Autumn Sowing
The extreme mildness of this autumn, which permits us still to pluck rosebuds and already to enjoy the scent of viburnum fragrans, may persuade more people to trust seeds to the ground in their vegetable garden in the autumn. We are, perhaps, in general, too apprehensive of the rigours of our seasons. We do not display in our gardens the courage of the farmers who enjoy the spectacle of " a good plant " in the wheatfield all through the winter. Experimentally and on occasion even potatoes set in autumn have produced a good crop in early spring ; but there are some few vegetables of known hardihood. The first place goes to the broad bean. It should be sown in autumn in every garden in the kingdom ; and these autumn-sown crops not only give us a delicious vegetable very early in the year, but are, as a rule, freer from maladies than the spring-sown beans. The same is true cf the carrots which we were taught in the war time to sow as late as August. These small late crops are always quite exempt from the worst enemies of the root. The little white grubs are not then in existence.
Previous page
