Excerpt from Gardening A La Mode: Vegetables Artichokes are strong growing plants, and will grow almost in any kind Of Soil as long as it is properly prepared but, though they prefer a good rich garden Soil, the ground Should be manured and trenched in the middle of January, and the land should be broken up deeply and left with a rough surface till the end Of March, then forked over, and the suckers planted (suckers are better than seeds) early in April four feet apart. The suckers are best when about nine inches long. Good manure Should be placed between the rows Bevery autumn, and the plants covered with straw in Severe weather in the winter. TO prepare them for planting, the brown hard part by which they are attached to the parent stem must be removed, and the large outside leaves should be taken Off SO that the heart appears above them. If the weather is favourable, it is a good plan to put them into a pan Of water for a few hours before they are planted, especially if they have been separated from the parent stem for some time. A large flower-pot should be placed over each, and they should be watered liberally every evening till the flower heads appear. About June all side Shoots should be cut Off, and all the care they will require during the summer is the frequent use Of the hoe and occasionally a mulching Of liquid manure. The plants will produce a succession of heads from July to October. In the autumn cut down the stalks which have produced heads, and place a thick covering Of litter about the stems and roots to exclude frost. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.