62 GARDENING WITH BRAINS 



which also correct soil acidity. If you wish to 

 know whether your soil needs lime, get a piece 

 of blue litmus paper in a drug store, insert one 

 end of it in a tumbler of water thickened with 

 dirt from your garden, and leave it for an hour. 

 If your soil is acid the litmus paper will be 

 intensely red. Lime is not a fertilizer in itself, 

 but it makes inert plant foods in the soil more 

 easily available. 



To protect tender young plants from frost 

 cover them on evenings when the thermometer 

 falls rapidly with burlap or with newspapers 

 held in place with stones. A smudge is less 

 sure, and to make one you will have to get up 

 before the sun. It's the first rays of the sun 

 that kill. See Chapter VII. 



To protect your whole yard against cats and 

 dogs and poultry, some sort of fence is neces- 

 sary. The cheapest is chicken wire. Shrubs or 

 hedge fences are better looking but less reliable; 

 but there are many kinds of ornamental fences. 

 Concerning these and cold frames and green- 

 houses and garden furniture and bungalow 

 summer gardens, window and porch plants, and 

 rock gardens I must refer the reader to The 

 Garden Guide, an excellent little book crammed 

 with facts, published by A. I. De La Mare Co., 

 New York. 



