Page:Home Vegetable Gardening.djvu/18



This section contains an alphabetical list of 45 vegetables with some special tips on how to grow them successfully. For most vegetables, there are a number of varieties from which to choose. Those listed are the more common, or those that can be grown with least difficulty. If you cannot always buy the suggested variety, your seed dealer can recommend another suitable for your locality.

GLOBE ARTICHOKE

Perennial.

Suggested variety: Green Globe.

Produces greatest yield and best quality in areas along the coast from San Francisco south to Santa Barbara. Can be produced in other areas, but with less success because with long, warm days, the bud scales become hard and unpalatable. Use offshoots or divisions from mature plains. Commercial plantings good for 4 to 5 years, but plants in home gardens may furnish enough buds for a longer period. Transplant in late fall or cooler part of year. Most buds can be harvested from early winter through early spring. Buds are ready to cut when scales have not spread, and before flowers appear. In cutting, include 1½ inches of stem. Harvest weekly in cool weather. Yield: 40 to 50 buds from a mature plant. Cut stalks off near ground when production period is over.

ASPARAGUS

Perennial.

Suggested variety: Mary Washington.

In winter or early spring, plant large, one-year-old plants, or crowns, 8 to 10 inches deep in a trench. Cover with about 2 inches of soil, fill in gradually after plants have made considerable growth. Do not harvest the first year. The second year, harvest only half the usual period. A bed may be cut for about 10 weeks after the second year. Spears are ready to cut in early spring when they are about 8 inches long. Cut at ground surface. Too long harvesting reduces future yields. A home garden bed should produce for at least 15 years. For white spears, cover the rows with an 8-inch mound of dirt in spring. Harvest when spears show through top of mound. Eat promptly or store in cool place.