War Gardens: A Pocket Guide for Home Vegetable GrowersFree, Montague
History
War Gardens: A Pocket Guide for Home Vegetable Growers
Free, Montague
Vegetable gardening
Carrot.—This crop can be planted any time after the ground is in
condition in the spring up to July, which is a suitable time to sow
seeds for the crop designed for winter storage. The quick-maturing
kinds, such as _Early Scarlet Horn_, should be sown first, choosing the
warmest position in the garden. These will be ready for use in a short
time, when they may be harvested and the ground used for another crop.
For later crops _Danver’s Half-long_ may be used. Carrot seed should be
sown in rows a foot or fifteen inches apart and one-half inch deep. The
early varieties should be thinned to stand about two inches apart, while
the main crop needs about four inches between each plant. Some people
defer the thinning of their carrots until they are of sufficient size
for the table. “Baby” carrots are one of the most delicious of
vegetables when they are properly cooked, far preferable to the roots
that have been allowed to mature. While this plan has great advantages,
the carrots left behind do not attain so great a size as would be the
case if thinning had been attended to earlier.
A deep, well-cultivated soil is the best for this crop. In heavy soils
that have not been deeply worked, the short-rooted kinds, such as
_Ox-heart_, should be planted.
Cauliflower.—The cultivation of cauliflower is substantially the same
as that of cabbage. It is a cool-weather crop, and not much success is
likely to be obtained if attempts are made to mature it during hot
weather. For this reason it is either planted early, or as late as
possible consistent with the prospects of maturing the crop. It requires
a light, rich soil. When the heads begin to form, it is advisable to
bend the outside leaves over and fasten them in such a way that the head
is shaded from the sun. Cauliflower is emphatically not a crop for the
novice.
Celery.—There are two distinct kinds of celery—the so-called
“self-blanching” varieties, and the green-leaf kinds. The former are the
earliest to mature, but are not to be compared for flavor and tenderness
with the latter.
Seed of the early kinds, of which _White Plume_ is an example, is sown
in February in a greenhouse or hotbed. The young plants should be
transplanted once or twice, either in shallow boxes filled with earth or
in the open ground, before the plants are set out where they are to
mature, in May or June. Celery naturally forms a long “tap root” with
few fibers. The object of the successive transplantings is to check this
“tap root” and promote the formation of a mass of fibrous feeding-roots.
The plants are placed in single or double rows thirty inches or three
feet apart, and from four to six inches apart in the rows. When they
attain sufficient size they are blanched by placing boards, a foot wide
and as long as can conveniently be handled, on either side of the row.
Other methods of blanching are by slipping a drain-pipe over each plant
or by wrapping around them a collar made of stout paper and tying it in
place with twine.
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