CHAPTER III. 

 SOILS AND FERTILIZERS. 



No matter what the soil surrounding your home may naturally be, 

 you can grow glorious flowers if you will try to understand what the 

 soil has to do for your plants and what you must to to prepare it 

 for its work. Pro'bably not one amateur in a thousand selects his 

 building place because of the natural suitability of the soil to produce 

 an environment of flowers, shrubs, trees and vines. He rolls his eye 

 over the landscape; he basks in the sunshine; he makes sure that he 

 can quench his thirst from well, ditch or pipe-line; he listens for the 

 gong-clang of the trolley car. If all these prospects are pleasing, he 

 builds his house and stakes out his garden. From the points of view 

 of the amateur, the performance is thoroughly rational, because what- 

 ever the soil may lack he can make up to it. in fact, if he has no soil 

 at all he can haul it in or make it on the spot. 



For these reasons, although a good depth of suitable soil is in- 

 despensable in a commercial plant-venture of any kind, and though 

 it is very desirable also for the purposes of the amateur, its absence 

 does not deny the possession of a good garden and full enjoyment of 

 it. And, this being true, it is rational for the amateur to attach 

 relatively less importance to buying soil than to buying other good 

 things. For example a soil-less site, out of fierce winds and sharp 

 frosts, will give more pleasure than a soil-full site, which is within 

 reach of either of them. If then nature has at some remote period 

 before California secured her present climate, blown away, or washed 

 away or pushed aw,ay with a glacier the good soil substance from a 

 ridge into a flat below, the ridge poverty may still 'be better for the 

 amateur's garden than the soil-wealth of the flat. This will not 

 always be true and we are not trying to make a rule that an amateur 

 must buy rocks or hardpan in preference to good soil. We are trying 

 to enforce the fact that there is no single rule and that, under certain 

 conditions, one may be wise to attach more importance to other things 

 which please him than to the soil, because soil can be made or modified 

 and that in floral gardening the soil in its natural condition is seldom 

 accepted as fully satisfactory, though it may be the best on earth. The 

 moral of this homily, therefore, is that one should not deny himself 

 the joy of flowers, nor should he inflict upon the public eye a shabby 

 place, with an excuse that the soil is not good. If it is not good, make 

 it good. 



The Nature of Soils. In order to improve the soil from a flori- 

 cultural point of view one should secure some measure of understand- 

 ing of its nature and functions. It is hopeless to expect full knowledge, 



