Greenhouse and Bedding Plants 245 



Soil 



Sod, dug from fertile meadow, roadside, 

 pasture, or about fence corners, piled up and al- 

 lowed to weather down to an easily crumbling, 

 turf-like substance, is the best of soil for nearly 

 all gardening purposes. For the starting of 

 seeds and for the first transplanting of seedlings, 

 Ferns and rooted cuttings, it should be run 

 through sieves, while for larger plants it should 

 be merely broken up and in preparation be en- 

 riched additionally by a liberal intermixture of 

 well-decaj^ed barnyard manure, to which for very 

 large plants some bone meal might be added. 

 For succulents, Cactus, Agaves, etc., a goodly 

 sprinkling of sharp sand or gravel should be in- 

 corporated; for Begonias, Cyclamen, and all slow- 

 growing, finely fibered plants a portion of leaf 

 mould or peat together with sand should be thor- 

 oughly intermixed. Old soil, full of acidity and 

 fungoid spores, should never be used in potting, 

 though good, fresh garden loam, in lieu of sod, 

 does fairly well. 



General Routine 



Temperature. Plants of varying species 

 growing under one glass roof. in the summer or 



