Miller's Kalendar
I have a little book called Miller's Kalendar. See below the title page. This 1875 16th edition directs the "neceffary works to be done every month in the kitchen, fruit, and pleafure gardens, as alfo in the confervatory and nurfury."
It begins with an introduction to the science of botany and then provides a chapter for each month of the year, in which is described all that may be done in that month. In January, we are told, we may dig the beds in which we will "foon" plant the spring garden, so the soil will "fweeten."
We may harvest onions, leeks, potatoes, parsnips, cabbages and such. Sounds like we are making nice, hot soup for a cold day, or maybe a Brunswick stew.
We may have brown Dutch lettuce under cold frames. In sheltered nooks and crannies of the garden, we may now sow radishes and carrots. In the greenhouse, we can start the cukes.
From the fruit trees we remove dead branches. We repair espaliers and fix the trellis. There is much detail about protecting figs.
In the pleasure garden and the wilderness, we tend to our ranunculous, anemones and tulips. If the hyacinths and "narciffufes" have put up leaves, we must mulch them.
From the Introduction to the Science of Botany, Miller's Kalendar.
Those funny esses only happen in the middles of the words. Notice that the "s" at the end of "narcissus" is the normal one.
The book is deadly serious, but it always seems endearingly goofy to me on account of those funny letters. I picture Daffy Duck exhorting me, "if the froft is very fevere," to cover the roots of the artichokes.
It's a full-time job, of course, to run such a garden. I cannot imagine a job I would rather have. I only wish someone would pay me to do it. It's what I will do when I retire.
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