A good many growers have installed irrigation works on their grounds, and if water from an ordinary well can be thrown on vegetation during a moderate frost it will be protected, but in case of a very hard freeze it will form thick ice all over the plants and the chances are that they will be ruined. When once water is turned on, it must be kept going until all danger of frost is over. One generally has tender plants scattered all over his place and his irrigation works are not sufficiently powerful to keep up a flow of water over the whole all night. It is claimed that if water is sprayed over frozen plants very early in the morning it will save them but I have never had much success with this plan.

A clouded sky at night is an excellent protection against frost, hence anything which imitates such a condition is good. If one can burn wood, trash, coal or crude oil in suitable vessels among his plants during a comparatively calm night when there is a light frost he may often save his plants, but if there is a high wind or a hard freeze such attempts at protection will do little good. Twice since living here I have seen such severe freezing during a time of high wind that all the leaves on lofty coconut trees were killed, and for more than a month these trees showed no sign of life. Of course smudge pots or any ordinary protection would be worthless at such a time.

Growers here have resorted to various plans such as putting screens around and over tender plants, some of them permanent and others which are removed in summer. Those which are intended to remain have posts set in the ground with tight, boarded walls and a framework overhead which may be slatted: the top is generally covered with canvas during winter. Some of these are large structures covering several acres. Small frames covered with canvas and temporary tents are often used. Posts are often set in the ground around or partly around plants, slats nailed on and palmetto leaves fastened to the slats. All these protect more or less but none of them will always save tender stuff unless some kind of heating apparatus is used.

As a general thing in the lower third of the state, shrubs and trees which have attained a height of six or eight feet are not in much danger of being destroyed by frost if the collars can be kept from freezing. It is almost always at this point that the greatest injury is done, because the air just at the ground is usually colder than at any higher point. In many cases I have known trees or shrubs whose limbs and leaves were wholly untouched by frost to die outright from its effects, and when they were afterwards examined it would be found that a short space just at the collar had been frozen so that wood and bark were turned black. Now the one thing to do which will never fail to save one's trees from destruction is to make a mound of earth around their bases as soon as there is any danger of frost in the fall and let it remain until there is no longer any risk from it in spring. This mound should be a foot or more high and it would be better if it could be made when the ground is dry.

Be sure that it is carefully filled in around the stem or stems and it will be well to examine it occasionally through the winter to see that mice have not dug it away. In case of warm and wet weather in winter it would be best to watch herbaceous or other delicate things for fear their stems might rot: if there seems to be any danger the soil should be temporarily removed and replaced when the weather grows cooler. If plants are so treated one can be almost absolutely sure of carrying the tenderest things safely through the winters of lower Florida. Generally it will be found that the tops of plants so treated will receive but little damage, and even if they are destroyed fresh suckers will spring up from the living part. The mound should be so constructed that no water can enter at the stem of the plant.

In some cases a mound of earth may be made at the side of a small plant just before a hard frost, the plant bent down over it, the whole covered with gunny sacks and earth laid over all to the depth of several inches. This must be removed immediately after danger is over and, at the best, it will be nearly as hard on the plants as a frost. Leaving native plants for protection, or planting rapid growing vegetation among one's tender things, is some help.

But little protection can be made for vegetation against hurricanes. So far as possible I try to have my things grow low, and I am glad to have trees and shrubs with as many stems as possible. Never trim trees up so that they will have long, naked trunks, for this gives the wind an extra leverage whereby it can uproot or break them. If trees and large shrubs are frozen down allow them to send up a number of sprouts if they will. By so doing they will form low heads which will help to protect them from the next frost and from heavy winds. By allowing the vegetation in your grounds to grow up densely it will be more likely to withstand severe wind storms than if it is open, as the trees protect each other.

In low land or regions underlaid with hardpan it will be necessary to cut ditches or put in tiling to carry off the water. Sometimes as much as thirty inches of rain falls in a month, and this must be promptly removed.