22 THE PRACTICAL GARDEN -BOOK 



While this plant is not generally grown in this country, 

 its merit as a supplementary vegetable for salads or cooking 

 is great. It is usually grown from suckers from the root, 

 but a start can be made by sowing the seed. Sow in a 

 border or seed box and transplant to the garden in early 

 summer; and the following year a crop may be had. The 

 parts of the plant used are the flower-heads and the young 

 suckers, the former boiled or eaten raw as a salad. The young 

 shoots may be tied together and blanched, using them like 

 asparagus or Swiss chard. The fleshy scales of the head 

 and the soft "bottom" of the head are the parts used. But 

 few of these plants would be needed for a family, as they 

 produce a number of flower-heads to a plant and a quantity 

 of suckers. The plants should be set from 2 to 3 ft. apart 

 in the row, the rows being 3 ft. apart. This vegetable is 

 not quite hardy in the north, but a covering of leaves or 

 barnyard litter to the depth of a foot will protect them well. 

 The plant, being a perennial, will continue to yield for a 

 number of years under good cultivation. These plants make 

 no mean decorative subjects, either massed or in a mixed 

 border, and from the rarity of their culture are always ob- 

 jects of interest. 



Artichoke, Jerusalem, is a wholly different 

 plant from the above, although it is commonly known as 

 "Artichoke" in this country. It is a species of sunflower 

 which produces potato -like tubers. These tubers may be 

 used in lieu of potatoes. They are very palatable to hogs; 

 and when the plant becomes a weed as it often does - it 

 may be exterminated by turning the hogs into it. Hardy. 



Arundo, or REED, is one of the best of bold and 

 ornamental grasses, excellent for the center of a large formal 

 bed, or for emphatic points in a mixed border. It is per- 

 ennial and hardy in the northern states, but it is advisable 

 to give it a mulch on the approach of winter. Thrives in 

 any rich soil, doing best where somewhat moist. 8-12 ft. 

 The clumps enlarge year by year. 



