Red beet is cultivated in the same manner, and plants that are sown in March will have roots ready for the table in September or October. Great care, however, must be used while taking them out of the ground, not to wound the outer skin; and in the kitchen they must be only washed and not scraped, as, if the outer skin should be removed, all the colouring matter will escape when the root is boiled, and the root, instead of its being of its usual bright red, will be of a dingy whitish pink.
Radishes are sown at different seasons; generally every fortnight, from January to July or August.
Spinach is of two kinds: the round-leaved variety, which is generally sown for the summer crop in January or February, and the roots of which may be pulled up and thrown away as soon as the leaves are gathered; and the Flanders spinach, which has triangular leaves, and which is sown for the winter crop in August. This last kind should have only the outer leaves pinched or cut off; and, thus treated, it will continue producing fresh leaves all the winter, as it is quite hardy, and not injured by frost. The seeds of this plant will keep good four years.
I do not suppose you will attempt to grow onions, as they will require a great deal of care; but you can sow a few in March for salads. If you wish to grow onions of an enormous size, you should raise the seed on a hotbed in February, and transplant them into the open ground in April or May. The soil into which they are transplanted should be very rich, and mixed with charcoal roughly powdered. The onions should be planted a foot apart every way, only the fibrous roots being buried in the soil, and they should be watered regularly every day. All the onion tribe require a very rich soil, which is very much improved for them by mixing charcoal with it. When it is wished to grow onions to a very large size, a hollow space or cup is made in the ground, in the middle of which the onion is placed when it is transplanted, the fibrous roots being buried in the ground at the bottom of the cup. The bulb of the onion, when thus treated, and well watered, swells to an enormous size, and becomes extremely delicate.
Lettuces are of two kinds: the cabbage lettuces, which may be sown broad-cast at any time from February to August, and require no after care, except thinning out and watering; and Cos lettuces, which are generally blanched by bending the tips of the leaves over the heart, and tying them in that position with a bit of bast mat. Endive and succory are blanched in the same manner, and mustard and cress only require sowing, as they are cut for salads while in their seed leaves. In France, lettuces are often cut for salads in their seed leaves like mustard and cress.
Celery requires a good deal of care in its culture. The seed must be sown in March or April, in a bed the soil of which is formed of equal parts of loam and rotten dung. When the young plants come up, they are transplanted into another bed of very rich soil, and when they are about a foot high they are removed into trenches for blanching. These trenches are made four feet apart, eighteen inches wide, and twelve inches deep, and they are filled nine inches high with a rich compost of strong fresh soil and rotten dung. The plants are taken up with as much earth as will adhere to their roots; and, their side shoots having been removed, they are set in the centre of the trench nine or ten inches apart. As they grow, the earth is drawn up to them, a little at a time, taking care never to let the earth rise above the heart of the plant; and this earthing up is repeated five or six times, at intervals of about ten days or a fortnight, till the plants are ready for use.
The potherbs, as they are continually wanted in cookery, are much better in a garden near the kitchen. One of the most important is parsley, which is generally sown in a drill in February or March, and the plants of which do not seed till the second year. Fennel is a perennial, which, when once introduced, requires no further care, except to prevent it from spreading too rapidly. Thyme, sage, pot-marjoram, and winter savory, are all dwarf shrubs, which require no care after they have been once planted. Mint, winter marjoram, and the common marjoram, are perennials; but the sweet or knotted marjoram, summer savory, and basil require sowing every year like parsley.
I would not advise you to grow cucumbers or melons; but, should you feel inclined to try your skill, you have only to have a hotbed made like that for raising flower seeds; but with a two- or three-light frame, remembering that it will take a cart-load of stable dung for every light. The plants are raised in pots, and, when they are about five weeks old, they are planted three together in little ridges of earth made under each light. When the plants have produced two rough leaves, the ends of the shoots are generally pinched off, and this is called stopping the runners. When the plants come into flower, the pollen of the male flowers should be conveyed to the female ones, as otherwise the fruit very often drops off as soon as it is set. Seeds for the first crop of cucumbers are sown in December or January; but the principal crop is sown in March. The great difficulty is to grow the cucumbers long and straight, and to keep them green, and with a beautiful bloom. For the first purpose a brick may be placed under the fruit, and for the second, abundance of leaves should be left on the plant; and the ground in which it grows should be kept quite moist, as it is found that the plant succeeds best when it has abundance of heat and moisture, and has grown in the shade. Melons require the same treatment as cucumbers, with the exception of their beds being about 10° hotter; as, for example, the seed-bed should not be less than 65°, and the fruiting-bed should not be less than 75°.
Gourds and tomatoes should be sown in a hotbed in March, and planted out in May, the latter against a south wall.