Gardening By Month:
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Asparagus
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May Gardening
Celery to Cucumbers
Celery - trenches must be prepared in time, though, strange to say, this task is generally deferred until the plants have really become weak through overcrowding. In a small garden it is never advisable to have Celery very forward, for the simple reason that trenches cannot be made for it until Peas come off and other early crops are over.
To insure fine Celery the cultivator must be in advance of events rather than lag behind them. Plenty of manure must be used; it is scarcely possible, in fact, to employ too much, and liberality is not waste, because the ground will be in capital condition for the next crop.
There are many modes of planting Celery, but the simplest is to make the trenches four feet apart and a foot and a half wide, and put the plants six to nine inches apart, according to the sorts. This work must be done neatly, with an artistic finish. In planting take off suckers, and if any of the leaves are blistered, pinch the blisters, and finish by dusting the plantation with soot. As Celery loves moisture, give water freely in dry weather.
Cucumbers - of excellent quality may be grown on ridges or hills, should the season be favourable. Suppose the cultivator to have the means of obtaining plenty of manure, ridges, which are to run east and west, are preferable to hills. The soil should be thrown out three feet wide and two feet deep, and be laid up on the north side. Then put three feet of hot manure in the trench, and cover with the soil that was taken out, so as to form an easy slope to the south, and with a steep slope on the north side carefully finished to prevent its crumbling down before the season ends.The plants should be put out on the slope as soon as possible after the ridges are made ready, under the protection of hand-lights, until there is free growth and the weather has become quite summery. It is a good plan to grow one or two rows of Runner Beans a short distance from the ridge on the north side to give shelter, and in case of bad weather after the plants are in bearing, pea-sticks or dry litter laid about them lightly will help them through a critical time, but stable manure must not be used. In case manure is not abundant, make a few small hills in a sheltered, sunny spot, with whatever material is available in the way of turf, rotten manure, or leaf-mould, taking care that nothing injurious to vegetation is mixed with it. Put several inches of a mixture of good loam and rotten manure on the hills, and plant and protect as in the case of ridges.
If plants are not at hand, sow seeds; there will still be a chance of Cucumbers during July, August, and September; for if they thrive at all, they are pretty brisk in their movements. Three observations remain to be made on this subject. In the first place, what are known as 'Ridge' Cucumbers only should be grown in the open air; the large sorts grown in houses are unfit. In the second place, the plants should only be pinched once, and there is no occasion for the niggling business which gardeners call 'setting the bloom.' Provide for their roots a good bed, and then let them grow as they please. In the third place, as encouragement, we feel bound to say that, as Cucumbers are grown to be eaten as well as to be looked at, those from ridges are less handsome than house Cucumbers, but are quite equal to them in flavour.
Source: The Culture of Vegetables and Flowers From Seeds and Roots, 16th Edition 1921, Sutton and Sons