A work on gardening demands of the reader the exercise of judgment.  If blindly followed, it may prove as often wrong as right; for it is not in the power of the authors to influence the weather in favour of their directions, or to insure to those who may follow their guidance a single one amongst the many conditions requisite to success.  Although the times named for certain operations are the best as an average, peculiarities of climate and of season will require some modifications, which each one must discover for himself; and after the seed of any vegetable has been sown it is not always needful to give subsequent reminders of successional sowings.  These naturally follow in accordance with the requirements of each particular garden.  With such allowances duly made, these notes will, it is hoped, prove thoroughly practical, and tend materially to aid the cultivator in obtaining from the vegetable garden an abundance of everything in its season, and of a quality of which he need not be ashamed.

==January==

Work in the garden during the opening month of the year is entirely dependent on the weather, and it is futile to enter on a vain conflict with Nature.  When heavy rains prevail keep off the ground, but immediately it will bear traffic without poaching be prepared to take advantage of every favourable hour.  Much may be done in January to make ready for the busy spring, and every moment usefully employed will relieve the pressure later on.  Survey the stock of pea-sticks, haul out all the rubbish from the yard, and make a ‘smother’ of waste prunings and heaps of twitch and other stuff for which there is no decided use.  If properly done, the result will be a black ash of the most fertilising nature, such as a mere fire will not produce.  Should the soil be frost-bound wheel out manure and lay it in heaps ready to be spread and dug in where seed-beds are to be made.  If the weather is open and dry, trench spare plots and make ready well-manured plots for sowing Peas and Beans.  So far as may be convenient, all preparatory work should be pushed on with vigour, and every effort must be made to lay up as much land in the rough as possible; for the more it is frozen through the greater will be its fertility, and the more beautiful, as well as more abundant, the crops.

It is a matter of the most ordinary prudence to be prepared to resist the shock of a severe frost.  When this event occurs, many suffer loss because they are not prepared for it.  Good brick walls and substantial roofs are needed for the safe keeping of fruits and the more valuable kinds of roots; but when rough methods are resorted to, such as clamping and pitting, there should be a large body of stuff employed, for a prolonged frost will find its way through any thin covering, no matter what the material may be.  As there is not much to do now out of doors, it is a good time to look over the notes which were made concerning various crops in the past season, and to attend to the seed list.