SCREENS. 



454 



S EAR ALE. 



Screens. 



If a screen be needed in the garden, it 

 may easily be managed, and with a very 

 good effect, by means of hollyhocks and 

 chrysanthemums. Hedges of either of 

 these flowers will serve to shut out from 

 view anything that may be required, and at 

 the same time produce a beautiful effect. 

 Hollyhocks can be 

 staked separately in 

 the line where they 

 are wanted ; but with 

 chrysanthemums the 

 best plan is to stretch 

 a rough wire fence to 

 which they may be 

 trained. This may be 

 made of a few rough 

 stakes supporting three 

 or four rows of wire, 

 over which on both 

 sides the plants may 

 be trained after the | 

 fashion of espaliers, 

 so as to cover all the framework. Many 

 other plnnls also there are which will sug- 

 gest themselves to every gardener as capable 

 of forming a pleasing and effective tem- 

 porary hedge. 



Seakale : its Culture. 



The best way of raising seakale is from 

 seed, which should be sown in drills, 

 about 4 or 5 feet apart, and 3 inches 

 deep ; this should be done about the begin- 

 ning of April. When sufficiently large to 

 tell which plants are strongest, thin them 

 to about three inches ; in July transplant 

 some, leaving them in rows a foot or 18 

 inches apart. During the summer and 

 autumn the ground should be kept clear of 

 weeds and often stirred ; and in dry weather 

 copiously watered, especially that which 

 has been transplanted. Some recommend 

 planting these thinnings on ridges raised a 

 foot high or so, placing the plants in threes 



SCOKZONERA. 



or fours, the clusters being a yard apart and 

 the ridges five feet. It is affirmed that 

 when heat is applied to seakale planted in 

 this way, the ground gets warmed, so that 

 the plants get bottom heat as well as top. 

 There is, however, no actual advantage in 

 this practice ; but it is as well to plant 

 them in clumps of three or four together, a 

 yard apart : in this way a bunch of crowns 

 is formed, over which to place a kale-pot, a 

 great advantage in that which is to be 

 forced. 



Management. Seakale is best managed 

 in the open ground, where, if planted on 

 ridges in clusters of three, a yard apart, it 

 may be forced any time in the winter, by 

 putting the pots on, and covering them 

 with about 3 feet of fermenting dung : with 

 a moderate heat, it takes about three weeks, 

 from the time of covering till ready tc cut. 

 Never break off the leaves, but leave them 

 to decay naturally, when they may be re- 

 moved. 



Speedy Mode of Growing Seakale. Sea- 

 kale may be grown in about nine months 

 from the seed, in the following manner, in 

 place of the expensive and tedious process 

 now followed : The ground having been 



prepared in winter, and subjected to a 

 month or two of frost in a rough state, the 

 seed should be sown in the latter end of 

 March or early in April, and even as late 



