Kitchen garden

“ You go up to the kitchen by a little twisted stairway, like the stairway of a tower. On three sides of the kitchen there are charming blue mansarde roofs and black crooked chimney-pots, and on the fourth side there are the treetops of an old garden. When the leaves are fallen, one can look down from the kitchen terrace, through the branches of the trees, and see all the design of the garden, paths and lawns, statues and massifs and the big central basin, as in the ground plan, drawn so long ago.
To-night the fallen leaves in the sunset made the garden a place all of amber. ”

“ Not only was there the kitchen garden to think of, but there were the glass-houses [28] as well, fruit grown inside and out, tomatoes, orchids, carnations, violets. Then down at the Hall there were the rose-gardens and lawns, tennis-courts and flower-borders, and the long yew and beech-hedges to be kept trim and close. And besides all these there was the big rock-garden across the river, full of plants which, however much you might suppress them, grew as giants grow in a single night. ”

“ The aim of the kitchen garden is to provide an abundance and variety of food for the family. As the object of the cultivator is to get the largest product for his labor, he ought to produce all that he can consume on the least possible area. Though one may go into mushrooms or frog raising as a money crop, the kitchen garden is the first indispensable and should first be given attention. ”

“ Back here there were gnarled apple and pear and cherry trees, a tropical clump of rhubarb, and traces of what had evidently been at one time a kitchen garden. Old-fashioned perennials blossomed here and there; lupins and Sweet Williams and other sturdy things which had resisted the encroachment of the grass. The key fitted readily, scraped back, and the narrow door swung inward.
Gloom and mustiness were his first reward, but as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness he saw that he was in the kitchen. There was the sink with a hand-pump on one side and a drain-board on the other. ”

“ But the gardener and I understand each other as soon as we go to the back of the house, and get among the vegetables. On that ground he finds me perfectly sane. And indeed I am not sure that the kitchen garden does not give me more pleasure than the domain of flowers. Every morning I step round before breakfast to see how things are “coming on.” It is happiness to note the swelling of pods, the healthy vigour of potato plants, aye, even the shooting up of radishes and cress. ”

“ On each side of the long walk in the kitchen garden there are flowers between you and the vegetables, herbaceous borders, with nice big clumps of things that have suckers, and off-shoots and seedlings at their feet. ”

“ The best situation for your kitchen-garden will be as near the stable as possible for the convenience of manure; and, of course, it will join the reserve-ground. The surface of the ground should be level, or gently sloping to the south, and there should be no high trees near it. The whole of the garden should be well drained, and you should contrive it so as to have easy access to either pond or river water. A valley or a hill is a bad situation for a kitchen-garden; as the valley is very liable to injury from frost on account of the damps that hang over it ”

“ KITCHEN-GARDEN AND ORCHARD Hitherto we have mainly considered that part of garden design which has for its object the production of pleasant scenes, of pictures formed by gay flowers, and beauteous carpets and backgrounds of greenery. But utilitarian ends have yet to be served, and fruits and vegetables must be grown to supply our needs. There need be nothing dull or prosaic about the kitchen-garden and orchard, distinct though they be from that which is purely ornamental. ”

“ And when I hear of the great place with a kitchen garden of twenty acres within the walls, my heart sinks as I think of the uncomfortable disproportion between the man and those immediately around him, and his vast output of edible vegetation, and I fall to wondering how much of it goes as it should go, or whether the greater part of it does not go dribbling away, leaking into unholy back-channels ”

“ A cheerful glow-worm of red earth-light gleamed from the farm-house windows as we drove round to the inner gate, while at the sound of the wheels the kitchen door opened, and my hostess came down the flagged pathway between the sleepy flowers to bid me welcome.
How delightful the first evening in country quarters always is. How comfortable the wood fire that flamed and sputtered on the parlour hearth, how inviting the meal of tea, new-laid eggs, homemade breads and jams, honey and hot scones spread out upon a spotless cloth around a centre piece of daffodils and early garden flowers. ”

“ It is, indeed, much to be regretted that small plots of ground, in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis more especially, are too often converted into flower gardens and shrubberies, or used as mere play-grounds for children, when they might more usefully be employed in raising vegetables for the family. With a little care and attention, a kitchen garden, though small, might be rendered not only useful, but, in fact, as ornamental as a modern grass lawn ”

“ A capacious kitchen garden should lead off from the rear apartments, well stocked with all the family vegetables, and culinary fruits, in their proper seasons. A luxuriant fruit-garden may flank the least frequented side of the house. Neat and tasteful flower beds may lie beneath the windows of the rooms appropriated to the leisure hours of the family, to which the smaller varieties of shrubbery may be added, separated from the chief lawn, or park, only by a wire fence, or a simple railing, such as not to cut up and checker its simple and dignified surface ”

“ The kitchen-garden walls are interesting survivals of an old way of treating fruit-trees. They are three feet thick and honeycombed with flues for heating. It was a clumsy and unmanageable expedient practised in the days before the circulation of water in pipes heated from one boiler was understood. The modern orchard-house is much more convenient and its working absolutely under control. ”

“ The kitchen garden—always an important auxiliary of the kitchen—is now, in these days, something more; it is becoming more and more a part of the domestic routine; it is a woman's garden, to be planned for and cared for by the women of the family, and in that relation must be considered from all its points of view. ”

“ Then you'd have people--people--people.' Three times he said the sacred word of the republic. This article, you will perceive, is also written in a kitchen garden, and a witchery of onions is wafted with it.
While standing in this kitchen garden I perceived what many of my readers must have perceived long ago, that of all things on earth the one perfectly beautiful thing is a kitchen garden. It has a hundred kinds of beauty richly blent into a solemn harmony. It has the beauty of an embroidery, for all the colours are quiet and yet varied infinitely. ”

“ It has been already observed, when speaking of the laying out of a kitchen garden, that beyond the fruit-border there is generally a walk, enclosing the compartments devoted to culinary vegetables in the centre. Now where espaliers are grown, there should be a second chambered border, exactly like the fruit border under the wall, which should be shut out from the culinary compartments by a low wall under ground, or flat stones placed edgeways, or boards, or, in fact, any thing to prevent the roots of the espaliers from spreading into the ground devoted to the culinary crops. ”

“ For the kitchen garden a space of two acres would serve a large country house with all that is usually grown within walls, but there should always be a good space outside for the rougher vegetables, as well as a roomy yard for compost, pits and frames, and rubbish. ”

“ A good kitchen garden contributes much to the health, and even the elegance of life; the saving of meat makes it a source of economy, and the neatness which is necessary to keep it in order, may have an effect on the manners of the family. ”

“ The housewife must not be shocked when she hears that the kitchens of our model city, and all the kitchen offices, are immediately beneath these garden roofs; are, in fact, in the upper floor of the house instead of the lower. In every point of view, sanitary and economical, this arrangement succeeds admirably. The kitchen is lighted to perfection, so that all uncleanliness is at once detected. The smell which arises from cooking is never disseminated through the rooms of the house. ”

“ A kitchen garden don't thrive better or faster in any part of the universe than there. They have all the culinary plants that grow in England, and in greater perfection than in England. Besides these, they have several roots, herbs, vine fruits, and salad flowers peculiar to themselves, most of which will neither increase nor grow to perfection in England. ”

“ The Kitchen Garden of our young folk will need but very little looking after during the present and next two months; but in stating this we must not be understood to imply that it should be wholly neglected. On the contrary, it must be kept quite free from weeds of all sorts; and everything should be in perfect order. To this end paths should be swept and weeded every week, when the state of the weather will admit of this being done. The Kitchen Garden is much too frequently seen in a disreputable state, even in pretentious places, and where flower-gardening is done very well. ”

“ For a small sum one may have one of these tiny houses to himself, a dainty box for cha no yu, and a doll’s kitchen accompanying each pavilion. On sunny days the garden is a small paradise, with the moving figures of guests and attendants always giving a human interest to the picturesque bits of landscape. ”

“ Throughout the newer parts of the country it is seen that the conditions governing the maintenance and use of the vegetable garden are somewhat different, and, while a number of vegetable crops may be grown somewhere on the farm, there is wanting that distinction so characteristic of the typical New England kitchen garden. ”

“ In the kitchen-garden the shallots should be taken up; but in other respects there is nothing particular to do—except the routine culture of keeping the garden neat, and sowing the seeds of culinary vegetables for succession. ”

“ It is easy to see in the picture how happily mated are formality and freedom; the former in the garden’s comfortable walls of living greenery with their own appropriate ornaments, and the latter in the grandly grown borders of hardy flowers.
The subject of the picture is the main feature in the garden plan. A path some fifteen feet wide, with grassy verges of ample width, and deep borders of hardy flowers. What is shown is about one fourth of the whole length. At the back of the right-hand border is the high old wall of the kitchen garden ”

“ Changes have been effected in the Kitchen Garden which are quite as remarkable as the altered methods of locomotion, lighting and sanitation. Vegetables are grown in greater variety, of higher quality, and are sent to table both earlier and later in the season than was considered possible by gardeners of former generations. ”

“ A partition in the middle separates the kitchen from the principal apartment, at one end of which are the bed-rooms. There is a garden, which, though in a somewhat rude and straggling state, and cultivated by the females only, yields a comfortable supply of the more common fruits and vegetables. ”

“ The kitchen-garden range of buildings includes pine-stoves, vineries, houses for peaches, and nectarines, figs, and cherries, hot-walls, pits for succession pines, melons, cucumbers; besides store pits for roots, tender vegetables, salading, &c., as well as frames for many purposes of cultivation. Mushrooms are usually raised in sheds behind the houses. The hot-houses are also used for growing early culinary vegetables, and small fruits in pots. ”

“ Forcing-houses for grapes and early stone fruits are of the nature of the bark stove; and in them the pit in the centre is frequently filled with pine-apple plants, in pots plunged up to the rim in the tan; but these houses belong to the kitchen-garden, [Pg 191] as do pits for growing pines, cucumbers, and melons. ”

“ Besides, the back-yard, the outbuildings, the poultry-yard, a small vegetable garden, wash-houses, &c., ought to be near the kitchen. It is a matter of importance too that the kitchen should not have a south aspect. And we must not forget that your sister, who knows how a house ought to be managed, has taken the precaution to say in her laconic programme: ‘Kitchen not underground.’ She is right: underground kitchens are unhealthy for those who live in them, present difficulties in the way of surveillance, and diffuse their odour through the ground floor. ”

“ It saves carrying trays in and out, and you get it hotter—and afterwards, why bother to move? Especially when the kitchen window looks out on the back garden, where the fruit trees are near blossom, and the parlours both look out on the front garden, the whole of whose floral splendour has just been sold for fifteen shillings and ninepence. ”

“ The form of the kitchen and fruit garden should be square or oblong, rather than curvilinear, since the working and cropping of the ground can thus be more easily carried out. The whole should be compactly arranged, so as to facilitate working, and to afford convenient access for the carting of the heavy materials. ”