CHAPTER IV. 



VEGETABLES NEGLECTED IN ENGLISH GARDENS. 

 CARDOON. 



THIS is not a vegetable for a small garden, as it 

 needs considerable space, and does not pay unless as 

 great a choice of vegetables as possible is desired in 

 the household. It is closely allied to the Globe Arti- 

 choke, and is a great favourite on the Continent, where 

 it is properly cooked. The seed is best sown in small 

 pots early in the spring, in warm frames, and if three 

 or four seeds are sown, the plants when large enough 

 should be thinned to the strongest one, hardened off, 

 and planted out in trenches in May or June, in the 

 same way as for Celery, but they must have more room, 

 not less than two feet between each tuft, and at least 

 four feet between the trenches to allow for moulding 

 up. Other methods are quite as good, but the produce 

 is not so large, although sufficiently so for most pur- 

 poses. One way is to prepare trenches early in May, 

 and sow the seed in them at eighteen inches apart in 

 the row, placing the seed in patches at the distance 

 named, and thinning to the strongest. The Cardoon 

 requires a good diet, and must have abundant supplies 



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