38 Gardening Under Glass 



Starting Rigid, ivith the Right Soil 



In making our start, therefore, we went out 

 into the woods and got several big burlap bags 

 full of leaf mold. This we found along an old 

 stone wall where the leaves had piled up and 

 rotted year after year. We rubbed this through 

 a wire screen of one-quarter-inch mesh. An or- 

 dinary coal sieve will answer every purpose 

 for small quantities. This gave a fine, light, 

 woodsy-smelling material that it was a pleasure 

 to take up by the handful and let run through 

 one's fingers. Then from a flower bed we got 

 a quantity' of rich mellow soil, that had had lots 

 of manure dug into it in the previous spring. 

 That was sifted, to eliminate any pebbles, and 

 the two products were mixed together in propor- 

 tion of about one part of soil to two parts, by 

 bulk, of the leaf mold. 



The result of all this was a nice, light, smooth- 

 feeling soil that you would know instinctively 

 was ideal for the little seeds to sprout and grow 

 in. 



Now, a soil like this will let any surplus water 

 drain through it immediately, and yet it will 

 absorb enough moisture to stay moist a long time 

 before it is necessary to water it again. Further- 

 more, the surface will never form a crust, such as 



