Sow in spring in drills a foot apart. For winter and spring use sow in drills in August and September and cultivate like lettuce or other salad stuff.
CRESS
Upland Cress, which has the flavor of water-cress, can be grown in any good garden soil without the presence of water. The seed should be sown very freely in rows one foot apart, making repeated sowings for succession as the plant soon runs to seed. Water-cress can be grown about a water hydrant if the soil is clayey, or can be underlaid with a few inches of clay. Water-cress sown at intervals in such a position will give a supply of the pungent green that will be a very welcome addition to lettuce, corn or other salad. Remove a foot or eighteen inches of the soil for a square yard of space and in the excavation thus formed lay a few inches of clay, tamping and puddling it down until it makes a continuous layer, then apply a few inches of earth rich in humus or marsh earth, leaving the surface slightly lower than the surrounding soil and scatter the seed broadcast and keep free from weeds until up and growing. Allow the hydrant to drip sufficiently to maintain sufficient moisture. Continue to scatter seeds at intervals for a succession of cress.
DANDELION
For those who love the bitter tang of the dandelion as a green, the cultivated affords a much finer dish than the wild as the leaves are double the size of the wild dandelion. The seed should be sown in drills, covering very lightly and shading with newspapers or brush until up. Thin to stand a foot apart and blanch, if desired, by inverting a box or flower-pot over each plant, or a cone of stiff paper can be used. For greens, only the top may be removed but for salad the plant may be cut down to the root, the part beneath the surface of the ground being very white and tender. There is no danger of dandelion grown in the garden becoming a troublesome weed as it is easily kept from seeding, which is its only way of spreading.
FENNEL OR FINOCCHIO
Is extensively used in Italy as a salad. The part used is the enlargement of the leaf stalk at the base of the stem. When this is about the size of an egg, the earth should be drawn up about the plant to cover the enlargement partly and in a week or ten days the eggs maybe used, removing as many as required, a succession being produced. The flavor is delicate, resembling celery, and it may be used either as a salad or boiled.
GARLIC
So beloved of the Italians is quite worth cultivating in our American gardens. It is used in minute quantities as a seasoning in almost all forms of savory cooking, in omelets, salads, soups, dressings and wherever a piquant flavor, suggestive of onion, but distinctive, is desired. The garlic comes in a bunch of cloves which are separated and planted like onion sets an inch apart, but it requires warmer weather than the onion, succeeding especially well in the climate of California. It is, however, indigenous in a wild state in many parts of the country and cattle browsing in garlic-infested pastures have a distinctive garlicky flavor to their milk. So agreeable is the taste of garlic or leeks in butter to some people that it was once quite common in the Philadelphia markets to hear "leeky butter" inquired for.
KALE OR BORECOLE