i6o 
CHILDREN'S GARDENS 
v 
and winter use. May or June is the time to 
sow celery, and that would have to be planted 
in trenches about August and banked up to 
blanch it in October. In August a few 
cabbages could be sown, in September rad¬ 
ishes for winter use. Thus in a small gar¬ 
den it might be possible to have a few r 
vegetables all the year, but it would be 
difficult work for children, although very 
interesting, and they would have to be pre¬ 
pared for failures. 
There are three vegetables I must not 
omit to mention, as they have given me so 
much pleasure. The easiest of all is mustard 
and cress. It will grow almost anywhere, and 
rarely disappoints, and can be planted in all 
sorts of fanciful patterns or letters. When I 
was a very small child I sowed the name of one 
of my sisters in mustard and cress as a surprise 
for her birthday. The seeds were put in about 
ten days before, and the salad was nice and 
green by the required day in September, when 
all the birthday party were invited to my garden 
to see it; but alas ! it was discovered that I had 
misspelt the word, and there was my fault only 
too plainly visible in green lines on the brown 
earth, which no sponge or indiarubber could 
efface. There was nothing for it but to eat the 
offending letter first! Imagine my confusion, 
