86 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



winter garden may get a touch of frost once or twice 

 during the colder months any time from Novem- 

 ber first to March first. Plenty of water to sprinkle 

 with is protective, but we have straw or grass be- 

 tween our lines of peas and potatoes, to toss over 

 them when the weather threatens; possibly four or 

 five times during the winter. Winter is also our 

 dry season, and if quite dry, we need a gasoline en- 

 gine and an irrigating system. 



I am not going to write an essay on gardening, 

 in which you will find those directions commonly 

 given in a seedman's catalogue, for in any case you 

 will have to learn most of your gardening by experi- 

 ence. I shall give you only a few general rules that 

 will save you serious mistakes at the outset. 



In the first place, your garden land must be ad- 

 solutely clean and well tilled. The cleaning must 

 be done before your planting. It is utter folly to 

 undertake to hoe quack grass out of a strawberry 

 bed. 



In the second place, vegetables should be grown, 

 as a rule, where the ground is deep and rich, and 

 that means generally near your barn. You need 

 some things, however, like herbs and rhubarb and 

 lettuce, near the house. A little back-door garden, 

 made very rich, is extremely handy for the house- 

 wife. Remember always that house slops, which are 

 generally thrown away, are very useful around gar- 

 den plants, and are especially good for dahlias and 

 some of our strongest growing flower plants. 



