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Garden Alamanac c. 1800

March


Work to be done in the Kitchen, Orchard and Fruit Gardens
These monthly directions come from Duncan MacDonald's
"The New London Family Cook", J Robins, London, first edition c. 1800

 

The Kitchen Garden

Make fresh hotbeds for the cucumbers and melons

Sow cantaloupe melons and Turkey cucumbers

Sow asparagus, nasturtiums for pickling, and alexanders

Sow cabbages, cauliflowers, chardons, turnips and lettuces

Make fresh plantings of asparagus

Dress artichokes and make new plantations

Plant cauliflowers our from under the bell glass; also those raised at spring

Sow parsley, thyme, basil and marjoram etc.

Plant slips of pennyroyal, balm, camomile, and other aromatic herbs

Sow marrowfoot peas, and plant Windsor beans

Sow endive, savoys, red cabbages, and sinochia

Fork up asparagus, and give air to the hotbeds

Sow french beans on dry ground, and broccoli

Sow Cucumbers and melons for bell glasses, latter end of this month

Plant onions for seeds, with leeks and endive

Finish sowing onions, carrots and leeks.

The Orchard and Fruit Garden

Tale up the fruit trees you intend planting, and if the ground is not ready, lay them in trenches to retard their shooting

Finish pruning early in the month

Place mats, branches of yew, fir, fern or old fishing nets before the fruit trees

Graft trees, shorten the shoot of grafted trees, and cut of the heads of budded trees

Pick off the decayed leaves of forced strawberries, and water them well

Uncover fig trees, and give them some liquid manure

Hoe the ground between the fruit trees

Dress the strawberry beds

Examine fresh planted standard fruit trees

Plant cuttings of vines

Examine the beds of cheery kernels, and other seedlings

Examine grafted trees, and make layers of vines.

Continue on to April's work ...

Or, return to Alamanac Front Page

 

Please also visit Old London Maps on the web as many of the maps
and views available there have plans and depictions of gardens from
the medieval period through to the late nineteenth century.

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