88 THE CULTURE OF VEGETABLES 



PARSLEY 



(Carum Petroselinuni) 



PARSLEY will teach those who have eyes exactly how it should be 

 grown. There will appear here, there, and elsewhere in a garden, 

 stray or rogue Parsley plants. No matter how regularly the hoeing 

 and weeding may be done, a stray Parsley plant will appear all alone, 

 perhaps in the midst of Lettuces, or Cauliflowers, or Onions. When 

 these rogues escape destruction they become magnificent plants, and 

 the gardener sometimes leaves them to enjoy the conditions they 

 have selected, and in which they evidently prosper. It scarcely 

 matters what kind of ground these rogue Parsleys are found in, 

 they are always richly curled and sumptuous specimens, proving that 

 isolation suits the plant ; it likes to spread with free air and light 

 around it, and when the opportunity occurs, it will show what a 

 Parsley can be, and should be, whether wanted for use or ornament, 

 or to remain in its own chosen nook as a magnificent vagabond. 

 The lesson for the cultivator is that Parsley should have plenty of 

 room from the very first, and this lesson, we feel bound to say, cannot 

 be too often enforced upon young gardeners, for they are apt to sow 

 Parsley far more thickly than is wise, and to be injuriously slow 

 and timid in thinning the crop when the plants are actually crowding 

 one another out of existence. 



Parsley, like many other good things, will grow almost anywhere 

 and anyhow, but to make a handsome crop a deep, rich, moist soil 

 is required. It attains to fine quality on a well-tilled clay, but the 

 kindly loam that suits almost everything suits this plant perfectly, 

 and every good garden should show a handsome sample, for beauty 

 is the first required qualification. To keep the house fairly well 

 supplied, sowings should be made in February, May, and July, but 

 with a little management continuous supplies may be obtained from 

 one annual sowing in April, as from this two or three plantings may 

 be made that will spread the growth over two seasons, or at least a 

 sufficient length of time to prevent a gap between the old and the 

 new crops. When the plant pushes for seed it becomes useless, 

 and had best be got rid of ; but by planting at various times in various 

 places, a sufficiency may be expected to go through a second season 

 without bolting, after which it will be necessary to root them out and 



