FROM THE OLD BOOK

Well, it's been a while since I last managed to get time to have a browse through my old books, mainly due to the Bank Holidays, the Royal Wedding etc, etc, but having done some varied jobs out in the garden I managed to sit down with a glass of red wine and go back a hundred years in the turn of a page. So sit back and think of the folk a century ago and how they gardened, and here are some extracts from the Old Book.

"FUEL ECONOMY

Various suggestions have been made from time for the economical using up of the smaller portions of our fuel, and we are advised to mix it with peat, clay, lime and other materials. The best idea appearts to be to make a mixture of equal parts cinders, small coal, coal dust, or coke, watering the material generously meanwhile with the strongest brine.

The mixture can then be shovelled into the Greenhouse furnace as it is, or sugar bags can be filled with it and one of these put in as required. The last idea gives the best results, as the heat of the furnace causes the material to congeal together into a solid mass which will take many hours to burn through.

Where pitch is available a tenth part of the solid after being finely crushed can be mixed with the cinders, etc, instead of watering with brine, and will give fairly satisfactory results.
In colliery districts old pit props are often available cheaply for use of fuel. The ash of these is, of course, of extreme value for digging in purposes."

It's amazing how, in what is a relatively short time, gardeners have gone from solid fuel to heat their Greenhouses to using electricity and oil. Trying to find old pit props these days is nigh on impossible.!!

Here's part of an extract from the Old Book about Garden appliances. I say part of an extract as the extract is very long and so I'm dividing it into at least two parts, with the second part being published later.

GARDEN APPLIANCES [PART ONE]

In purchasing gardening appliances, the main things to consider are utility and the effects of their use. The garden ought to be made productive at the least cost, and with a minimum of manual labour. Economic labour saving contrivances are therefore valuable accessoriies. The following appliances will be found most useful, and in their possession and use in every way helpful, giving better results and greater pleasure than by "making shift" with less handy or less effective tools:

BARROWS: Barrows should be very strong, and are better painted, as they are often exposed to the damp, and are used for wet earth and watery manure. A good class is that made with elm tops and ash wheels. Light barrows are made of galvanised iron with wrought iron frames and wheels.

Two useful sizes are 28 x 23 inches, and 30 x 26 inches, both larger and smaller sizes being obtainable. Another variety is an "easy tip" barrow with rounded ends, and highly useful when trenching ground or wheeling manure up into a hotbed frame.

CULTIVATORS: Although Cultivators are by no means essential , there are decidedly useful to the gardener, for they save time, and by their construction prevent much waste of labour. For instance, single wheel cultivators fitted with a pair of 6 inch hoes and cultivator teeth are handy. What are known as the "Planet Junior" garden implements are useful appliances, one of the larger of these tools, including a pair of 6 inch hoes, a pair of ploughs . two pairs of cultivators, and a pair of leaf lifters, is exceedly handy.

GARDEN ROLLERS: Single and double cylinder rollers are sold for garden purposes, the latter being much the best for even small lawns and paths, since they admit of being turned the more easily. The handles should be well balanced and the bearing accessible for oiling. A further kind have hollow cylinders which can be weighted by filling with water.

Water ballast rollers are very good for large lawns and for cricket pitches. Weights vary, the amateur is, however, recommended to use a roller which can be drawn or pushed with comparative ease. Frequent rolling does much good to young lawn grass, land spreads the roots, especially benefit ensuing in the early Spring, when the lawn requires well rolling to press down upheavals caused by worms and other creatures, and generally get it into good condition for the lawn mower. The best time to roll is after rain, when the ground is moist. Garden walks also can only be kept in good condition by frequent rolling.


It's been a long time since I've used a roller, and that was when I had just bought my house and was trying to make a lawn out of the usual builders disaster zone.

 

Thanks ARMANDII, very interesting

When we moved here almost 40 years ago we inherited a garden roller. I don't remember getting rid of it but I can't think where it might be!
I'll have to start searching for it at sometime .

This may sound strange but hedges and shrubs tend to grow around things. Some years ago the Water Board took five hours to find their stopcock in our garden - it was under a laurel hedge that was 8ft high, 30ft long and 15ft wide. In the old days they used to have them in the front part of the gardens but they then decided it would be best to put a new one in the footpath

 

I wondered what that was!!!!

 

I'm just wondering how many people still use rollers? Do they still sell them at B&Q or elsewhere?

 

I think you can still get the water filled polypropylene ones.

 

"The Garden - for Expert and Amateur" was published in 1930 and written by Ernest T Ellis and is worth around a £5. So I reckon you got a bargain there JJ The value is really in whether or not you enjoy it and get some good tips from it though:D

 

No, I've not tracked down a copy of the Wrinkle book yet, Ziggy. As you know I've been otherwise occupied building the Arbour, but when I get a bit of breathing space I'll track it down.

 

Well, as I said earlier I've been busy in the garden and haven't had the time to browse through the Old Books but now it's later in the day and I've got a glass of wine in front of me, it's time to slip back a few decades, sit down and light the gas lamp.

Here's something about two things that have probably been with us since the Garden of Eden and how the gardeners dealt with them nearly a 100 years ago.

"SLUGS pass through a partial hiberation in particularly cold weather in Winter, but it damp and muggy they are quite as active as in the Spring and Summer, though the damage they do is less noticeable,

Being nocturnal in habit they live just below the surface of the ground by day or under stones, decaying leaves etc. Only on dull, wet days are they in evidence during daylight, in the evening they leave their hiding quarters and then attack any suitable plant which may be handy. Eggs are laid in little clusters in the soil in the summer and the weather conditions then prevailing regulate to a great extent the number of slugs which will appear the following year.

Should the weather be wet and dull when the young slugs hatch, they will grow away well befor e the Winter. If,on the other hand, a long dry spell follows their hatching, the majority will not survive many days, with the result there will be a scarcity the Spring following.

METHODS OF CONTROL: Of all the suggested remedies, treatment with Copper Sulphate is by far the best. This consists either applying the Sulphate to the ground in the ground in the ordinary crystalline form or else spraying in the evening, when the slugs are out. with a solution of 1 in 100.

If the first method be adopted, the crystals should be applied at the rate of 1cwt per acre, and before a crop is put in. In the second case, the liquid should be applied to the ground rather than to the crop which is being attacked. It should be remembered that slugs are able sto exude a slime on first coming in contact with a irritant. but they are unable to repel in this way for long, so two applications at an interval of from 15 to 20 minutes should be made. Poison baits as used for Leather Jackets have controlled slugs. but apparently the bran loses its attraction of tje weather is muggy. Freshly powdered Lime and soot sprinkled around choice plants will act as a deterrent.

SNAILS: The appearance of these garden pests is so familiar to all that no special description is called for. The large garden Snail [Helix aspersa} and other specie of Helix are not uncommonly troublesome.

TREATMENT: Various powder dressings, e.g: Lime and Soot, fine sifted ashes, etc, have been tried from time to time as a preventive against Snail attack. Recent investigations have shown that Sulphate of Copper [Bluestone] is highly efficient for the destruction of Slugs and Snails and a mixture of 1 part by weight of finely powdered Sulphate of Copper and 18 parts of Kainit is a very effective agent. Kainit is a mineral substance containing Potasium and Magnesium Sulphates, used as an ingredient in artificial fertiliser and obtainable from any fertiliser and seed merchant.

This dressing should be sprinkled lightly on the surface of the soil surrounding individual plants or along the drills of seedlings, care should be taken to avoid sprinkling the material on the plants. The dressings should be applied after sunset and very early in the morning and where severe infestations are found it is desirable to apply two or three dressing at intervals of half an hour or so."

It's sobering to think that after all the tons of various chemicals and methods used over more than 200 years or so the Slugs and Snails still figure as one of the top listed enemies of the Gardener.

Here's something different and hotter:

[B"]HOT BED: There are several uses to which a hotbed may be put in a garden. It may be used for raising early flowers and vegetable seedlings, for striking cuttings, for forcing early vegetables and for the growing of Melons and Cucumbers.

Fresh stable manure , containing a percentage of strawy litter, is the material used. The quantity required is approximately two loads to a single light frame. Dry grass or tree leaves can be used with manure if sufficient quantity is not obtainable. The manure should be stacked in a conical shape and left for two days. The whole heap should turned so that the fermenting material in the centre is on the outside and vice versa. If the manure is very hot it should be sprinkled with water from the rose of a can as the layers are stacked back into place.

Any lumps of soil should be broken up and the strawy litter shaken out with a fork. After a further two days this process should be repeated. After a further two or three days the manure should be ready for forming into the bed. The size of the bed should be sufficient to allow 1ft to 18" inches in width all round the frame which will be placed on it. 4 ft is an average depth. Of course, the deeper the bed the more heat it will produce. Form the bed in a sheltered position, and if the site is well drained the bed can be placed in a pit dug for it.

This will help to conserve the heat, but should not be done if water is likely to stand in it/ Tread each layer of soil firmly down as it is put in place, and lightly sprinkle with water . Place a stick in the centre of the bed, about 3 ft down, and withdraw occasionally to test the heat. When the stick can be grasped comfortably in the hand, place the frame in position and spread a layer of garden soil about 4" inches deep over the bottom of the frame. Hang a thermometer inside the frame and close the light. If the thermometer shows more than 75 degrees damp the bed down again and leave the light slightly open to allow the vapour to disperse. A hotbed properly constructed in this way in the Spring should last for about two months, after which time the sun's heat should be sufficient to keep the temperature up. If the hotbed shows signs of drying before it's work is finished , fresh manure packed round the sides will sometimes be effective in raising the temperature again. When finished with, the hot bed manure can be used for dressing the garden."[/B]

Is any one in Gardeners Corner using a hotbed?? I must admit after reading the Old Books
I do get the urge to try some of the methods, and why not this one??

 

Well, I've had time to have a browse through some of the old books and came across these extractions, so I guess it's time to sit in the shade, with a tankard of grog and light the gas lamp.

" BURNING GARDEN RUBBISH In the article on Vegetable Matter we praise the plan of allowing green garden refuse of a soft and clean nature to decompose into manure. We mention, however, that certain kinds of rubbish are undesirable for the purpose of making into manure, and we advise that they should be burnt in the way described in the present article.

Before describing the various ways of burning garden rubbish, it may be useful to give a list of the more common forms of rubbish which should be burnt, since it is easy for gardeners who have not had many years of experience to mistake as good material for making into manure, rubbish that is not only valueless but may prove to be very dangerous indeed if put to this purpose. Gardeners might do well to commit the list to memory, then they will recall it when working out of doors.

First of all we must place on the list any and every form of wood. There are wood chippings which are often abundant when new fencing is being put up, or old repaired, there are twigs which are so abundant when there has been a storm week, and there are woody trimmings from climbers, fruit trees, hedges, roses and shrubs. All these are not the least use for making into vegetable matter.

Next come certain types of leaves. As a general rule most kinds of shrub leaves are undesirable for rotting down into humus. Of tree leaves, ash, elm, holly, horsechestnut, ivy, plane, poplar, privet, sycamore and indeed other sorts as well are little use for vegetable humus. so should be burnt. With them must go the droppings or needles from pines and other coniferous trees. These last are extremely detrimental if dug into the soil , and even to use them as a mulch, which one sees recommended so often, is undesirable in our opinion, since the resinous and oily matter they contain is abhorred by nearly every variety of plant..

This is Part One of a lengthy extraction. Part Two of Burning Garden Rubbish will continue tomorrow night as my candles are burning low and I haven't paid the bill for the gas lamp.:D

 

You should use the pine needles and other coniferous cuttings for you lighting. Then you could carry on working.