To my dismay I found my windshield a bit thicker than normal several days ago. The low end of my yard glistened rather white. Granted, I live in a cold hole near the west branch of the Octoraro, but as I suggested last week, colder weather is rapidly approaching.

There was no damage to even the tenderest annuals, just a reminder that the clock is ticking toward winter.

Last week we talked about plants above the ground. Today let's go underground. In the vegetable garden it's time to get the potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions out if you haven't already done so. It may be an old wives tale, but I have always been told that a killing frost on sweet potato vines reduces their quality and storage life.

We never do red beets beyond the active growing season, but they can be canned. The taste of turnips improves with frosty weather. I suspect that carrots are almost as tough as turnips.

Potatoes need to be stored in a cool, damp site. If your supply will last past Christmas, or you will be buying big bags of them after Christmas, adding a few apples to the closed bag will retard spring sprouting.

Sweet potatoes should be dug on a warm day, left air dry and then stored in one of your warmest rooms. As a kid we put them near the chimney in an upstairs room. We favor some of the local varieties, but my wife cheats. She cooks them off and puts them in the freezer. Thatıs not quite as good as fresh but sure solves the storage problems.

We never have much luck keeping onions beyond our short-term needs. Turnips can stay in the garden until the ground is ready to freeze and are then treated like potatoes.

The summer flower bulbs or corms, like gladiolas, dahlias, cannas and green elephant ears need to be dug before they get a steady diet of hard frosts. I'm sure there is someone out there that will leave them in the ground and claim great winter survival. I just won't believe them, but if it works, do it.

Again, I suggest digging on a warm day so you can let them air dry. Then shake off as much dirt as you can. A dip in a fungicide solution or a ten- percent solution of chloride will greatly reduce mold.

Store them in the dark, in a spot not too dry but not too wet. A paper or burlap bag is fine. Packing them in peat moss or fine wood chips is even better, but is a lot more work if you have very many.

The black elephant ears that are becoming very popular are just a vegetative root. We dig ours, cut it back severely and put in a pot. It adds some nice winter foliage to a warm sunny corner by a window. I can see the day coming when the size of the pot and the strength of my back will battle as equals.

It's fall. There is a lot to do in the garden. Don't spend all your time scraping your windshield.