Cabbage garden

“ These little miniature cabbages, growing closely together on a stalk, are delicious boiled like cabbage or used as a salad. The culture is the same as that accorded cabbage. The seed should be sown in the hotbed in spring and set out in the open ground in May in rows three feet apart and about twenty inches apart in the rows. Cultivate to keep down weeds and maintain a dust-mulch. By fall the little heads will be fully developed. The delicate flavor is improved by a touch of frost. ”

“ Having, then, good seeds on hand and the soil properly prepared to receive them, the only problem remaining is what way they shall be put in. The different habits of growth characteristic of different plants make it patent at the outset that there must be different methods of planting, for very evidently a cabbage, which occupies but three or four square feet of space and stays in one place to make a head, will not require the same treatment as a winter squash, roaming all over the garden and then escaping under the fence to hide some of its best fruit in the tall grass outside. ”

“ If in setting out plants of winter cabbage it is found that there are more plants than are needed, they may be allowed to remain where they are and given a little protection, such as boards, cornstalks or evergreens, and can be used for setting out the following spring. ”

“ Cultivation.—Among market gardeners it is a common expression that "cabbage should be hoed every day." Perhaps no other crop responds more quickly to good cultivation and an ample food supply. This is undoubtedly the explanation of the above quoted expression. In cultivating cabbage the work should be frequent and thorough, but the cultivation should not be deep. The aim should be to destroy all competing weeds and to maintain a loose, friable layer of soil about 2 inches deep over the surface of the area devoted to cabbage. ”

“ Where the owner of a garden has opportunities of helping his poorer neighbours, he may confer a real benefit by supplying them with Cabbage and Winter Greens for planting in their garden plots. Cottagers too often begin with bad stocks—very much to their discouragement in gardening, and to the loss of wholesome food the garden should supply. The rankest manure may be employed in preparing ground for Cabbage, reserving the well-rotted manure for seed-beds and other purposes for which it will be required. A sowing of Red Cabbage now will insure heads for pickling in autumn. ”

“ Cabbage is one of the most universally cultivated of the garden plants. Although it is one of the coarser vegetables it finds a place in the home garden as well as in the market garden and truck farm. In some sections of the United States it is extensively grown as a farm crop. Early cabbage is practically all consumed as a green vegetable. The late crop, on the other hand, is handled as a fresh vegetable, as a storage crop, and for the manufacture of sauerkraut. ”

“ Some biennials, like the cabbage, lay up this strength in the thick stalk. The strength which they take up from the earth and from the air, through their leaves, they do not spend in flowers and show, but turn it into food for themselves, and the food is so good that men gather it for their own use."
"I don't think that is quite right," said Prue, "after the poor thing has worked so hard all summer to be ready to bloom next year, for us to take it and eat it."
The Chief Gardener smiled and shook his head. ”

“ And it is a fact, though not generally known, but which deserves greater publicity, that when the common garden cabbage is in perfection, and we wish to cut it, if, instead of severing the whole from the stalk, as is usually done, the loaf, or heart only be scooped out, and all the large lower leaves left entire, a young cabbage will, in due time, be produced, superior in flavour, if not equal in size, to that of the first growth. ”

“ As a kitchen garden vegetable, this is usually planted in some out-of-the-way spot and a piece of the root dug as often as needed, the fragments of roots being left in the soil to grow for further use. This method results in having nothing but tough, stringy roots, very unlike the product of a properly planted and well cared for bed. The best roots are those planted in the spring at the time of setting early cabbage, and dug as late the same fall as the weather will permit. It becomes, therefore, an annual crop. ”

“ The procession arrives at the bride's dwelling, and enters the garden. There a fine cabbage is selected—a matter which is not effected in a hurry, for the old folks hold a council, each one pleading for some favourite cabbage. Votes are taken; and when the choice is made, the gardener ties his cord round the stalk, and retreats to the further end of the garden, whilst the other actors in the comedy—the flaxdresser, the grave-digger, the carpenter, and the shoemaker—all stand round the cabbage. One digs a trench, advances, recedes, makes a plan, spies at the others through a pair of spectacles ”

“ Soil.—The soil for cabbage must necessarily vary in different localities. In one area it may be of an alluvial character, while in another it may be sedentary, and in still another it may be characteristic glacial drift. The fact that cabbage grows well in all these soils indicates its adaptation to a wide range of conditions. The main thing with cabbage is an abundant supply of immediately available plant food. Market gardeners rely chiefly upon stable manure for their supply of plant food. ”

“ After the cabbage crop the ground is still very rich and will grow everything or anything, to which the soil and situation are suited, in high perfection.
The garden is in great contrast to an ordinary sewage farm. It is used as a pleasaunce, and its luxurious herbage and bright colouring are very beautiful. The ordinary garden crops show great exuberance of growth, and the summer fruit trees (apples, pears, peaches, and nectarines) are usually hung with a very bountiful crop of fruit. ”

“ In twelve years' experience in growing this variety I have never found a diseased plant nor, except in a year of very exceptional weather, a soft head. They keep well over winter and are altogether a very satisfactory all round cabbage. ”

“ Cabbage in the many forms it is presented upon the table is a most wholesome and agreeable article of food. The farmer’s garden is not complete without a full crop of cabbages. Any heads that are not needed for the family table can be fed with profit to the farm live stock. Poultry in particular, need some green food daily through the winter season, and a cabbage now and then satisfies this natural craving.
Turnips.—The garden turnips belong to the same genus (Brassica) with the cabbages, and are therefore closely related to them. ”

“ It is true the reader will think of other sorts, as cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, etc. To the professional gardener these are all-the-year-round vegetables. If the amateur becomes so interested in his garden as to have cold-frames and hot-beds, he will learn from more extended works how to manage these. He will winter over the cabbage and kindred vegetables for his earliest supply, having first sown the seed in September. ”

“ The heads are usually spherical, attaining to a diameter of from five to nine inches, with the surrounding leaves gathered rather closely around them; in hardness and relative weight it is excelled by but few varieties. Stump short. It delights in the highest cultivation possible. It is about a week later than Early York. In those markets where cabbages are sold by weight, it will pay to grow for market; it is a good cabbage for the family garden. ”

“ The basket is then brought, the two gardeners plant the cabbage in it with all sorts of precautions; fresh earth is put round its root, it is propped with sticks, and carefully tied up. Rosy apples on the end of sticks, branches of thyme, sage, and laurel are stuck all round it, and the whole is decked with ribbons and streamers. The trophy is then replaced on the handbarrow with the gardener, who has to hold it upright, and prevent any accident. Lastly, the procession leaves the garden in good order, and to a measured march. ”

“ The cabbages grown in gardens are usually sown at three different times; for the spring, summer, and autumn crop. The spring cabbages are sown in summer generally about the first week in August, in an open airy situation, and in light soil. When they come up, they are thinned; and in October or November they are ready for planting out in rows, twelve or eighteen inches apart, into the beds where they are to cabbage. In small gardens, cabbages are seldom raised from seed; but the plants are purchased when ready for planting out. ”

“ Many have neat gardens attached to them, in which, during the summer season, the blooming rose, as well as the pink, the stock, and other European flowers, impart a beauty, and remind one of home; or, in lieu of these gay vegetable productions, the industrious housekeeper has caused the plot of ground to be planted with peas, beans, cabbages, and other culinary vegetables. The tree cabbage, common on the European continent, but rarely seen in England, I observed introduced in the gardens; it thrives well in the colony. ”

“ Sweet peas often find a place in the vegetable garden; start a few early, to set out later; they will do better than if started outside. Start tomatoes for growing in frames. For early potatoes sprout in sand.
Planting, outside. If an early spring, and the ground is sufficiently dry, sow onions, lettuce, beet, radish, (sweet peas) , smooth peas, early carrot, cabbage, leek, celery (main crop) , and turnip. Set out new beds of asparagus, rhubarb and sea-kale (be sure to try a few plants of the latter) . Manure and fork up old beds of above.
Fruit. Prune now, apple, plum and pear trees. ”

“ The very small hard “sprouts” or buttons are the best. The culture is essentially the same as for late cabbage or broccoli. One ounce will sow 100 feet of drill, or make upward of 2000 plants. Set plants in field 2 to 3 feet apart, or dwarf varieties closer. They require the entire season in which to grow.
Cabbage.—The cabbage is now so extensively grown as a field crop, from which the market is supplied, and the plants require so much room that many home-gardeners incline to give up its culture; but the early varieties, at least, should be grown at home. ”

“ In the comparatively mild climate of England, where there are but few days in the winter months that the ground remains frozen to any depth, the hardy cabbage grows all seasons of the year, and turnips left during winter standing in the ground are fed to sheep by yarding them over the different portions of the field. ”

“ I have seen the cabbage bed so full of plants that it seemed as if two plants or more had sprung from every seed. Early and late cabbage, the rows labeled, can be planted in the same bed; lettuce, pepper grass, parsley and radishes in another, taking care to sow the radish seed thinly as the plants will not transplant well, and the radishes must be used for the table taken from the place where the seeds are sown. Cabbages grow better when the small plants are transplanted to the large bed where they are to stand for their season’s growth. ”

“ Some gardeners sow only one crop of green cabbages, and leave the stalks standing to produce sprouts all the rest of the year. When the cabbage stalk is left for sprouts, it is customary, after cutting the cabbage, to give the stalk two cuts across, so as to divide the top into four ”

“ As soon as the young plants are large enough to be seen with the naked eye, in with the cultivator and go and return once in each row, being careful not to have any lumps of earth cover the plants. Follow the cultivator immediately with the hoe, loosening the soil about the hills. The old rule with farmers is to cultivate and hoe cabbage three times during their growth, and it is a rule that works very well where the crop is in good growing condition; but if the manure is deficient, the soil bakes, or the plants show signs of disease, then cultivate and hoe once or twice extra. ”

“ On my own grounds from a strain of seed that had been grown isolated for years, there recently came a plant that in its structure closely resembled Brussels Sprouts, growing about two feet in height, with a small head under each leaf. The cultivated cabbage was first introduced into England by the Romans, and from there nearly all the kinds cultivated in this country were originally brought. Those which we consider as peculiarly American varieties, have only been made so by years of careful improvement on the original imported sorts. ”

“ Prune your wall trees, lay gillyflowers and carnations, sow lettuce, and spinnage, for latter sallading, transplant or remove tulips, or other bulbous roots, plant cuttings of myrtles, but let them not have too much sun at first. Remove your large sided cabbage planted in may, to head in autumn. Keep weed from growing to seed, and begin your howing. Gather the snails from your wall-fruit, but pull n (illegible text) off the bitter fruit, for then they will begin with others. ”

“ Cabbage may be planted out at any time when weather permits, provided you possess, or can obtain, the plants; and it is of the utmost importance to secure them from a reliable source, or varieties may be planted which will in a few weeks send up flower-stems instead of forming tender hearts. At every season of the year vacant plots should be kept going with a few breadths of Cabbage. With our variable climate they may be acceptable, even in the height of summer, if there has been a hard run upon other vegetables, or some important crop has failed outright. ”