PREPARING THE GROUND 29 
PREPARING THE GROUND FOR PLANTING 
The First Thing to Do.—The most beautiful beds and borders 
of flowers always admit of a prosaic explanation, namely thorough 
preparation of the soil. Without this, subsequent care and attention 
are vain, and the best results will never be obtained. This means a 
certain amount of labour on someone’s part, for it resolves itself 
into “digging, real digging, double digging if you like,” as an 
enthusiastic amateur recently remarked. There is a good deal to be 
said in favour of digging ; it is admirable exercise and does the 
ground much good. But it is of no use digging when the soil is wet 
and sticks to the spade and boots. Then more harm than good 
results from attempting to “work” the land. October and Novem- 
ber are the best mouths for digging. Most plants may be trans- 
planted then, and the ground is usually in proper condition ; later 
than November it becomes very wet, and it 1s almost impossible to 
break up the clods. Ina new garden it is best to trench any beds 
cr borders that may be made, otherwise the soil need only be dug 
12 inches deep, presuming that at no distant date it was trenched. 
I am sure that if amateurs only realised the real value of having 
their garden soil well dug periodically—at any time, in fact, when it 
chanced to be bare—the plants would grow far better than they 
sometimes do. It is an excellent plan to transplant common hardy 
perennials every three or four years and to take this opportunity of 
trenching the border, or at any rate digging it deeply. 
How to Trench,—Briefly explained, trenching consists in dig- 
ging the soil about 3 feet deep. One commences by taking out a 
trench 2 feet deep across one end of the plot. The soil from the 
trench is wheeled to the opposite end and placed there in readiness 
for filling the open trench that will be left when the worker reaches 
the end. When the 2-feet-deep trench is made the bottom spit of soil 
is simply dug over, not removed. Then the top spit (about 12 inches) 
from the plot of ground immediately behind the open trench is 
thrown in the bottom of the latter. The second spit is placed on 
that, filling the open trench to its original level and leaving a second 
open trench two spits (or 2 feet) deep. The soilat the bottom of this 
is dug over but remains in its place. If the whole of the bed or 
border is treated in this way an empty trench will remain at the 
end of the plot ; this of course is filled with the soil wheeled along- 
side from the first trench. 
Light and Heavy Soil.—As a rule light soil gives better 
results than heavy soil in the hands of a beginner, becausé it is more 
readily improved and made suitable for plant cultivation. By dig- 
ing in a good dressing of farmyard manure, or using Hop manure, 
road scrapings, leaf mould, loamy soil, leaves, or vegetable refuse, it 
soon improves. Now soil that is heavy, clayey, and sticky needs 
a lot of working or digging before it becomes friable and con- 
genial to the roots of plants. It should be dug in the autumn and 
left rough all the winter, the clods unbroken so that as large a 
