Works to be done in May.
THe Effects of Vegetation during the Month of March, seemed to be but little proofs of Trial which Nature then made in order to some greater performances. For alass, Trees blossoming or shooting forth Leaves, or beginning to put forth swelling Buds. &c. are all marks of lesser vigour than weakness, after which, in the producti∣ons of April, we have seen the same Nature augment in strength, and shew its effects by the knitting of Fruit, lengthning out Branches, and the coming up of sown Seeds, &c. But at length when we once come to the Month of May, 'tis then that Mother of Vegeta∣tion seems in earnest to display and exert all the force she is Mistress of, in order to the maintaining her self in that flourishing Estate during the whole Months of June and July following, at this time covering the Walls with new Branches, plumping the Fruit, and covering the Earth with a lovely and charming verdure, &c. And now our Gar∣d'ners have great need to be upon their Guards, to prevent their Gardens falling into dis∣order, because 'tis most sure, that if they be not now extreamly careful and laborious, there is no Disaster, but they may expect; pernicious Weeds will in little time choke up all their good Seeds, their Walks and Alleys will be overgrown, and their Trees will fall into the greatest Confusion, for which reasons it will highly concern them to be ex∣treamly watchful and diligent to weed, manure, cleanse, to take off all superfluous Leaves and Sprigs, and to nail up Wall-trees, by which means it will be in their Power to acquire the desirable Commendation of having adorned and set out their Gardens with all the lustre and excellency which they ought to have.
Green Peas, that were sown in Banks or Borders in October, now begin to recompense our Pains, and to blossom at the coming in of this Month, (the Blossoms last commonly about eight or ten days before they begin to pod, and in three weeks after, they are fit to gather, and shell. In the mean while, about the seventh or eighth day of the Month, we should plant our Collyflowers, Milan Cabbages, Capucin Capers, or Nasturces, Beet-Chards, &c. Page 160 If we plant them sooner, they commonly run to Seed, which is to be avoided; and in fine for those things, we ought not to pass the fifteenth day, nor likewise for the sowing of Winter Cabbages. We now make all the hast we can, to make an end of dis-eying or slipping our Artichokes, which are vigorous, and seem to have need of being discharged and thinned, and we make an end of planting new ones. The Eyes or Sucker-slips are good enough, provided they be pretty thick and white, though they have no root at their heel or foot, and we may be sure to have very fine Fruit from them in Autumn, and in truth it were to be wished, they would yield none sooner, because those produced before that time are commonly pitiful, starveling, and as 'twere abortive Fruits. Yet 'tis not enough to plant only some good thick young slip-suckers, but we must likewise plant some midling ones, especially in some well sheltred place, only to fortifie themselves there during the rest of the year, that they may be able to yield us their first Artichokes next Spring; those which have born in Autumn, not making such swift advances as these other. Next we are to plant our Beet Chards almost at the same time, which are well placed, if planted in the middle of the Artichokes, that is, one Beet plant between two Artichokes, so that there may be some in one Rank, and none in the other, for there must be room enough left free, to go upon to water, weed, manure, gather, and to cover them too, when need shall require.
The Earliest Musk Melons begin to knit in the first quarter, or at the full of this Months Moon, but chiefly at the wane of it, if their Beds were very hot at the full, and are grown cooler at the wane.
We also at the same time Rank our Fig-Trees in the place alloted for the Fig Planta∣tion, that we may have them in the disposition we desire. They begin then to put forth their Leaves and shoots, and at length their Fruit begins to plump at the full Moon.
Towards the end of the Month, we begin with diligence and expedition, to nail up the new shoots of Wall-Trees, if they be strong enough to suffer it: And it is convenient to have finish'd this Work at the beginning of June, because at the end of that Month, we must begin the second nailing of the first shoots, and the first of those which were never yet nail'd. We must likewise pinch, or break off the thick shoots we find, whether because after the first pinching of April, they have not multiplied into Branches as far as they extend, and on the contrary, have produced yet but one thick shoot, or because, though they have multiplied into Branches, they have produced one shoot thick enough to be pinched; for otherwise that thick shoot would be unuseful and per∣nicious; unuseful, because it must be taken away, or at least be cut very short, and pernicious, because it will, as one may say, have robb'd other necessary shoots of that nourishment they should have had: Always taking it for a Rule, that we must in nailing, take care to couch all those Branches which may and ought to be couched, without tying several of them together, or taking away, or plucking off any that is sightly, unless it be that we can by no means couch it, in which case, we must cut it off within the breadth of a Crown piece of the place from whence it sprouts, in hopes that out of the two sides of the remaining stump of that thickness, there may sprout some good Fruit-Branches, we must also have a care not to lay one cross another, unless we be necessarily obliged so to do, to fill up a void place, or to preserve a uniform equality.
If there be any Trees designed to mount upright, we must accordingly order for that purpose, the Branch that seems most proper for it.
We tie the graffs either to their Trunk, or to sticks set up on purpose by them, to make them grow in that figure we would have them, and hinder them from being bro∣ken by the Winds.
We sow a great deal of Genua Lettuce, and we replant some of them, and of the other Lettuces also.
We likewise trim Pear-Trees, either to take off the false shoots if any appear, which is done by plucking them quite away when they make a confusion, or even such others which though they be good, yet because they might produce that confusion which is so much to be avoided in a Tree, must therefore be taken off, for the better fortifying of those that are to make the figure of that Tree; for a second shoot will grow much more vigorous, if we take away that which being at the extremity of the pruned Branch was counted for the first.
We sow Endive, that we may have some good, at the end of July, which may be white∣ned in the same place where it first grew, without removing, if it being sown thin, and well watered during the whole Month. We now also take the advantage of some rainy Page 161 weather, to replant in their designed places, our annual Flowers, some of them seldom failing to come to good there; we likewise take the advantage of the same time, to fill up with Basketed, or Circumposed Trees, the places of those that are dead, or that thwart our expectations, or that give us no very good hopes of their thriving. The manner of doing it, is, to make a hole big enough to hold the Basket and Tree, then to put it in, and carefully to fill up with Earth all the hollow space round about the Basket, and to press it down hard either with the foot or hand, and then to pour down all round upon it, two or three pitchers full of water, in order to the better incorporating the Earth without, with that within, so that there may not be left the least hollow in the world. It is necessary to renew these waterings two or three times during the rest of the Summer.
We also still plant Beet Chards, choosing for that purpose the brightest of those that are of the growth of the last sown Seeds, as being both fairer and better than those which are green.
We continue our Nurseries of Straw-berry Plants till the end of this Month, at which time, we may perfectly distinguish the good ones by their Stems, or upright shoots.
We also still continue to tie up those Lettuces that Cabbage not as they should.
We sow no more Lettuces, except Genuz Lettuces, after the middle of May, because all the rest but only this last sort, are too apt to run to Seed.
We replant Musk Melons and Cucumbers in the naked Earth in little Holes or Trenches filled with mold; we also plant Pumpions▪ or Citruls in the like holes, at the distance of three Toises or Fathoms, they are such as have been raised on Hot Beds, and therefore to make them take root again, the sooner, we cover them with something for five or six days, unless it rain, the great heat of the Sun, otherwise being apt to make them wither, and sometimes to kill them quite.
We continue to sow a few Peas, which must be of the biggest sort; and if we think good, we pull off some of the Branches of the others that are over vigorous, after they are well cleared of Weeds; Peas that are disbranched, bearing a more plentiful crop than others.
We bring out our Orange-Trees at the first quarter of this Months Moon, if the weather begin to be secure from the assaults of the Frost, and we put them into boxes that have need of it; I referr you for their culture to the Treatise I have composed expresly about that subject: It was our care during all the fair days in April, to leave open the windows of their Conservatories, to accustom them by degrees, to the open Air.
We trim our Jasmins when we bring them out, cutting off all their Branches to the length of half an Inch.
At the end of this Month, we begin to clip for the first time, our palisades, or pole hedges of Box, Filaria's, Yew and Espicia's.
Above all things, care must be taken to water all our plants largely, or else they will all roast and scorch, whereas by the help of seasonable waterings, we may visibly perceive them thrive. We also now water new planted Trees, and for that purpose, we make a hollow Circle of four or five Inches deep, round about the extreamities of the roots, and pour into it some pitchers of water, and when 'tis soak'd in, we either throw back the Earth into the Circle, or else we cover it with dry Dung, or little, in order to renew our waterings several other times, till the Trees have taken fast root again, after which, we fill it up with Earth again.
We may begin to replant our Purslain for Seeding towards the end of the Month.
We continue to trim Musk Melons, but we replant no more of them after the middle of May.
But we still continue to plant Cucumbers.
About the end of the Month; we begin to plant Cellery, and we use two ways of planting it, viz. either in Cold Beds hollowed into the Ground, as we do Asparagus, plan∣ting three ranks of them in every Bed, and placing both the ranks, and the Cellery plants at about a foot distance one from another, and that is the best way for them when they are a little bigger than ordinary, that so we may be able to raise the earth about them afterwards, with that which was taken out of the furrows, and which was thrown upon the next Cold Beds, or else we replant them on plain Ground at the same distance as before, and at the end of Autumn, binding them first with two or three bands; these are rai∣sed in tufts, that we may replant them as nigh as we can, to one another, that so they Page 162 may be the more easily covered with long dry Dung, and be the better whitened, and defended from the Frost.
Towards the end of the Month, we begin to tie our Vines to their props, and to nail up such stocks of them as are planted by Walls, after we have first clear'd them of all their feeble, unprofitable, and unfruitful Shoots and Sprigs.
We likewise plant single Anemonies, which flower a Month after, and we may have planted some every Month since the last preceeding August, they blowing and flowering in the same manner, if not hindered by an extream cold Season.
At the very beginning of the Month, or at least as soon as ever we can, we pick off, and thin our Apricocks when there are too many of them, never leaving two close to∣gether, that so those we leave on, may grow the bigger, and at the end of the same Month, we may pick off, and thin our Teaches and Pears, if they be big enough, and there be two many of them. About that time also, or at the beginning of the ensu∣ing Month, the first bright Cabbages are to be sown for Autumn and Winter, the biggest of them which are replanted in July, being to be eaten in Autumn, and the less vigorous which are replanted in September and October, being to serve for our Winter Provi∣sion.
During all the Month of May, the shoots of Wall-Trees are apt enough to slide them∣selves behind their trails or props as I have said in the Month of April, and we shall hardly be able to draw them out again without breaking them, unless we do it in time, and be careful once every Week, to take an exact view all along our Walls, to reme∣dy so mischievous an inconvenience, against which too much caution cannot be used. Ma∣ny Branches grow crooked, rugged, parched, and hooked at the ends, and their Leaves also; and therefore about the full Moon, we must pull off those Leaves so crumpled and hooked, and break off as low as we can, the parched shoots, that there may spring o∣thers instead of them that may be better and streighter. Fig-Trees too must now be pruned, and especially those in Boxes, of the method of doing which, I have compo∣sed a particular Treatise.
We continue to sow a few Radishes among other Seeds, as we should have also done in the two last preceeding Months.
We also now take the advantage of some gentle Showers, or of very cloudy weather, to uncover what we have sheltred under Glass Bells or Frames, as well for the watering of our Beds, as for the inuring and hardening them to indure the open Air.
If our Garden be situated in a Sandy and dry Ground, we endeavour by the help of some little Dykes or Gutters, to carry off all the water that falls sometimes in hastly Storms, to those places that are manured, that none of it may be unprofitably wasted in the Walks or Allies, and if they be situated in Ground that is too strong, fat and moist, such as that of our new Kitchen-Garden at Versailles, we drain it away from those Grounds that are incommoded by it, by conveying it into the Walls or Allies, to spend it self there, or shooting it off into Stone gutters that carry it out of the Gar∣den; for which purpose we must raise our Ground into arch'd ridges.
During all this Month, it is good to lay yellow stock Gilliflowers, by planting cut∣tings of them, where ever we have a mind, or by laying their Branches that still grow to their Plants.
Those that are curious in Carnations and Clove-Gilliflowers, in order to have double ones, sow some good Seeds of them about the 5, 6, 7, or 8th. of May Moon, in earthen Pans, or wooden Tubs, that at least they may begin to sprout at the full Moon, which sometimes happens in June, but most commonly in May, those plants ought to grow big enough to be removed in September, into the naked Earth, that so they may have taken Ground before the Equinox; others again content themselves with sowing their Seeds be∣fore the Equinox.
We should likewise replant before the end of May, some green curled, and Aubervilliers Lettuce, that we may have some all the Month of June, together with the Chicons, and Imperial Long-Lettuce.
We must also at this time endeavour to destroy the thick white Worms, which now spoil the Strawberries, and Cabbage Lettuce, and take away the green Caterpillars, which quite cat up the Leaves of the Curran and Gooseberry bushes, and so spoil their Fruit.
At the end of May, we should also thin those Roots that grow too thick, and replant those we have plucked up in another place, as Beet-raves, or Red Beet-Roots, Pars∣nips, &c.
Page 163 We may replant Daisies, Bears-Ears, and white double Narcissus's, though in Flower, that not at all hindering them from taking Root again.
