The garden yard

Salad crops are close kin to pot-herbs. But a salad is eaten uncooked, while pot-herbs are boiled. Some plants are used both ways, but they are then classed according to their most general use. Salad crops need a cool, moist soil and quick continuous growth. As has been frequently said before, (but not too frequently,) this can only be obtained by having the soil in good condition and plenty of plant food in a shape that the crop can eat. Salad crops need plenty of water, clean, thorough culture, and a good deal of prompt attention, but they mature so rapidly, that the demands are not really excessive. Having supplied their needs, you must, thereafter, depend upon the weather to help you perfect your crop. If you get dry, tough, wilted salad crops, you need not take the trouble to harvest them, for nobody wants that sort; and that is the only kind you can raise if you neglect them.

There is no pleasure like the ever-new exultation and joy of seeing the things we ourselves have planted come up; and these lovely colored shoots, springing from the brown earth, serve to renew our faith in the bounty of Nature and the loving order of the world—as well as to fill our pockets.

LETTUCE.

The most popular salad crop is lettuce, a hardy, short-season, companion- or succession-crop requiring moist, rich, mellow soil, and plant food in quickly available form. It is easy of culture and is chiefly grown in the open, though the demand for it has increased to such an extent that it is started in hot-beds or forcing houses that it may be earlier on the market. You can get it in about five weeks. Coolness and continuous growth are necessary to prevent toughness and bitterness. It is little grown in the summer, though the Cos variety can stand the hot weather very well, if the soil is moist and cool. Lettuce does better if transplanted and for that reason it is usually sown in seed-beds; in transplanting, it is usual to cut off the top third of the leaves, unless the seedlings are very stocky; but the mid-season and later crops may be sown where the plants are to stand. Fall lettuce should be sown in late August or early September, and, as it is easier to control soil conditions and to get quick sprouting in a seed-bed than in the field at that dry time of year, it is better to use the seed-bed. At any time lettuce does best in a soil that is loose and “warm,” that is known to gardeners as “quick.” Heavy, clayey soils are not adapted to lettuce, so see that your soil is pulverized and well fertilized before the seeds are sown. It has been found to pay well to treat the soil with nitrate of soda after the plants are set, because of the more rapid growth. The soda is applied dry, at the rate of two or three hundred pounds to the acre, and then raked or tilled in. Lettuce seed is sown thickly and the plants thinned, as they become edible, to about a foot apart. The thinnings make excellent “greens.” The rows are usually 8 to 12 inches apart.

When grown as a succession-crop, lettuce may be followed by cabbage, early cauliflower, celery and other things. Or, it may be grown between the cabbages and cauliflower as a companion-crop, since it matures before either, and leaves the land to those plants when they need all the space. Seed may be sown successionally until warm weather, and you may count upon 1000 plants for each ounce of seed. There are three well-known tribes: head lettuce, cut or curly-leaved, and Cos, and a fourth variety little known, called narrow-leaved lettuce. There are about 100 varieties. Field-grown lettuce has few enemies.

ENDIVE.

Endive is a summer and fall crop, thriving at a time when it is not easy to grow lettuce to perfection.⁠[7] It is, therefore, a good addition to lettuce, and its culture is largely the same, though endive takes longer to mature than lettuce does. Endive matures under proper care about fifty days after the seeds are sown. If seeds are sown in June the plants will be fit for table use in August or September.

Endive requires about the same sort of soil as lettuce, the same tillage and the same general treatment. The plants should stand about a foot apart each way to make cultivation easier. It is sometimes sown in cold-frames, but just as often in the open field, and successive sowings will give successive crops, but that which gets its start during hot weather is not satisfactory. The inside leaves of the crown are usually blanched by tying them together near the tops for two or three weeks before the plants are ready for market. The blanched sort brings a better price. The disadvantages of blanching are that the plants fade and decay quickly unless used at once, and if rain or damp weather follows the tying-up, there is great danger of decay while in the ground. So the plants must be examined occasionally to see that they are doing well. When endive is used as a pot-herb, as it sometimes is, it is better to pick the new young plants before they have time to head or can be blanched. The coarse, outer leaves of the plant are apt to be bitter and tough, so that only the leaves of the crown are used for salads.

With all these crops you can see why nearness to market is so important—even though the land is higher priced.

CHICORY.

Chicory has various uses and is now quite largely grown in gardens. As a salad plant only the tender, blanched leaves of the crown are used. The outer, green leaves are often used for “greens,” like dandelion. Chicory is not a surface feeder like most salad plants, but is grown as a root crop the same as carrots or parsnips. The soil must be deep, that the roots may come to perfection by fall; cuttings of leaves may be made during the season. The roots may be left in the ground over the winter. Chicory is really a perennial, but under cultivation it is better to grow a new lot of plants each year. When wanted for winter use, the strong roots are taken up in the fall, and buried in a sloping direction in a pit or cellar, with the crown of the plant showing an inch or so above the sand or earth. The growing-place must be kept dark, and in a few weeks the small, prized leaves begin to show. When chicory plants are covered, crowns and all, with about two feet of manure, they develop heads resembling lettuce heads. The young, tender roots of chicory are eaten as beets or carrots are, while the dried root is extensively used in place of coffee. This accounts for the increased area devoted to chicory in this country of recent years; it is less injurious to the nerves than coffee.

CRESS.

There is a delicate “bite” and piquant flavor to cress, that makes it a favorite for salads and for garnishings. Of the three kinds in general use, the water-cress is probably the best liked, but to bring it to perfection it is necessary to have a running brook of clean, cool water. To grow it in a drain is a good way to get typhoid fever. It is a perennial, and readily propagates itself when once it has got a start, while the grower can increase its spread by scattering seeds along the brookside, or by planting bits of stems in the mud. When once established it will care for itself, and gives the grower no trouble. Although it does best along the sides of running streams, water-cress will grow anywhere if it can get moisture enough, even though not covered with water. Any moist, shady garden spot will do, if it is frequently watered, and gardeners often use abandoned hot-bed pits, where the hose can be turned on the plants daily.

Two women made a nice profit by sending fine water-cress, packed in oiled paper and cardboard boxes, to select customers by mail.

Common garden cress is a cool-weather, short-season annual, whose seeds may be sown early in the spring in a cool, rich soil, as its whole value as a salad plant depends upon its quick, vigorous growth. The plant runs quickly to seed in hot weather, or if left in the ground until late in the season. It is easily grown in pots or boxes in the house in winter; or, if wanted for fall use, the seeds may be sown in late summer and in early fall. Under ordinary conditions, the leaves are ready for use about six to eight weeks after seed is sown. There are a number of varieties of the garden cress; the sort with curled leaves being most in demand. It is not so well known here as in Europe. The third variety, known as the upland or upright cress, is perfectly hardy and common to all parts of the United States. In cultivation it is usually treated as an annual or as a winter perennial. Seeds may be sown late in the season, when the young plants will be ready for use early in the spring; or, they may be sown in the earliest spring and will be ready for use about fifty-two days after sowing. If grown through the summer they are apt to be bitter and tough, unless grown in a shady place. The upland cress resembles water-cress in flavor.

CORN SALAD.

Corn salad is not so well known here as in Europe, where it is highly prized as a fall and winter salad and as a pot-herb. It is a cool-season crop, grown as lettuce is. It is hardy and may be sown as early in spring as the soil can be worked. It comes to maturity in six or eight weeks, producing a bunch of leaves something like spinach. It may also be sown in the fall and protected in winter the same as spinach, so as to have very early plants in the spring, or, if sown late in the summer, it will give edible leaves in the fall, and in a mild, open season, will nourish all through the winter. In warm weather or dry places, it soon runs to seed. It is very easy to raise corn salad in any cool soil, and an ounce of seed will give from 2000 to 3000 plants, which should stand about six inches apart in the rows.

PARSLEY.

Parsley is the most popular of all the garnishing herbs, and requires no special care from the gardener, so long as it is planted in a cool, moist soil. The leaves are used for salads and for flavoring as well as for garnishing. Parsley seed is slow growing, and unless the garden soil is in excellent tilth and moist to the very surface, it is better to start the plants in a seed-bed. Although the plant is biennial, the foliage is usually gathered the first year and the plant destroyed, unless seed is wanted. In all these green things, it has been found better to adopt the annual treatment rather than let them develop into biennials or perennials, though that may be their natural habit: we can improve the nature of plants, animals and men.

SALAD CHERVIL.

Although salad chervil closely resembles parsley and may be used the same way, it is very little known in this country. It requires about the same culture as parsley, and is easy to grow in cool, moist soil in spring or fall. It does not thrive well in our hot summers, but with very little protection from cold-frames or even from brush, it can be carried safely through the winter, if the weather is not very severe. The curly-leaved variety is the most popular, whether used as garnishing or seasoning. The salad chervil grows nearly two feet high when it reaches full maturity, but the young foliage is the most prized. It will give leaves for cutting in six or eight weeks after the seed is sown.

CELERY.

All garden or field crops are divided into two classes, those whose seeds are sown where the crop is to grow; and those whose seeds must be planted in special conditions, such as seed-beds, hot-beds or forcing houses. Celery is always a seed-bed crop, and occasionally a hot-bed or forcing-house crop, according to the time when the grower wishes it to mature. It requires a cool, rich, very moist soil, in excellent tilth, where surface tillage is maintained throughout the whole season. Although good celery may be grown on uplands by means of extra care and attention, it usually grows best in rich, moist, bottom lands. Reclaimed marshes, whose soil has been pulverized and fertilized, are ideal celery plots, because there the moisture is sufficient even during the heat of summer. Celery cannot stand exposure to the direct heat of the sun, and on exposed places many growers find it necessary to shade the crop.

Celery seeds are very small and slow to sprout and are sown broadcast or in rows. If in rows the sowing is very shallow. The seedlings are tender and delicate, so that it is only in a well-prepared seed-bed that the plants can be satisfactorily raised. The site of the bed should be selected with great care, so as to protect it from hot or dry winds, and to make it convenient to water it every evening. Celery requires a great deal of moisture. The soil must be in such excellent tilth that it will hold moisture up to the very surface without the help of a mulch. Some growers do use a mulch in growing celery, but it makes the delicate seedlings so much more delicate that the loss from sun-scald upon transplanting is likely to be heavy. If you do use a covering of any sort, be careful to begin to remove it as soon as the plants begin to grow, and take it all off before they are up enough to be transplanted. But if you make your seed-bed carefully, you will not need a covering for it.

Even when you have taken so much pains to start your celery crop, the work is by no means done. To secure good, strong, stocky plants, they should be transplanted once or twice in the seed-bed before the final transplanting to the garden. It is essential in North Carolina, says Prof. Massey, to transplant celery once before setting in field or garden. This entails so much labor, that many growers are now using the thinning process in place of these various transplantings, and even in the seed-bed the young plants are thinned to stand two to three inches apart and the tops are sheared if they grow tall too soon. The plants may be safely cut back a third or even a half of their growth. In small garden plots, shears or a sickle may be used, but, in the large fields, growers generally use a scythe.

There is usually a good deal of loss in celery seed, so it is well to sow it very thickly, and then you may reasonably expect from 20,000 to 30,000 plants to the acre. An ounce of seed will plant about 200 feet of row, and if good, should give from 5000 to 10,000 plants, although where losses are very heavy the yield is frequently only 2000 to the ounce of seed. One pound of seed should give plants enough to set out four or five acres.

Celery is grown both as an early-season and as a late crop, depending upon the location of the plot. On the higher lands, it is either an early or a succession-crop, following early cabbages, lettuce or other short-season crops. But on rich, bottom lands, it is a whole-season crop, as the land there is too wet to be worked early in the spring. Some growers raise two or three crops of celery in a season from one plot, the later or main crop being planted between the rows of the early crop. As celery may be set out as late as the middle or last of July, even in the Northern States, the main crop does not interfere with the early crop, which may be set out as soon as the ground is ready.

For two crops, the soil needs more attention than where only one is raised, because cultivation and fertilizer must add and preserve the moisture which is natural to the lower levels. Celery needs potash and nitrogen, and these foods are supplied by unleached wood ashes and well-rotted stable manure. Coarse, new manures must not be used, as they make the soil coarse and also cause weeds. Only old, fine, well-rotted manure will do for the celery bed.

When tillage is given the growing plant, care must be taken not to disturb the roots. The soil may be stirred only at the extreme end of the tiny rootlets, and if fertilizer is applied it must be placed at the same point. Some growers make tiny trenches between the rows and cultivate and fertilize there. Celery is one of the crops that call for thoroughly intelligent care. In many localities where the weather is hot or dry, sub-irrigation, by means of tile-drains, has supplied the needed moisture for this thirsty crop.

There is an entirely new celery culture in the sterile sand of Florida by commercial fertilizer; but that is a subject by itself. The Florida Experiment Station will give particulars.

The plants should be four or five inches high when transplanted and the stems stocky and green. They are set from 10 to 12 inches apart in the rows and the distance between the rows depends mainly upon the method of blanching. To bring a good price in the market, celery must always be blanched, although many growers prefer it in its natural condition for their own use.

Celery is blanched in three ways: Blanching by boarding; by banking up with earth, or by blanching in storage pits. Boarding is generally applied only to summer celery, as it does not afford protection enough for plants left in the field after early October. It is the simplest and most economical method of blanching, and where used, the rows may be two or three feet apart to admit of horse cultivation.

For blanching by boarding, planks 12 to 14 feet long, one foot wide and about an inch thick are preferred. These planks are set on edge on either side of the row close to the root crown of the plants, and tipped until they rest against the tops of the plants with their edges only two or three inches apart. Either wire hooks or cleats nailed across the tops are used to keep the boards in position. This boarding or blanching process is begun as soon as the plants are tall enough to show a few leaves above the board. As the stalks shoot up in search of light, the leaves fill the spaces between the boards and exclude light from the stalks. Great care must be exercised in warm weather that the plants do not rot at the heart because of too great moisture. Experience will teach you that it is well to get good lumber that may be used many seasons, rather than cheap boards which will warp or crack in one season.

Blanching by banking with earth, often gives a better quality of celery, but it is much more expensive and cannot be so safely used in summer, as it tends to rotting at the heart. It usually requires two or three bankings or “handlings,” as they are called, during the season. The first is given when the plant has spread so as to make a head about eighteen inches across. Then it is gathered in the hand and held, while earth is banked up around it about two-thirds of its height. In ten days or a fortnight this is done again, and in the very tall varieties once again. When this method is used the rows are from three and one-half to four feet apart. Of late years large growers use a “celery plow” for banking.

When celery is to be blanched in storage it is usually “handled” once while in the field, so as to start the process of blanching. Afterwards the plants are placed so close together in pits or sheds that the blanching goes on until the crop is ready for market.

There is another method of blanching celery which is particularly successful in small areas. It consists of growing the plants so close together that the light is excluded and the crop blanches as it grows. It is then grown as close as six or eight inches apart either way. This is called the “new celery culture,” and is successful where the hose can be freely used to supply the necessary moisture.

Storing.

But the care necessary for growing celery does not end even with the blanching. It extends to storing, which is also important to the crop. There are several well-known methods, chief of which are storing in outside pits or cellars and storing in celery houses. Usually the outside pit or cellar is a temporary affair and a very satisfactory one is built like the regular vegetable pit: the way to make that is given in another chapter.

If celery is to remain crisp and juicy, it must make a very slow growth all the time it is in the store-house, and should be kept just above freezing point.

When you prepare your celery for market, be sure to clean it thoroughly. This may be done by washing, or it may require scrubbing, but be sure to have it clean. Remove the outside leaves and trim the roots down to a point, then pack in boxes or trays. And right here comes in another reason for studying your particular market, because the number of bunches of celery packed in a box or tray—and even whether you use a box or a tray—depends upon the market you supply. It varies with different markets.

In the “new celery culture” where the plants are set so closely together that they blanch themselves, it takes 150,000 plants to an acre. This method of growing requires greatly increased quantities of fertilizers or results will be very unsatisfactory. The dwarf varieties of celery are most in demand, and the favorites for summer and fall are White Plume, Golden Self-Blanching and Kalamazoo; while for late winter and spring, Boston Market and Arlington are standard sorts.

The chief diseases are leaf blight and leaf spot and the fungi that attack the plants in storage. For leaf blight, dip young plants in weak solution of copper carbonate, and treat the young growing plants twice a week. It is well to read up on diseases; and for blight read the Department of Agriculture Report, 1886, pp. 117-120; Cornell Bulletin 132, pp. 203-205. To avoid leaf-spot, select seed carefully, treat it with Bordeaux mixture while in seed-bed, and continue its use if you fear an attack. Read New York Bulletin 51 and Cornell Bulletin 132. For dealing with the diseases that develop during storage, read Cornell Bulletin 132, and Bailey’s “Vegetable Gardening,” p. 229. If you wish to know all that celery specialists have discovered about this crop, read Greiner, Hollister, Rawson, Vaughan, Stewart, Von Bochove and Crider. These books may be found in some good public libraries or will be supplied by our house.

Understanding all this attention and care, you can easily see why there is big money in a successful celery crop, and why Florida’s flat sand lands are making their owners rich raising celery—or raising rents and prices.

CELERIAC.

Celeriac is a form of celery, or at least is a very near relation to the real celery, and requires about the same soil preparation and the same conditions and tillage. Celeriac is frequently sown where it is to stand, but as the seed is as slow to sprout as celery, this is not really a wise plan. Sown in a seed-bed and transplanted, the crop gives far better results. In celeriac it is not the stalk but the enlarged, tuber-like root which is eaten, and the plant requires no blanching. It may be eaten raw in a salad, or cooked, as you like. Good roots should be from three to four inches in diameter and they may be kept through winter by packing in sand or moss as many other vegetables may be kept. Celeriac is sown in the same quantities as celery seed, the rows being only far enough apart to allow of cultivation, and the plants from six to eight inches apart in the rows. Being of a dwarf nature the close planting does not cause the plant to over-shade itself.