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Garden Alamanac c. 1800

April


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

Finish planting asparagus

Weed old asparagus beds as often as you can

Continue planting beans and peas every fortnight

Sow French beans every week this month, as well radishes and cresses, mustard and lettuces for seed

Hoe well the ground around cabbages and cauliflowers

Plant out melons and cucumbers

Prick out from the seed beds cauliflowers, celery, cabbages and savoys

 

Plant out aromatic herbs

Sow turnips every fortnight, and hoe those already up

Sow scorzonera, salsafy, purslane, celery and finochio

Examine beds of onions and carrots, and clear away the weeds which have grown high

Hoe well the ground where the potatoes are planted before they come up

Dig between the rows of peas and beans with a three-tined fork

Prick out celery plants

Examine the melon plants, pinch and earth them up.

Take off the young shoots from the artichokes

Sow carrots

Cut off the tops of beans in flower

Plant cucumbers and melons under bell of hand glasses

Separate those plants to prevent their farina mixing, which would degenerate the sorts

Sow capsicums and gourds.

The Orchard and Fruit Garden

Finish planting fruit trees and mulch them well

Water and apply hog's dung to blighted trees

Plant vine cuttings and examine the budded trees

Thin apricots

Weed and fork strawberry beds

Examine the vines and pull off poor buds

Examine the grafted trees

Water and lay turf about fresh planted trees

Turn up weather-boards on the tops of walls in gentle rains

Thin apricots very much, if it is a plentiful year

Continue on to May'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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