308 AROUND THE YEAR IN THE GARDEN 



couple of flour barrels from your grocer. If you have no 

 good compost on hand make a mixture of garden soil, 

 adding sand if it is heavy and leaf mold or sod scrapings. 

 Enough of this material usually about a third, in bulk- 

 should be added to the garden soil, or soil and sand, to make 

 the resulting mixture very light and porous, and friable 

 enough so that it will not lump when squeezed in the hand. 

 A barrel or two of this soil put away in the cellar, or in some 

 other place safe from freezing, will make the starting of seeds 

 and plants in the spring, when the ground outside is still 

 frozen hard, an easy matter. A surplus of the leaf mold or 

 sod shavings should be kept to mix with the soil for the seed 

 boxes, as this should be made more light and porous than 

 that used for transplanting and potting. An hour at this 

 job now will save you trouble next March. 



