370 GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



Major Clarke. These latter are best for late winter use, being usually hardier than white 

 varieties. 



Celeriac. This is a turnip rooted form of Celery, and is useful when well grown to give 

 bulbous roots for stewing or for slicing, to make salading, or may be used equally for 

 flavouring soups, &c. Seed, of which one sowing is ample, may be sown in April. The 

 plants are hardier than Celery, and one great point is that, if grown from seed as Celery 

 is, then when the plants are strong, put out, 9 inches apart, in rows 2 feet apart, on level 

 but good ground, the bulbs form on the surface like those of turnips, and in the winter 

 they can be covered up with soil, the tips of the leaves only being exposed, and in that 

 way kept from harm by frost. Celeriac should always be grown where flavouring for 

 soups is in great demand. 



CMcory. This is a deep growing, fleshy-rooted plant similar to the Parsnip. The 

 leaves closely resemble those of the Dandelion. Seeds sown in shallow drills, 12 inches 

 apart, in the month of May on good garden soil will give properly thinned, strong roots 

 the following winter. Seeds should be sown thinly in the drills, as the plants have to be 

 thinned out 4 inches to 5 inches apart in the rows. The hoe should be freely used between 

 them during the summer. In the winter the roots may be lifted as needed, or in bulk, and 

 stored in dry sand in a cool shed ; then, if some be placed in a cellar or in a big box with 

 soil about them, and covered up quite close to exclude light, the crowns send up strong 

 growth like Seakale ; when blanched it is tender and mild, making capital salading, or 

 may be cooked like Seakale and eaten. It is a useful winter vegetable. The best variety 

 is called Witloof. 



Cucumbers. Because these tender members of the Gourd family can rarely be 

 grown successfully except under glass, they tax the capacity of beginners in gardening 

 materially. The simplest culture is only required to produce Ridge Cucumbers, and 

 small ones of the same nature called Gherkins. These are grown outdoors in warm 

 positions, and if wind prevails in the garden much shelter can be provided by growing on 

 the windward side a tall row of Runner Beans. Even a bed of Asparagus will also 

 furnish a break from wind. The best course to grow these products is to make holes 

 18 inches across and 12 inches deep. Fill these holes with short fresh stable manure, 

 treading it down and heaping soil over it 4 inches thick, thus forming a mound. In the 

 centre of each of these mounds sow, 4 inches apart and i inch in depth, six seeds. Place 

 a large flower-pot over each mound until growth is seen. Then lift it off, covering up 

 only at night, or at least until the plants become too strong to be thus protected. But 

 when second or third leaves have been formed, three of the weaker plants should be 

 pulled out, leaving the three strongest only. The mounds should be 3 feet apart. The 

 sowing should take place about the third week in May, but later if the weather be cold. The 

 manure buried into the holes generates a little warmth which helps the seeds to germinate. 

 For that purpose it is well to prepare the mounds about a week before the ordinary date 

 of sowing seed. The best varieties for this form of outdoor culture are King of the Ridge, 

 Long Green, and The Gherkin, the latter being used for pickling. 



Cucumbers, Frame-House. All the long handsome cucumbers seen in shops and in 

 markets are grown in warmth, under glass. But beginners in gardening, who have pro- 

 bably only a frame or small greenhouse at their disposal, can grow them only in a small 

 way. To have the fruits early, the most useful way in this case is to obtain stable 

 manure early in the spring, and to make up a proper hot-bed for the purpose. To do 

 this well the manure should be obtained all at once, and in sufficient quantity. If a 

 frame be of the ordinary one-light size, 6 feet by 4 feet, a good cartload of manure will be 

 needed, and for a double-light frame quite two cartloads are needful. When obtained, the 

 whole of it should be well turned into a neat heap, and shaken or mixed, removing the 

 bulk of the long straw. That, of course, reduces the quantity, but it is needful. When the 

 heap has been thus made, a long-pointed stick should be thrust deep into it. After four or 

 five days that can be pulled out and felt to test heat, and if found hot the heap should be 

 at once re turned and well shaken together ; also the manure during the process should 

 receive several good sprinklings of water, not to deluge it, but to damp it equally. After 

 remaining for some six days, and being again tested, the heap may be taken and built up 

 into a hot-bed, on which the frame is to rest. That bed must be 12 inches longer and 

 broader than the frame, that it may securely stand on it. The bed should be firmly trodden 

 when made, and be rather higher behind than in front, being in a sheltered place, and 

 facing the south. So soon as made the frame can be placed on it, with a mound 6 inches 

 deep in the middle of good turfy loam, with which is mixed a very little well-decayed 

 manure. An inch thick of the soil may be spread over the rest of the bed. The glass 

 light may then be put on. Any spare litter or straw can be packed round the bed to ex- 

 clude wind and air, and over the frame mats may be laid. When the frame is found to be 

 filled with steam, tilt the light a couple of inches at the back to allow it to escape. 

 When that steam declines the Cucumber plants may be put out into the mound, the roots 

 being well buried, but very little of the stems. For a single-light frame two plants are 



