MAKING BEDS AND BORDERS 7! 



and is about to make his beds and borders. 

 The soil consists of a top-spit of brown loam 

 overlying a clayey subsoil. If the latter is a 

 stiff clay, and insufficient surface soil overlies 

 it, the gardener may have to face the necessity 

 of importing additional material. But let 

 us assume that the consistency of the subsoil 

 is not so hopeless as the above assumption 

 would imply. Then the proper procedure 

 is to bring soil and subsoil into intimate ad- 

 mixture, so that one may temper the other, 

 and to do so to such a depth as the ordinary 

 requirements of horticulture demand. In most 

 circumstances this may be taken as two feet 

 or thereabout. This is best done by the 

 operation known as "trenching," now to be 

 explained. 



It may be well here to state that trenching 

 is a term applied strictly to spade work which 

 has for its object deep tillage, as distinguished 

 from "digging," by which the surface layer 

 of the soil only is turned over. 



Trenching is best done in the late fall months 

 when the weather is yet open. It is conducted 

 in various ways according to the results re- 

 quired and to the previous condition of the 



