ABOUT MAKING GARDENS 93 



tience and will give special care, try a few cauli- 

 flower plants, either the Early Alabaster or the Pearl 

 of Denmark. I like this delicious vegetable when 

 it is well cooked, but, alas ! it is easily spoiled. 



As for lettuce it is impossible to get it worth the 

 plucking unless you can give it an exceedingly rich bit 

 of ground. Try a place where you have had a com- 

 post pile until the ground is saturated with food. 

 Fork this up very finely and sow Mignonette and 

 Golden Queen. Mignonette will give you, very 

 speedily, small heads, about as big as your fist, and 

 delicious. 



If there is room, make right here by the lettuce 

 a small bed for beets, carrots, turnips, and salsify. 

 Remember that this is the place where you must get 

 down and pull weeds, as well as stand up and hoe 

 them. The richer the bed the smaller it may be, 

 for you will get just as much from ten feet square 

 in rich deep soil as you will from three times that 

 space of hard soil. 



I give tomatoes precedence and am willing to 

 spend more time and trouble with them than with 

 most other vegetables. They are started in a cold 

 frame or hot bed, and no plants are ever set in the 

 garden that are not as thick through as your finger. 

 Thin them in the hot bed until they are very stout ; 

 then take them up with a liberal supply of dirt, set 

 them out six feet apart, crowd down the dirt around 

 them, mulch them thoroughly, and my word for it 

 you will have to tie them to stakes inside of a month 



