GARDENING IN HEAVY SOILS 



THE problems of gardening in heavy soils are 

 naturally quite different from those of gar- 

 dening in light soils; for whereas the chief enemy of 

 plants in light soils is drought and heat in summer, 

 their chief enemy in heavy soils is damp and cold in 

 winter. Climate is not the only condition which af- 

 fects the hardiness of plants; soil has also to be con- 

 sidered; and many plants that are hardy on a light 

 sandy soil are not hardy on a stiff clay, although the 

 climate may be no colder. The chief reason of this 

 is that moisture on a stiff clay does not drain away 

 quickly, but remains about the roots and even about 

 the crowns of plants, so that the ground is very cold 

 when it is frozen and, even when it is not frozen, is 

 all through the winter so charged with damp that 

 many plants are liable to rot off in it. It follows from 

 this that drainage is the chief essential to success in 

 a stiff soil; and it is necessary not merely to protect 

 the plants from damp and cold, but also to make the 

 ground fertile, for if the upper layer of the soil is 

 charged with water, air cannot get into it, and with- 

 out air those processes of decomposition which make 

 soil fertile are impossible. 



No one, therefore, whose garden consists of stiff 

 clay can hope to grow any but the coarsest and strong- 



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