acre, affords ample employment for a gardener, who will also require an assistant at the busiest period of the year. In general, a family of four persons, exclusive of servants, requires a full rood of open kitchen garden.

Plan Of The Kitchen Garden

In forming the ground plan of a kitchen garden, utility is the main object. The form and aspect represented in the accompanying sketch are, perhaps, as unobjectionable as any, since none of the walls face the north, and consequently the best aspects are obtained for the trees. A narrow path two feet wide should extend round, adjoining the wall, and then a border about ten feet, the widest on those broad sides that face the south, which not only is beneficial to the trees, but convenient for raising early crops, etc. Next to this should be a walk five feet in width, likewise extending round the area.

Fig. 95.

Respecting the inclosure of the kitchen garden, see Hedges and Walls.