The Culture of Vegetables 



warm, dry ground, winter planting answers perfectly, and enables the 

 gardener to complete the task, for there is always enough to do in 

 the spring months. But on damp ground and in exposed situations 

 the best time to plant is the month of March. Put down the line, 

 and open a trench one foot deep, and plant the roots with their 

 crowns two inches below the surface, filling in and treading firmly as 

 each trench is planted. The precaution may be taken to pare off 

 all the pointed prominent buds on each crown, as this will prevent 

 the rise of flower-stems ; but if this is neglected, the cultivator must take 

 care to cut out all the flowering-shoots that appear, for the production 

 of flowers will prove detrimental to the crop of Sea Kale in the 

 following season. Our custom, when a plantation has been thus made, 

 is to grow another crop with it the first season. The ground between 

 the rows is marked out in narrow strips, and lightly forked over, and 

 if a coat of rotten manure can be spared it is pricked in, and a neat 

 seed-bed is made of every strip, eighteen to twenty-four inches wide. 

 On this prepared bed sow Onions, Lettuces, and other light crops,, 

 and as the Sea Kale advances take care to remove whatever would 

 interfere with their expansion, for the stolen crop should not stand 

 in the way of that intended for permanent occupation. A crop of 

 early Cauliflower, small Cabbage, or even Potatoes, may be taken, 

 in which case there will be room for only one row alternately with 

 each row of Kale, and perhaps one row also in the alleys. 



The growth of the Kale should be promoted by all legitimate 

 means, and in high summer it will take water, liquid manure, and 

 mulchings of rich stuff, to almost any extent, with advantage. The 

 irrigation that suits the Kale will probably also suit the stolen 

 crop, but irrigation is not good for Onions or Potatoes ; where these 

 crops are grown care must be given to bestow the fluid on the Sea 

 Kale only. 



As the leaves decay in autumn, they should be removed, and 

 the ground kept thoroughly clean. When finally cleaned up, let it 

 be forked over, but with care not to put the tool too near the plants ; 

 and if manure is plentiful, lay down a coat for a finish, or fork it in 

 at the general clear up. There should now commence a systematic 

 saving of clean leaves. Mere vegetable rubbish is not to be thought 

 of. Proceed to cover the ground with leaves in heaps or ridges 

 sufficient to make a coat finally of about one foot deep, or say nine 

 inches at the very least. If there is any store of rough planking on 

 the premises, let the planks be laid on the ridges of leaves on which- 

 ever side the prevailing wind may be. This will prevent the leaves 



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