Gardening
In the greenhouse
'Denis Wood,
Maud came in with some more instructions the other day. "Look here," she said, "Now you have got that new greenhouse, and that new-fangled electric propagator, you'd better get on with sowing seeds of tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, melons and cucumbers. Sow them in the propagator at 65 deg F, and save yourself the expense of heating the whole greenhouse to that temperature for seven or eight weeks. When the time comes to bring them out it should not be difficult to keep the greenhouse up to 65 deg F. You'll have to watch out at night, but the March sunshine will do mist of the work in the day time.
"The best tomatoes for you to grow in a warm greenhouse are, Alicante for its thin skin, and Ailsa Craig for its flavour, which is all the better if you keep up the potassium in the liquid feed. For out of doors raise some Outdoor Girl, which is early, and responds to being jollied along under cloches until they get too tall. Try also Marmande, the irregular shaped continental type which you must have seen in markets in Spain, France and Italy.
"Peppers are richly endowed with vitamin C — and anyway delicious raw or cooked in stews and goulash. One which was giving a good account of itself at the Lee Valley Experimental Station when I went there was New Ace.
"Make sure of getting some of the all-female flowered cucumbers, like Femspot. For some reason itis maleness which gives greenhouse cucumbers a bitter taste — they do not need pollinating anyway — but the out cf door ridge cucumbers, on the other hand, cannot get on without that old fashioned procedure, nor can melons and marrows.
"As for melons, a Canteloupe like Sweetheart or the little Ogen melon from Israel will be easiest for you to grow. If you want something really luscious try Emerald Gen.
"Now for aubergines, thisis a real high-temperature crop — but you can grow them with all the others if you are not in too much of a hurry. When I was at Lee Valley they were getting good results from Mammouth, but I can't see this yet in retail lists. So you can try the Burpee Fl hybrid, or Long Purple...." "That sounds like something rude from Hamlet," I said.
"You should see the illustration in Vilmorine's catalogue," said Maud, with a quite uncharacteristic leer. "Not today, thank you," I said—"But let me tell you that I don't like aubergines and I am not going to grow them. They are quite tasteless and 'have a horrible cotton-wool texture. Courgettes and cucumbers cut into chunks are much nicer in ratatouille. They are one of the silly prestige foods, brought out with a flourish at business executives' expense account luncheons — along with nauseating avocado pears, and really repulsive slimy prawn cocktails."
"I hope you will be in a more sensible mood when I come again," said Maud, "You need a course of parsnips, and ,I will tell you how to grow them!'
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