A Year's Work in the Vegetable Garden 



crops are over. To insure fine Celery the cultivator must be in 

 advance of events rather than lag behind them. Plenty of manure 

 must be used ; it is scarcely possible, in fact, to employ too much, 

 and liberality is not waste, because the ground will be in capital con- 

 dition for the next crop. There are many modes of planting Celery, 

 but the simplest is to make the trenches four feet apart and a foot 

 and a half wide, and put the plants six to nine inches apart, according 

 to the sorts. This work must be done neatly, with an artistic finish. 

 In planting take off suckers, and if any of the leaves are blistered, 

 pinch the blisters, and finish by dusting the plantation with soot. As 

 Celery loves moisture, give water freely in dry weather. 



Cucumbers of excellent quality may be grown on ridges or hills, 

 should the season be favourable. Suppose the cultivator to have 

 the means of obtaining plenty of manure, ridges, which are to run 

 east and west, are preferable to hills. The soil should be thrown out 

 three feet wide and two feet deep, and be laid up on the north side. 

 Then put three feet of hot manure in the trench, and cover with the 

 soil that was taken out, so as to form an easy slope to the south, and 

 with a steep slope on the north side carefully finished to prevent its 

 crumbling down before the season ends. The plants should be put 

 out on the slope as soon as possible after the ridges are made ready, 

 under the protection of hand-lights, until there is free growth and 

 the weather has become quite summery. It is a good plan to grow 

 one or two rows of Runner Beans a short distance from the ridge 

 on the north side to give shelter, and in case of bad weather after 

 the plants are in bearing, pea-sticks or dry litter laid about them 

 lightly will help them through a critical time, but stable manure 

 must not be used. In case manure is not abundant, make a few 

 small hills in a sheltered, sunny spot, with whatever you can find 

 in the way of turf, rotten manure, or leaf-mould, taking care that 

 nothing injurious to vegetation is mixed with it. Put several inches 

 of a mixture of good loam and rotten manure on the hills, and plant 

 and protect as in the case of ridges. If plants are not obtainable, 

 sow seeds ; there will still be a chance of Cucumbers during July, 

 August, and September ; for if they thrive at all, they are pretty brisk 

 in their movements. Three observations remain to be made on this 

 subject. In the first place, what are known as ' Ridge ' Cucumbers 

 only should be grown in the open air; the large sorts grown in 

 houses are unfit. In the second place, the plants should only be 

 pinched once, and there is no occasion for the niggling business 

 which gardeners call ' setting the bloom.' Provide for their roots 



