Growing Endive In Your Garden

ground clean, and hoe deep and frequently between the plants.

When they get to a good size, they are to be bleached before they can be used as salad; for, while green, they are bitter and not very crisp.

In order to bleach them, you must take them when quite dry; gather all the leaves carefully up with your hands; draw them into a conical form, and tie them round with matting or soft string, or little splinters of white oak.

When they have remained in this state for about a fortnight, they will be bleached and fit for use. The time of sowing may be as early as the weather will permit in the spring, and there may be another sowing for summer; but, it is for winter and spring use that Endive is most wanted; so that, the late sowings are of the most importance.

Sow about the end of July, in fine rich ground. If you do not transplant, leave the plants at the distances before mentioned; if you do, transplant at the same distances (a foot every way;) do it when the plants have ten leaves, and tip off both leaves and roots when you transplant.

Fix the roots well as directed in the case of cabbage; and, as the plant is very juicy, and the weather hot, plant in the evening, or early in the morning, water a little, and lay some bows over to shade for two days, but take the bows off at night.

The best place for Endive would be the shady border. The plants will come in for use in October, November, and December. Some sown a little later must be preserved for winter use.

Before the frost sets in, they must be tied up in a conical form, as before directed, and all dead, or yellow, leaves must be taken off. Then dig them up, with a ball of earth to each, and put them into light earth in a cellar or some warm building. Put only the roots into the earth; do not suffer the plants to touch each other; and pour a little water round the roots after you have put them in the earth.
If they be perfectly dry when tied up, they will keep well till spring. 'To have them as early as possible in the spring, sow in the third week of August, and do not transplant. When the hard frost is come, cover the whole of the ground over with straw six inches deep, and throw (if at hand) some leaves of trees over the straw, and some sticks to keep the leaves from blowing away.

But, the best covering of all, in this case is, boughs of cedar, or of fir, or laurel; though these boughs must be, for this purpose, cut up into small parts, so that they will lie close and compact and keep out the light. Some evergreen boughs, and some leaves of trees thrown over them, form, perhaps, the best covering in the world for plants of this description. But, observe; you must let the frost come. The ground must be right hard when you put the covering on; or else, the plants will rot. They must see the sun no more till spring.

When the frost breaks up, take off the covering; hoe the ground as soon as dry, and proceed to perfect the plants in the manner before described. One of these plants will produce seed enough to last you for five years. There need not be many of these plants.

Lettuces are their rivals, and are a great deal better. I have mentioned matting in this article, as a thing to tie with. This matting is nothing more than the threads of those large things, in which foreign goods sometimes come packed up.

These things are in England called Mats, and the threads of which they are composed, are by gardeners, called matting. The gardeners use this for ties to Espalier trees; they tie on their grafts with it; they tie up their flowers with it; and, in short, it is the string of the gardeners. The Mats, thousands of bales of which are imported into England from Russia, are used to cover the hot-beds with, and for various other purposes.

But, matting is to be had, and with very little trouble, without sending to Russia for it. Any one who has a spare tree may have plenty of matting. When I came to Long Island, I cut down a chestnut, of about a foot diameter, and that furnished me with a store of matting ties.

The tree was cut in June; the outer bark taken off; and then the inner bark came off in long flakes, some broad and some narrow, the whole length of the clear trunk, which was about 15 feet.

I just hung this up to dry; and that was matting, to be cut into any length, and ready to use for any tie, where much strength was not required. The only precautions are: keep the matting in the dry, and when you use it dip it water first for a few minutes, and take it out of the water as you use it. If you have put more into the water than you want for that time, take it out and hang it up in the dry again; and it will receive no injury.

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