416 AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Around the Garden 
THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER IN THE GARDEN 
woq||HIS is the month when Nature, the dear old 
ld|| nurse, sings hercradle-song to all the growing 
things of outdoors, as they snuggle down in 
the coverings Jack Frost will pull over them 
at the approach of their long winter’s sleep. 
This, too, is a time when one looks forth 
from window and doorway, out on the gray tree trunks, 
some of them still clinging to their orange and golden 
brown foliage, or, farther north, find themselves bereft of 
the last trace of summery vesture, standing out against 
the blue fall skies in silhouette, like lacework of intricate 
pattern. Little gusts of keen winds that whisper of winter’s 
coming will blow the careless leaves that have fallen to 
the ground hither and thither, and we shall find ourselves 
sighing that the lovely days wherein the Goddess Flora and 
her merry train made earth a paradise of growing, blossom- 
ing things for us to feast our eyes upon, unheeding though 
we were, are gone. 
And yet there is something in the keen bracing air that 
keeps us from deserting our gardens. We shall find our- 
selves walking in and out among its paths, tenderly regret- 
There is no lovelier tree upon the fall and winter landscape than the 
birch, which lends cheer to the bleak things of the late season around 
A MONTHLY KALENDAR OF TIMELY GARDEN OPERA- 
TIONS AND USEFUL HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS 
ABOUT THE HOME GARDEN AND 
GROUNDS 
All queries will gladly be answered by the Editor. If a personal 
reply is desired by subscribers stamps should be enclosed therewith. 
November, 1911 
ful that the broken things of yesterday which proudly lifted 
their countless stems of clustered flowers to the sun have 
fallen to the earth. We shall still find plenty of garden 
work for idle hands if they itch to be doing things. There 
will be the final planting of bulbs for the spring garden, 
the lovely Hyacinths, and perhaps other belated species; 
at least we will try to atone for our procrastination if we 
have not been sufficiently mindful of fleeting time, and we 
shall hasten to put within the earth the things of next sea- 
son’s garden that should be there by now, ere the earth 
freezes deeply. 
Over there, perhaps, we shall find the evergreen leaves 
of our Rhododendrons bright upon the landscape, and we 
shall fall to wondering how they will survive the storms of 
winter. We shall go into our woodlots and cut hemlock 
boughs to strew over these shrubs and when spring again © 
awakens all sleeping garden things we can hope to find 
that our Rhododendrons have not suffered, that the care 
we have chosen to take of them will have brought to them 
their vigorous growth. 
Nor must we forget that little patch of strawberries 
yonder, that gave us such delight, and the very excellent 
fruit we proudly shared with our neighbors (not, also, so 
much from the charity within our hearts as from a sense 
of the perfection of the things we could raise and our 
pride in them which our vanity has wished our neighbors 
to witness). Never mind, it may be that this has been the 
very first garden we have ever had and we may find our- 
selves thankful that old John, who helped us with it, hap- 
pened to tell us long ago to look out for November days 
and to see that our berry patch—a heritage from our 
garden’s former owner—must be properly mulched this 
month. The very name of ‘“‘mulch’” frightened us, for 
we imagined, at first, perhaps, that it must be some intricate 
process, but we were immensely relieved to find that a mulch- 
ing meant a covering for the ground of leaves or of any 
rakings from the lawn. So now we know we must mulch 
our strawberry vines to a depth of two or three inches. We 
remember, however, that John said to do it with hay or 
straw, and we decided upon straw as not carrying with it 
the possibility of so many uninvited seeds of disagreeable 
weeds, feeling somewhat important in having thought this 
out for ourselves. This leaves us with our pile of raked up 
leaves for our other beds when the time comes, for we 
have also been told that we should not mulch such beds as 
those of our bulbs until there is an inch of frost in the 
ground. 
All the old vegetable matter cluttering the ground may 
be burned, as November is the month in which we should 
busy ourselves with “‘housecleaning” in our gardens. At 
any rate, it gives us an excuse for ever so many harmless 
bonfires. Our children love them and so we let them roast 
potatoes in them, and have a merry time of it after all. 
