SOILS AND CULTIVATION IN THE FLOWER GARDEN. 3S9 



is no doubt that such deep culture well repays the doing. The 

 farmer is often unable to alter the staple of his ground owing 

 to its extent, but the flower gardener, dealing with a much smaller 

 area, should never rest until he has got a deep as well as a good soil. 

 This is given to many by Nature in rich valley lands, and on such 

 happy soil the flower gardener's main work as regards the labours of 

 the soil is changing the crop now and then, with some modification 

 of the soil to suit certain plants. 



Soft Water Best. — Where, however, owing to the dryness of 

 the soil or subsoil or to shortness of the rainfall, we have to resort to 

 much artificial watering, it is a great point to save the rain water as 

 the best of all water not only for household uses, but for plants. 

 Next to it comes river water, but to the gardens that want most 

 water, rivers, unfortunately, do not come, so that for garden use it 

 would often be very wise to do what people do more in other countries 

 than ours, and that is, save all the rain water we can instead of letting 

 it run to waste, as it does so often. 



Drainage. — In our country too much thought and labour are 

 given to drainage in the flower garden, to the neglect of change of 

 plants and deep cultivation, and during our hot summers some way 

 to keep water in the beds is more important than getting rid of it. 

 Some soils, too, are in little need of artificial drainage, such as free 

 sands, sandy loams, chalky and limestone soils, and much ground 

 lying high, and much alluvial land. Houses are not usually built 

 on bogs or marshy land, and in the course of years the ground 

 round most houses has been made dry enough for use, and hence 

 elaborate work in drains, bottoming with brick-rubbish or concrete, 

 is often wasted labour. In some years even in the west country we 

 may see plants lying half-dead on the ground for want of water, and 

 the same plants in deep soil, and where no thought was given to 

 drainage, in perfect health at the same time. There are places where, 

 owing to excessive rainfall and the wet nature of the soil, we may 

 have to drain, but it is often overdone. 



Apart from the over-draining for ordinary garden things, it may 

 be well to remember that flower garden plants in our country are 

 often half starved through drainage, like Phlox and scarlet Lobelia, 

 which in their own country are marsh plants, or inhabit the edges of 

 pools. In the southern country they simply refuse to show their true 

 character where the ground is drained in the usual way. The men 

 who began the crusade about draining land in this century found its 

 effects so good on sour, peaty clay and saturated land, and talked so 

 well and so much about it, that some harm has been done — draining 

 where it does more harm than good not being uncommon. 



Gardeners' land and farmers' land are usually wholly different. 



