COLD FRAME The frame and glass sash of a cold frame are just like those of a hotbed, but the cold frame is placed on the ground without fresh manure, sometimes without any manure. Usually, the earth is dug up to the depth of a foot and mixed with well-rotted manure and the frame placed on _top_ of it. Soil is also banked up on the outside for protection from cold winds. An old cooled off hotbed is really a cold frame. A cold frame is always useful for— 1. “Wintering over” plants a little too tender to leave unprotected. 2. Transplanting seedlings (young plants) from the hotbed, where they will gradually become accustomed to a cooler atmosphere before they are placed in the outside ground. Young lettuce plants may be placed in the cold frame in the Autumn, and will supply salad nearly all winter. Parsley and herbs will stay green the winter through if placed in the cold frame. Some hardier seeds may be started in the cold frame instead of the hotbed; such as cucumber or melons. Always cover the sash with burlap or old carpet on very cold nights, to prevent young plants from freezing. Before the boys returned to school, the children had sowed in their new hotbed the seeds of the following flowers and vegetables: Ageratum Alyssum Corn flowers Snapdragons Lettuce Radishes Parsley Tomatoes Peppers CHAPTER LVIII SOME HINTS ON GROWING VEGETABLES MARY FRANCES repeated to Eleanor some of the lessons which Billy had given her on growing vegetables. She had a little book in which she had taken notes. “Billy told me,” she said, “that when he was little, he used to wonder why things wouldn’t grow if they were just ‘stuck down’ in the ground. You see, he didn’t know that the making of the beds was the most important matter of all.” “Why, I’ve heard people say that anything would grow if planted by certain people—that they ‘had luck,’” Eleanor stated. “If you had watched those very people,” Mary Frances replied wisely, “you would probably have seen that they loosened up the soil before they ‘stuck’ the plant down.” “I imagine that’s true,” agreed Eleanor. “Well,” Mary Frances continued, opening her book, “as you know, in getting the outdoor beds ready, you— (1) Dig deep to loosen the soil; (2) Spread over it well-rotted manure; (3) Dig and turn the soil over again; (4) Rake the top soil fine and level. It is a good plan to spread leaves and manure over the ground in the Fall and dig them in in the Spring to make the soil rich and crumbly, or friable. Did you ever think how many different parts of plants are used for food? We eat the _roots_ of some vegetables; such as beets, carrots, radishes, turnips. Of others we use the _leaves_; such as lettuce, celery, cabbage, spinach, parsley. Of others, the seeds; as beans, peas, corn.