Tuly, 1 9 10 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



289 



GARDEN NOTES 



CONDUCTED BY CHARLES DOWNING LAY 



BOG GARDENS 



:HERE a bog garden can be made it is 



worth trying, difficult as it may be to plan 



and plant it successfully. It can only be 



made, of course, where there is a real bog 



as at the side of a pond or along a running 



stream in some wet meadow. Places that 



are wet only in spring will scarcely do, 



because bog plants demand moisture the year round. To 



attempt bog gardening with an artificial water supply would 



probably be futile or at least ridiculous. 



The difficulties of bog gardening are, first to clear the 

 bog of the existing luxuriant plants and second to establish 

 the new ones. It is hard to root out plants and shrubs that 

 have been there for years and hard to get new things 

 growing in a satisfactory way. The best way would be to 

 do the work gradually, clearing a small space at a time and 

 then giving all one's care to establishing the plants there. 

 There should be good walks of flat stones or of boards laid 

 in the Japanese manner and it might be so that it could be 

 reached by boat on canals. 



It will perhaps be better to divide the garden into several 

 sections, differing in physical conditions and hence in the 

 character of the planting. 



In the first section, a region of continuous but shallow 

 flooding and in full sun reaching from the high shore to the 

 pond or stream, the plants with grass-like leaves would find 

 their most grateful environment. 



As an irregular border of this swamp garden we could 

 use cattails, and in front of these the sweet flag {Acorns 

 calamus) with its fragrant biting root and fresh green 

 leaves. Back of all, perhaps we might have clumps of the 

 tall bamboos. Inside this border of bamboo, cattails, and 

 sweet flag is the place for the Iris which should be planted 

 in great numbers, but chiefly the Japanese Iris (/. Laevi- 

 gata), the yellow Iris (/. pseudacorus) and our native 

 swamp iris (/. versicolor) . In front of the iris and run- 

 ning into the water we can plant the blue pickered weed 

 iPontederia cor data), the white arrow leaf {Sagittaria 

 latifolia), the arum {Peltandra virginica) . Another part 

 of the garden where it is moist but not continuously flooded, 

 and in full sun or half shade, the character of the foliage 

 might be different, using here the cardinal flower (Lobelia 

 cardenalis), the blue cardinal flower (L. syphilitica) , Mea- 

 dow beauty (Rhexia virgincia), Forget-me-not (Myosotis) 

 and the tall spiraea (S. artincus) . In this part of the garden 

 the mints will flourish, together with the loose strife 

 (Lythrum salicaria) . Joe Pye weed, Helenium, and Rud- 

 beckia should be planted at the back of this region and the 

 marsh marigold as an edging in front. The royal fern 

 (Osmunda regalis) and the wild lilies (/.. canadensis and L. 

 superbum) can be mixed in small quantities with this planting. 

 In a shady protected part of the garden where the soil is 

 peaty will be the place for various orchids, pitcher plants 

 and all the fascinating plants of the heath family, such as 

 the andromedas, laurels and huckleberries. 



For beauty in winter the shrubs at the edge of our garden 

 should be red and yellow twigged dogwoods, willows, roses, 

 and for summer the moisture loving clethra and 

 cephalanthus. 



LIMING SOIL 



A full treatment of the liming of soil would be too long 

 for our space and perhaps too technical for our readers, 

 but it is a matter that should be given serious study by every 

 owner of land. 



In general all land that shows an acid reaction when 

 tested with litmus paper should be limed, and very often in a 

 limestone country the topsoil is acid and is in as much need 

 of lime as is the soil in a sandstone country. 



The effect of lime is both mechanical and chemical and 

 seems to have something to do with the bacterial state of 

 the soil. It is lasting in its effects as I have proved by acci- 

 dent. Twenty years ago we laid out a tennis court on one 

 side of an old pasture, marking the lines with lime paste. 

 It was put on so thickly that it killed the grass for a season 

 but to-day the lines of that old court are plainly distinguished 

 by the darker color of the grass and by its luxuriant growth; 

 a difference which is most noticeable in a severe drought, be- 

 cause then the grass on the old court lines is green while all 

 the rest is brown and dry. 



The mechanical effect of lime in clay soils is very marked. 

 It is a flocculent and gathers the fine particles of clay into 

 larger grains, making the soil softer and more friable and 

 reducing its cementing qualities. The chemical effect is not 

 well understood. It seems to make all the plant food ex- 

 isting in the soil more available, so that lime alone will have 

 as great an effect as phosphates and nitrates applied without 

 lime. Its effect on the bacteria in the soil is not well under- 

 stood either, but it is plain that the plants which harbor 

 nitrogen-gathering bacteria on their roots grow better on a 

 soil that has been well limed. Hence that old superstition 

 that a dressing of wood ashes (which are mostly lime) 

 brings clover into the meadow. 



Lime should be applied when the land is ploughed 

 whether it be spring or fall, or on grass land, at any time in 

 the fall and winter. 



Quick lime can be used but it should be slacked by burying 

 in the ground over night, being sure to spread it while it is 

 crumbly and before it has become paste. 



Agricultural lime is the waste of lime kilns and is imper- 

 fectly burned or air slacked and needs no treatment. 



Crushed lime stone is slower in action and a little more 

 bulky, but it is cheaper. 



Of agricultural lime one to five tons or more per acre 

 would be a good dressing. 



The litmus paper test is an easy one to make. The paper 

 comes in strips in a small phial and one of the strips pressed 

 against moist earth will soon turn red if the soil is acid. 



So far as I know the only things which are injured by 

 lime in the soil are some of the ericaceous plants such as the 

 rhododendron. These must not have lime but all other 

 plants are helped by it. 



