Pot-pourri from a Surrey garden

All this last month we have been eating the thin- nings of seedling Lettuces as salad, and they are most delicious. All kinds of Lettuces seem to eat equally well ; they are grown in boxes in a frame. I first thought of eating them from seeing that they were thrown away to give room for those that were going to be planted out. I now purposely grow them in extra quantities, and in succession, so that my salads may never fall short. Even out of doors, in the summer, we sometimes grow them if our large Lettuces run to seed. They make infinitely better salad than the tough little brown Cos Lettuces, grown with such care in frames all through the winter. All the year round I always mix the salad on the table myself, using nothing but oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper ; and I always have brought to table, on a separate little plate, some herbs, Tarragon, Chervil, and some very young Onions ; these I cut up over the Lettuces before I mix in the oil and vinegar. If you have no young Onions, Chive-tops do very well. These herbs are an immense addition to any salad, but are far from universally used in England, though they are quite easy ii 98 POT-POURRI FROM A SURREY GARDEN to grow, for anyone who has a kitchen garden, even a small one. The Tarragon, however, and the Onions have to be grown in the conservatory in the winter. Many young gardeners do not know that the secret of young Potatoes being good, and not watery, is to take them out of the ground several days before you boil them. A little Mint chopped on to young Potatoes instead of Parsley makes a pleasant change ; but then we English like Mint, and it is very different here from the Mint grown in dry countries, which is just like Peppermint. The French have a way of boiling Asparagus which is especially good for the thin green Asparagus so common in our English gardens : — You tie them into a bundle, and put them, stalk downwards, into a fairly deep saucepan. In this way the heads are only cooked by the steam, and do not become soppy. May \Qth. — I have a friend who to-day writes she is having iron rings driven into an old stone house round the windows so as to hold pots of Carnations and Geraniums, to hang down as they do in Tyrol and Switzerland. This will look pretty, no doubt, if it answers ; but in our cold and windy summers I am sure they would do better if one pot were sunk inside another with some moss between, so that the evaporation caused by the wind, which freezes the roots, should not be so great. Abroad the pots are frequently glazed either all the way down or part of the way down ; this stops evaporation. So many greenhouse plants, when they are ' stood out,' as the gardeners say, get injured by the cold winds on the pots, which does far more harm than the wind on the leaves. One of the best and simplest remedies is to dig moderately deep trenches with a raised border round them of turf or boards, and stand the pots in these, instead of on the open ground. Sheets of corrugated iron cut to convenient sizes make excellent movable shelters MAY 99