It's time to put in the winter vegetable garden or, if you already have begun, to continue the job.

First, pull up and throw out or compost the remains of your summer garden. A thorough cleaning now really pays off in fewer bugs and diseases later.

Dig up the soil deeply with a spade, turning it over, aerating it, and breaking up the clods as you go.

Then use a garden fork to mix in organic amendments such as Master Nursery Paydirt.

Add a good vegetable fertilizer according to package directions; work this into the top 6 inches of soil. If you're an organic gardener, use instead blood meal, cottonseed meal, bone meal or bagged organic vegetable food (we recommend E.B. Stone Organics Tomato & Vegetable Food).

Then use a garden rake to level the ground. Use a hoe to make furrows between rows in heavy soils.

Plant tall crops to the north, and short crops to the south. Full sun is best for all winter vegetables.

To fool hyacinths, tulips and crocuses into thinking they've had a cold winter, put the bulbs in the lettuce drawer of your refrigerator (in a brown paper bag, not plastic--it rots them) for 6-8 weeks prior to planting. If your lettuce drawer takes delight, as some do, in regularly freezing lettuce, it's too cold for bulbs; store them on a low back shelf. They must not freeze.

Also beware of fresh fruits that give off ethylene gas, including apples, bananas and pineapples. When these are stored in the same refrigerator with bulbs, make sure they're in airtight bags or containers; if the gas escapes, it can cause flower bulbs to either rot or grow roots and sprout.

After you remove the bulbs from refrigeration, plant them in the ground immediately.