As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
I am very grateful for Confederate General, Thomas Jonathan Jackson, or Stonewall as he was known, as his dear wife, Mary Anna, was prompted before their daughter's death to write of the letters of General Jackson, and in them she mentioned Buist's Kitchen Gardener, which her husband gardened by.
It required some digging, but I found a e copy of this book for free, and fortunately it was indeed not a typo in the author was named Buist, Robert Buist an American.
This is really a fine book, that is better than every modern version I have perused. It is amazing in this was written in the 1840's, and Mr. Buist wrote volumes on roses and flowers, which apparently are still as valuable as today as when they were written in being definitive of the subjects.
In this volume I found something I have been pondering ever since I knew of Thomas Jefferson's "Orangarium" at Monticello. While I never have had much of an inclination to grow citrus trees, I have had lustings of this in a most Christian manner of adopting this to situations I fully intended to exploit.
Mr. Buist was writing of Cold Frames, Hot Houses and Moveable Glass covers, long before the modern experts made it appear they were the inventors of these subjects. All they did was have access to Buist and resold the package without giving him credit.
"The WalMPU.Tig, 15, is also partly sunk in the ground and partly out. The walls are formed of brick or stone, finished with a wooden or stone coping, the width of the Fig. 15. wall, into which cross rafters are mortised (but moveable) to support the sashes. Our object in having them moveable is to admit of their being raised as the growth of Cauliflowers or aoy other plants require. This is readily done by having a strong two-inch plank made to fit the back and front of the pit, and to rest on the coping; the rafters to rest on these planks either by mortising holes for their reception, or to have them to rest on clets. This is a great convenience, and overcomes the difficulty every grower feels when his Cauliflowers touch the glass.
There is no appendage to the garden of greater utility than this pit. It is two feet under ground, one foot above it in front, and two feet above it at the back, and six or seven feet wide in the clear. It is an excellent winter apartment for plants when covered with sash and mats. When filled with very rich earth it grows fine Cauliflowers, that will be in use from March to May. If filled with warm manure early in February, it will grow Cucumbers that will be in use from April to July, or grow Eadishes and small sallading in quantity. In summer the sashes can be used for growing fine varieties of Grapes.
Robert Buist. Family Kitchen Gardener
If you are wondering what WALMPU.TIG 15 is, I assume it is figure 15 as it is repeated in the paragraph, but the WalMPU is some Wall bastardization name of a slant roof over a cold frame where the stone aborbs heat during the day in cold periods to keep things above freezing at night.
I have been contemplating such thing in clear plastic barrels if I could afford and find them, cut in half for leafy crops to extend the season, and for something when some rich person donates that 350,000 that I plan to build what is in my mind in a Fruitarium.
My mental plan is like this Walmpu....actually I like that name, even if it is probably computer generated codex misspelling.......but anyway my fruitarium is a structure of 15 feet in height, which the plan is for peach trees, numbering 4 to delight me.
It has the stone or concrete work, the glass, but La'me has not been sedentary these numerous decades in I have drain pipe in the ground, with solar powered fan, to circulate that heat about to keep things beyond winter kill like the Monks at Labradore in Canada of long ago in their gardening in that USDA Zone 2.
See I do not want the stone fruits blooming in February, so it would be thermostat controlled and the windows covered. The ground heat would keep the tree roots from freezing out, and when the time came, all would be a discovered country uncovered.
Yes I need to experiment on conditions of ventilation and disease in such and environment, but I do have high hopes......hopes which would include growing such things as radishes, chard, spinach etc... in this fruitarium late in the season.
The longer I could keep the peaches active into December, the healthier it would be for them. I just can not have them dying like house plants nor have them blooming too early, as fruit does require heat.
The point being, I could have cabbages, cauliflower, brocolli, brussel sprouts late and free from cabbage worms. Right ventilation would keep them from being musty or diseased.......those plants would be the finch in the mine, because if they started going tits up, then it would mean the trees would be next.
Peach trees do not prune healthy, but I would have to try and keep them from being too tall.........yes could try dwarf, but would prefer my own seedlings. Probably would keep my bees in this too........tractor with loader would be nice to lift the roof off too for summer.
I can see why an intellectual Christian mind like Thomas Jackson was drawn to Robert Bruist as the author is intelligent and writes very well. I have read English books of that era and earlier on gardening and they are most unattractive. That is why this is so appealing in this wide ranging book which includes things the modern minds have not plagiarized yet as they are too dense to figure out their importance.
In Virginia, the content certainly had Stonewall Jackson growing heaps of food to his delight. One so rarely finds a timeless book on scientific material which reads well centuries later. It is the greatest blessing of the internet in electronic media for reproduction without cost at archive sites providing all of this information.
These past books with Youtube videos on how to do things, are the greatest educational format in world history. Once again the self educated human is advancing the medium to the benefit of those like Benjamin Franklin or Mary Anna Jackson who embarked upon teaching themselves.
Oh for the love of our fruitarium to be born.........little peach leaves in volume covering the floor to provide a winter coat for roots, as little brassica peek through the jungle fodder promising sweet treats for the near date.
Hmmm that is a thought I never thought......I can grow my cabbage worm plants when the moths are dormant or dead, and garden in summer those crops which have no predators.
I need this done before Jesus comes back.
agtG
