228 JOTTINGS OF A GENTLEMAN GARDENER 



SOME USEFUL ADJUNCTS. 



In addition to vegetable humus made as described, there 

 are several forms of material which are useful adjuncts 

 to soils, including peat, road scrapings, tanners' refuse, 

 spent hops, leaf-mould, and seaweed. They are not 

 commonly known as Vegetable Humus, but they are all 

 forms of it. 



Peat : Peat is not nearly so much in demand as leaf- 

 mould, but it has its own good uses in the garden. Mixed 

 with loam it is used for potting. Plants of the Heath tribe, 

 and hard wooded shrubby plants, do best when potted 

 in a mixture of peat, leaf-soil, and sand. Out of doors, 

 Rhododendrons, Azaleas, Ericas, etc., etc., may well be 

 grown in soils containing peat, and White Heather from the 

 moors grown in rock-gardens should be given peaty soil. 



Peat is formed on wide tracts of moorland, and is 

 produced by rotting Heather plants in excessive moisture. 

 The water is kept on the surface more or less by a layer of 

 matter called " pan," which is also impenetrable to the 

 plants' roots. Successive layers of vegetation grow and 

 die and become partly decomposed ; marsh gas is evolved, 

 the vegetable matter does not completely rot, and peat 

 accumulates. 



Peat may be dug from pits or from just under the heather 

 on the moors in many parts of the country. It should not 

 be dumped on to garden soil at once ; but if it can be tipped 

 into a yard and dealt with as follows, so much the better. 



Break up the biggest lumps and pick out any pieces of 

 stick, heather stem or root, and other rubbish. Then wheel 

 it to some sheltered corner or preferably into an open 

 building, and stack it high so that the water may drain 

 away. This water is always acid and sour. After drying, 

 it can be wheeled on to the borders for Rhododendrons, etc., 

 and dug in, with or without stable manure. Or it can be 

 used as a mulch over the roots of these plants. For potting 

 purposes, put it through a \ in. sieve and mix with equal 

 parts of loam or leaf- soil and about half a part or less of 



