290 GARDEN GUIDE 



their stems, such as rye straw, is best, although paper is an excellent 

 insulator against the cold. Climbers are well protected by laying them 

 down and covering them with evergreens or wrapped in burlap. Any 

 sort of frame packed with leaves is a trifle dangerous, for the leaves 

 are apt to ferment and cause the young shoots to start prematurely. 

 Many persons dig their Teas each Fall and store in coldframes, which 

 usually keeps them perfectly but is rather troublesome 



Windbreaks for Trees and Shrubs 



For many trees and shrubs a windbreak will be the proper sort 

 of shelter from the drying winds of Winter. Trees are apt to be 

 injured in Winter by the loss of water by evaporation from the twigs; 

 this cannot be supplied by the frozen roots, and the plant dies. Tem- 

 porary fences may be greeted of boards or Cornstalks which will 

 give the required break to the full sweep of the wind. Such protection 

 is placed on the south side Df broad-leaved evergreens to shield them 

 from the Winter sun. The branches of either deciduous or evergreen 

 trees should be tied up when the trees are somewhat columnar and 

 are susceptible to breaking by wind or snow. This is especially neces- 

 sary with Irish Juniper. 



Tender plants and newly set trees, evergreens and others, are 

 successfully protected by tying them together and covering with 

 Hemlock boughs. Other trees and shrubs are covered deeply so that 

 the roots do not freeze, in which case many are encouraged to grow 

 under adverse conditions. 



It is the alternate freezing and thawing of the trunk and branches 

 of fruit trees that causes them to crack open on the south side. Low 

 heading is the only precaution. 



Facts About Frost 



The Weather Bureau recognizes three degrees of frost — lights 

 when the tenderest vegetation, such as Peppers, Melons, Egg Plant, 

 Beans, Heliotrope, Coleus, Nasturtium and Salvia, is injured; heavy, 

 when the hardier sorts are damaged and the tender ones quite destroyed; 

 and killing, when the staple crops of the region are killed 



In the garden the first type is commonly the most disastrous 

 because it comes with the least warning and occurs early in the Fall 

 and late in the Spring when the gardener is off his guard. Moreover, 

 the first Fall frost is usually followed by some weeks of fine, mild 

 weather during which even the tender plants, if they had been pro- 

 tected during the cold snap, might have continued to gjxm, blossom 

 and ripen fruit. 



