Evening star., 1932-12-17
Turn out the lights some evening
after placing the logs.

4uIu Out Lie ukltS SO1uc cVeuuk
after placing the logs.
1t is time for fireside gardening!
Touch a match to the rolled paper
beneath the kindling.
Let the wood ignite, sending wreaths
Of smoke rolling up the chimney.
Under the influence of the Pickering
fire the amateur gardener will be able
to concentrate on what he wants to dc
next Spring.
He proposes, and, happily often dis
poses, in this matter, at least.
Here is an entire little world of plan
ming and doing into which no one else
seeks to poke a nose.
That is something, in this world,
where mostly some one Is forever setting
himself up as an authority" on some
thing or other.
If he would merely set himself up,
that would not be SO bad. but when he
attempts to tell all and sundry how
they should conduct their lives, and
why, he becomes something of q bore
and nuisance
Especially the why!
What the world needs is to be let
alone more, to be its own master in its
own way, without the benefit Of advice
Now, fireside gardening, as it is called
Is distinctly one living affair in which
one receives advice only as desired, and
strictly without need Of warning.
There are books, there are magazines,
treating of the subject; there are any
number of delightful seed catalogues
but, one and all, these are friends, and
patient friends, at that.
With their aid, or without their aid, 1t
is possible to do exactly as one pleases.
Perhaps 1T is too early for the new
catalogues, those peasant friends of
many an evenings speculation. How
every one who dabbles in the soil well
comes their annual visit! One may
wonder if there Is any other sort of
publication which Is received with such
gratitude.
They are changed every year just
enough to retain their interest, while
at the same time the old IS kept very
much to the fore.
Hence one greets an old friend In a
new suit, as it were.
Most of them do not come In until
the New Year, about which time really
ardent gardeners begin to keep close
watch on mail boxes.
Red-ripe tomatoes, huge ears Of corn,
monstrous beetS-theSe f1aunt their best
colors on the covers of the seed cata-
logues. where they are a happy re-
minder the year through of gardening
possibilities, If not probabilities.
AS one plans for the pleasant future
at this time. these helps will be largely
lacking, this being Christmas tide. with
all that it means, or ought to mean.
Yet there is nothing incongruous
about Christmas and gardening
The thoughts of the one ought to be
bright and happy and the thoughts of
the other ought to be bright and happy.
Christmas is colortul, gardening is
colorful
If the former rather runs to red and
green. for various symbolic and prac-
tical reasons, these colors are vital in
horticulture, too.
Green is the basic color Of nature, In
these aspects.
Without green there would be no
world as We know it.
Red is another fundamental COL
oration. found largely throughout the
floral kingdom, in fishes and on the
feathers of the bird world.
Tomatoes and beets and radishes
present us with red in the vegetables: ::
cannas, gladioli and multitude of others
among the flowers.
If our hope centers in Christmas. It