The Carden Magazine, March, 1920 
63 
New Zealand Spinach 
A LTHOUGH New Zealand spinach is not 
by any means a new vegetable there are 
comparatively few gardens in which it is 
grown. Yet no kind of green which can 
be grown in the back yard garden is more 
economical of space nor so abundant as to crop. 
The flavor may not be exactly like that of ordin- 
ary spinach, but the difference is not easily de- 
tected when the dish is properly prepared. 
New Zealand spinach flourishes in midsummer 
heat as well as late in the fall. Its great merit, 
from the standpoint of the man with a little 
land is that it is a continuous cropper. The 
same plant will yield from midsummer until 
hard frost blackens the garden. Each plant 
sends out a considerable number of semi-pros- 
trate branches, from which many laterals start. 
It is the leafy tips of these laterals which are 
used. As fast as they are picked off more are 
produced, and with a fairly large number of 
plants, the ground will be covered even at the 
close of the season. The tips are at their best 
when about six or eight inches long, and are 
cooked and served in the same way as common 
spinach. 
New Zealand spinach does not grow nearly so 
rapidly as common spinach. Seeds sown in 
May will produce plants ready for picking 
by the first of August, or perhaps earlier, if 
conditions are particularly good. The early 
spinach is out of the ground long before this, 
so that it is very desirable to have the New 
Zealand spinach ready for use by the first of 
July. There is no difficulty in transplanting 
New Zealand spinach, and the plants started 
under glass will make rapid growth when set 
outside, if they have been given a good start. 
The average amateur has never considered New 
Zealand spinach as a vegetable to be pushed 
along in this way, but experienced gardeners 
find the plan a good one. The spinach should 
be planted in rows, three feet apart, and set 
two feet apart in the rows. This may seem 
like giving them an unusually generous amount 
of room, but by the end of the season the plants 
will have formed a green mat over the entire 
plot. 
E. I. Farrington, Mass. 
“ Hardpan ” — A Problem 
I HAVE been an inveterate reader of garden 
books for several years but only once have 
I seen the term “hardpan” used, and that was 
in The Garden Magazine (one March). Hard- 
pan is my problem. While 1 have considered 
it allied to day, still it lacks some of the stick- 
ing properties of clay and I have always been 
at a loss just how to consider it. It cannot be 
called sand, though it is dry and lacks the 
moisture of clay. 1 happen to have excep- 
tionally good drainage — the property being about 
ten feet above street level. We have heavy 
or rather constant rain here, and very little 
freezing weather. Rarely any snow. The soil 
is pretty heavy in winter — but in summer! 
1 would recommend a pickaxe and a crowbar 
for any gentle little trowel work. I have not 
yet found the implement for heavy labor. Yet, 
I have succeeded in getting a pretty good 
garden, having used liberal quantities of manure, 
sifted coal and wood ashes, and a great deal 
of sod dug under. Also put in sand with rot- 
ting Maple leaves, but never alone. Sand put 
in by itself makes what I have declared to 
be a splendid Portland cement — though perhaps 
the building inspector would not pass it. Bulbs 
and Roses seem to do exceptionally well; even 
{Continued on page 64 ) 
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