CHAPTER XXIV 



SITUATION, SOIL AND PLANTING 



To import new soil into a garden is a big and costly 

 undertaking, and I should be slow to advise this. It 

 is well known, I think, that the late Mr. Alfred Tate, 

 when forming his lovely rose garden at Downside, 

 Leatherhead, which is one of the finest in the land, 

 imported some hundreds of tons of loam to take the 

 place of the chalk removed, but such an ideal method 

 is too impracticable to be recommended generally. Some 

 enthusiastic amateurs will spend ten or twenty pounds 

 a year on new soil alone to enable them to win an impor- 

 tant prize at a rose show, but such are undoubtedly in 

 the minority. 



In a book written as a guide for the amateur one 

 may be allowed to describe ideal soils and situations, 

 with the object of helping readers to approximate as 

 closely to such ideals as circumstances will allow. 



An ideal situation is one (a) well sheltered from 

 strong gales, but not over shadowed by large trees or 

 hedges ; (b) in a district fairly immune from severe 

 frosts. High ground that is well sheltered from wind 

 would suit perfectly ; land near the sea has generally 

 the advantage of escaping frost. An instance of the 

 success attending rose growing near the sea is provided 



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