THE JOYOUS ART OF GARDENING 



cut out in the making of beds and borders may be so used. 

 Make the pile about six feet long and three feet high, the 

 layers about four inches thick; the sods should be inverted. 



This is a typical compost-heap, and, however varied the 

 constituents, the idea is the same: the alternation of animal 

 refuse with the vegetable, that the one may act upon the other. 



Before beginning the heap, the ground should be slightly 

 hollowed, basin fashion, and the heap may be "basted to ad- 

 vantage with dish-water or the like. It should also be turned 

 occasionally with a fork that it may decay evenly. Especially 

 when leaf-mould is one of the ingredients, it is well to sift it 

 with a coarse sieve to separate twigs and coarser fibres from 

 the more rapidly decaying material. 



The true compost-heap is a progressive affair: at the one 

 end may be the mellowed product of two years' sojourn, ready 

 for immediate use; at the other, the raw material. Thus, like 

 the brook, it may go on forever, however transient the hired 

 man. 



The well-tempered compost-heap, conserves the gardener's 

 pocket. It enables him to use to advantage ingredients which, 

 like pig manure and hen manure would otherwise belong to 

 the great army of the "unavailable"; it also saves tender plant- 

 roots from that contact with raw fertilizer which often works 

 disaster to their constitutions. 



LEAF-MOULD 



Leaf-mould is another valuable and inexpensive asset 

 which the amateur gardener is apt to pass by on the other 

 side. The decaying leaves, sodden by rain and snow, and hardly 

 distinguishable from the forest floor, are rich in humus (which 

 is, being interpreted, vegetable or animal matter in such a 

 state of decay that it is rich and ripe for plant-food). In the 



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