XXVII 



DETAILS OF GARDEN WORK 



How TO Make Ready a Flower-Bed 



First stake out the bed, have it dug to the depth of two 

 feet, the soil being thrown to one side; then it is possible to 

 see what manner of soil it is. 



Roughly speaking, there are three kinds of soil: clay, sand, 

 and gravel. A workable mixture of clay and sand is called 

 loam. When garden books and seed packets refer to a sandy 

 loam, a mixture is meant in which sand predominates; in a 

 clay loam, clay is the ruling ingredient. When garden books 

 advise a "rich, heavy loam," the writers probably mean a 

 clay ham which, by the addition of manure, or by the plough- 

 ing in, during successive years, of cover crops, has been suffi- 

 ciently enriched to furnish abundant nutriment. A "garden 

 loam" is a deeply worked loam which has been long under 

 cultivation. 



Manure both enriches the soU and improves the texture — 

 "lightens it," and "shortens it," as the gardeners say, very 

 much as butter or lard "shortens" a housewife's cookery. 

 Putting it on in the autumn is a definite advantage, since it 

 then becomes thoroughly incorporated with the soil. On the 

 other hand, a commercial fertilizer, adding only nutriment and 

 not affecting the texture, need not be applied until the plants 

 have an actual use for it as a food. If the soil is poor and 

 sandy, best throw it away and put in better; if this is not 

 practicable, then plant only those "complaisant" flowers which 

 will not object to a meagre diet. 



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