60 



Spinach and Other Greens 



sown early in spring, as are ordinary beet seeds, and the 

 plants are thinned as used until finally they stand 6 to 13 

 inches in the row. The rows should stand 18 to 34 inches, 

 as the plants produce very large 

 tops. Small plants of the commou 

 beet, as explained on page 164, are 

 often used for greens, but they 

 are inferior to the developed forms 

 known as chard. 



From mature plants the leaves are 

 taken as wanted, care being exer- 

 cised not to strip the crown at any 

 gathering. The plant should con- 

 tinue to produce throughout the 

 season, and crowns remaining over 

 winter often grow in spring, al- 

 though the second year they run 

 quickly to seed. Fall-sown plants, 

 if well established, often pass the 

 winter in safety. Sometimes they 

 are carried over in coldframes, for 

 early spring crop; and the plants may be started under 

 glass late in winter, and transplanted, for the same pur- 

 pose. 



Chard is a beet. Beta vulgaris var. Cicla, for which see 

 page 170. The beet leaf -miner sometimes attacks it. 



Mustard is much used for greens in home gardens, and 

 it is also grown to a large extent in parts of the South, 

 where the climate is too hot for many other pothetb crops. 

 Some of the improved varieties of curled-leaved mustard 



20. Chard, showing 

 wide edible petiole 

 midrib CX %). 



the 

 and 



