Cover the tender vegetables - 



■ egg plant and peppers — quite early in the season. Barrels and boxes may be used for this. The picture on the right shows how 

 the unprotected plants have been nipped by the first touch of frost 



Making the Garden Live Longer— By w. c. McCollom, a 



WARD OFF THE FIRST SNAP OF FROST AND LENGTHEN THE SEASON BY ONE-THIRD OR MORE — SIM- 

 PLE MEANS OF PROTECTION THAT WILL SAVE EVEN THE TENDEREST FLOWERS AND VEGETABLES 



"^TOVEMBER is one of the best months 

 -L ^ in the year for fresh vegetables and 

 fall flowers, provided, of course, that the 

 garden has been taken care of. Yet most 

 people, I fear, have forgotten by that time 

 that they ever owned a garden, either flower 

 or vegetable. 



Are you content to stand by and see the 

 plants you have Worked hard on all summer 

 nipped by the first frost, and then have 

 three or four weeks of good growing weather 

 with the garden dreary? Wake up, my 

 friends, and protect your plants from that 

 pesky frost! It is quite an easy matter 

 if you are only prepared for it. Don't be 

 caught napping! 



Toward the middle of October, when the 

 wind breaks in from the North and it is very 

 warm in the sun in the middle of the day 

 but very cool in the shade, look out for frost. 



If in the evening the sky is very clear, the 

 wind dies down and smoke goes straight up, 

 it is safe to get busy and cover such flowers 

 and vegetables as you may want to keep 

 longer. 



Protection may be given in various ways, 

 but I think the most satisfactory method for 

 the average amateur is the local application 

 of some covering to prevent the frost from 

 reaching the plants. Large growers of 

 oranges and such crops use smudge fires to 

 protect their trees and they are very satis- 

 factory. A smudge is easily made and may 

 prevent the frost from destroying your garden 

 when you are caught unawares. Start 

 a good fire of some dry material, and 

 then cover it with leaves or other rubbish that 

 is very damp — not so wet that it will not burn 

 but just damp enough so that it won't 

 blaze up. A mantle of heavy moisture- 



laden smoke will be thrown off which an 

 ordinary frost will have difficulty in penetrat- 

 ing. A number of small fires at various 

 scattered points is much better than one 

 large fire as it distributes the smoke more 

 thoroughly. 



Thoroughly wetting down the plants with 

 a hose toward evening also prevents the 

 frost from settling on them; but don't do 

 any hosing when there are indications of a 

 freeze, as there is quite a difference between 

 freezing and frost. Every family throws 

 away more burlap and other materials, such 

 as heavy wrapping paper, etc., in one season 

 that, if saved and used as frost shields, would 

 keep the vegetable garden fresh right through 

 October and a good part of November. Of 

 course the plants will eventually succumb 

 to heavy frosts, but a gain of a number of 

 weeks will have been made. Figure it up 



All kinds of root crops are easily kept for winter use by burying in a 



trench 



Celery is wintered in the trench where it grows by banking up with earth to 



keep off the frost 



168 



