A CATECHISM OF GARDENING. 
30.9 
What is the use and culture of Spinach? The leaves are a 
delicate green, and much used in superior cookery. Where a con¬ 
stant supply is wanted, the round-leaved variety is sowed on large 
beds, broadcast and in drills, monthly, from January until August. 
The seed is well trodden in before the ground is raked. When the 
seedlings are an incli or two high, they should be hoed to five-inch 
distances, and kept always free from weeds. 
Is there another variety? Yes; the prickly seeded, of which the 
principal and largest sowing is made about the 10 th of August. 
This yields the winter and spring supply, the leaves being repeatedly 
picked or cut from the plants. Even to the cottager, a bed of spinach 
may be profitable, as it is a pleasant addition to the rasher, when 
turnip-tops are scarce, or before the cabbage comes in. 
Are there any other spinacious plants ? Yes, there are two, viz. 
New Zealand spinach and the white beet. The first is only cultivated 
in gentlemen’s gardens, and managed much as ridged cucumbers are; 
though if sowed in May, in the open ground, and allowed to ripen 
and it’s seed, which it will do in autumn, plants will come up plenti¬ 
fully in the following summer. The second is a substitute for spinach 
when nothing better can be had. Ten or twelve good seeds of the 
white beet, dropped in a drill, on well manured ground, are sufficient 
for a small garden. 
Do you rank celery among eatable leaves? Yes; because leaf¬ 
stalks are the parts eaten, as far as they are blanched. 
What management does celery require? It being both a salad 
and kitchen vegetable, much pains are taken to have it large, lasting, 
and good. If the seed be sowed too early in the season, the plants 
are liable to run ; and if too late, they do not arrive at a full size. 
When should the seed for the main crop be sowed ? At twice in the 
month of April, viz, about the 4th and 20th. The seed-bed should 
be on a warm spot, and as soon as the seedlings are fit to handle, they 
should be pricked out on a rich well-prepared nursery bed, there to 
gain strength till planted in trenches in July. The earliest crops, 
i. e. those raised in January and February, are generally sowed and 
nursed in hot-beds, and go into trenches in May and June; but these 
require using as soon as they are of sufficient size, as they quickly 
produce flowering stems. 
How is celery blanched ? In two ways; the first and most common 
is by forming trenches parallel with, and four feet distance from each 
other; these are made twelve inches wide, and, if the staple allows, as 
many deep ; the soil taken out is spread on each side the trenches; 
the latter then receive a layer’of very rich rotten dung, which is 
