Gardening By Month:
January Gardening
February Gardening
March Gardening
April Gardening
May Gardening
June Gardening
July Gardening
August Gardening
September Gardening
October Gardening
November Gardening
December Gardening
April Gardening
Melons to Winter Greens
Melon - Sow again for a second crop in houses, and grow the plants in pots until they reach a foot high. The early crop will then be ripe, and the house can be cleared and syringed for a fresh start. From this sowing fruit should be ready about the beginning of July. The frame culture advised for Cucumbers will be right for Melons, until the fruits attain the size of a small orange. Then a thorough soaking must be given, and under proper management no more water should be necessary.
A dry atmosphere and free ventilation are essential to bring the fruit to perfection. Stopping must be commenced early by pinching out the leader, and only one eye should be allowed beyond the fruit which are to remain. Six will be enough for one plant to carry, and they should be nearly of a size, for if one obtains a strong lead, it will be impossible to ripen the others. The remainder should be gradually removed while young.
The worst foe of the Melon is red spider, and it is difficult to apply a remedy without doing mischief. Water will destroy it, but this may have disastrous results on the fruit. The most certain preventive is stout well-grown plants. Weakly specimens appear to invite attack, and are incapable of struggling against it. Where plants are occasionally lost through decay at the collar, small pieces of charcoal laid in a circle round the stem have proved a simple and effectual antidote.
Onion - The plants raised under glass in January or February should be ready for planting out on some favourable day about mid-April. If any mishap has befallen the sowings made in the open in March there must be no delay in resowing early in the present month, for Onions should have good hold of the ground before hot weather comes. Onions for pickling should be grown thickly on poor ground made firm. The plants are not to be thinned, but may be allowed to stand as thick as pebbles on the seashore. The starving system produces abundance of small handsome bulbs that ripen early, which are the very things wanted for pickling. The Queen and Paris Silver-skin are adapted for the purpose.
Parsley - to be sown in quantity for summer and autumn supply; thin as soon as up, to give each plant plenty of room.
Peas - to be sown again for succession.
Potato - Take the earliest opportunity of completing the planting of main crops.
Salsify- This delicious root, which is sometimes designated the 'Vegetable Oyster,' requires a piece of ground deeply trenched, with a thick layer of manure at the bottom of the trench, and not a particle of manure in the body of soil above it. The roots strike down into the manure, and attain a good size combined with fine quality. If carelessly grown, they become forked and fibrous, and are much wasted in the cooking, besides being of inferior flavour. Sow in rows fifteen inches apart, any time from the end of March to the beginning of May. Two sowings will generally suffice.
Spinach - Sow the Long-standing variety, which does not run so soon as the ordinary kind. If a plantation of Spinach Beet has not been secured, sow at once, as there is ample time yet for a free growth and a valuable plant.
Turnip - to be sown in quantity.
Vegetable Marrow - An early sowing to be made in pots, in readiness for planting out immediately weather admits of it. Three plants in a pot are enough, and they must not be weakened by excessive heat.
Winter Greens - A sowing of Borecole should be made, and if a supply is required in spring, it will be well to sow again in the first week of May.Source: The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition 1921, Sutton and Sons