The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 669 pages of information about The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots.

The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 669 pages of information about The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots.
all the light rubbish that accumulates in yards and outhouses can be turned to account with only a moderate amount of labour, and the result of careful appropriation of such rubbish will be thoroughly satisfactory.  Burn all the chips and sticks and other stubborn stuff, and lay the mixture in the trenches when planting, so that the roots may find it at their first start.  As the Potato disease does not usually appear until late in summer, early planting is a safe precaution, for it insures early ripening of the crop.  The planting of main crops may commence towards the end of March and be completed during April, according to the locality and the condition of the soil.

==Radish==.—­From March to September make successive sowings in the coolest place that can be found for them.

==Scorzonera== to be treated much the same as Salsify.  See note on the latter under April.

==Sea Kale== to be sown in well-prepared beds; or plantations may be made of the smaller roots of the thickness of a lead pencil, and about four inches in length.  Plant them top end uppermost, and deep enough to be just covered.

==Spinach==.—­Sow in plenty.  The Perpetual or Spinach Beet should not be forgotten.  This is one of the most useful vegetables known, as it endures heat and cold with impunity, and when common Spinach is running to seed the Perpetual variety remains green and succulent, and fit to supply the table all the summer long.

==Spinach, New Zealand==, is another excellent vegetable in high summer when the Round-seeded variety is worthless.  The plant is rather tender, and for an early supply the seed must be sown in moderate heat, either in this month or in April.  When large enough, get the seedlings into small pots, and gradually harden them before planting in the open about the end of May.

==Strawberries==.—­Spring is undoubtedly preferable to autumn for planting, and results in a finer crop of fruit in the following year.  Just as growth is commencing is the most favourable time, and this, of course, depends on the character of the season.  Alpine Strawberries may be sown outdoors this month or in September for fruiting in the succeeding year.

==Tomato.==—­In ordinary seasons and in the southern counties there is no difficulty in producing handsome Tomatoes in the open border; but to ripen the fruit with certainty it is imperative that an early variety be chosen.  With the rise of latitude, however, the crop becomes increasingly precarious, until in the North it is impossible to finish Tomatoes without the aid of glass.  For plants which are to ripen fruit in the open, a sowing should be made early in the month, in the manner advised under January.  Plants which are ready should be transferred to small thumb pots.  Put them in so that the first leaves touch the rim of the pot, and place them in a close frame or warm part of the greenhouse for a few days until the roots take hold.  To save them from becoming

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The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.