CELERY IN THE SMALL GARDEN

Evening Star, Issue 22442, 12 September 1936, Page 23

CELERY IN THE SMALL GARDEN

To grow really fine celery taxes the ability of the cultivator to the utmost. In a small garden, where other kinds of vegetables are grown, there is not much space available for celery, but, even if there is space, unless the household requirements are great, only a limited number of plants should be grown, but grown really well (says the Taranaki ‘Herald’). Begin by sowing seeds now. or a little later on. Do not wait until the resultant seedlings are grown sufficiently to be planted out before you prepare the shallow trench. Do this work now also. When the trench is ready for the plants it should only be about nine inches ’deep, but the prepared soil in the trench should '.bo quite 18 inches deep. First remove the top soil, placing it on one side of the trench, then the lower layer. Return the soil to the trench, mixing with it some well-rotted manure, leaving out a portion of the extreme bottom soil for earthing up purposes in due course, but replace the good soil last for the young celery to be planted in. Sow the seeds very thinly in a mixture of loam and leaf soil, cover them lightly with fine soil, and finally with a sheet of glass and paper. But be sure that the resultant seedlings are fully exposed to the light. Water by immersing the seed pan. Transplant the seedlings at an early stage, and select those that are equal in size. The young plants should be grown in a nursery bed in a cold frame prior to their final planting out. Allow an eight-inch space between the plants in this bed and one foot in the trench outside.