136 MORE POT-POURRI 



even when mixed with anything that is put to it, it 

 dries more easily than any ordinary garden soil. This 

 winter my gardener has tried, with marked and satis- 

 factory success, a bed under the greenhouse stage. It is 

 made up in the ordinary way, and darkened and saved 

 from the drip of the plants above by a sheet or two of 

 that invaluable corrugated iron, which I mentioned 

 before, and which I find more and more useful for pro- 

 tection at night, protection for pot -plants in spring, 

 keeping the wet out of sunk pits, shading summer cut- 

 tings effectually, and so on. It also makes an excellent, 

 though ugly, paling instead of a wall. Even Peach trees 

 will grow well against it if the plants are tied to pieces 

 of batten or sticks — some stuck into the ground and 

 the branches tied horizontally from stick to stick, and 

 some put across the zinc — as then the plant, be it Peach 

 or Vine, enjoys the heat radiated from the zinc, which 

 yet cannot burn or injuriously dry the bark in summer. 

 In winter it is still more important that air should be 

 between the plant and the zinc, which gets extremely 

 cold in frosty weather. This, of course, applies equally 

 to covering zinc houses or sheds with creepers. 



This is a long digression from the Mushroom bed. 

 We have already had several excellent and useful dishes 

 off it from this the first experiment. Our outer cellar 

 is too cold here to grow Mushrooms in winter, though 

 it does well to grow the common Chicory for the 

 Barbe-de-Capucin salad, and also protects from early 

 autumn frosts the Broad -leaved Batavian Endive, which 

 does so infinitely better here than the Curled Endive. 

 We grow this in large quantities. It makes by far the 

 best late autumn salad, and is also quite excellent 

 stewed. (See 'Dainty Dishes.') 



We have not yet succeeded here with the vegetable 

 now so much sold in London in early spring; viz., 



