PLANTS FOR POOR SOILS 193 



thirds of the depth is then filled Avith vegetable 

 refuse from the rubbish hecap, or with green waste 

 from any part of the garden. At the rubbish yard 

 we are careful to separate our waste products; only 

 burning that which is absolutely dry, and rotten 

 woody material that would breed fungus. If this 

 stuff is already more than half decayed we fill it 

 in higher, but if still rather green or quite fresh 

 it is rammed down, mixing in some of the sand. 

 The top soil is then returned to the top and the 

 next trench opened. It is surprising how all plants 

 and shrubs will thrive in ground so prepared : the 

 secret of their happiness is that there is a cool 

 medium under them, as well as a vast region of long- 

 endurmg nutriment for hungry rootlets to explore. 



Let no one think that general gardening is easy 

 in these light lands overlying two hundred feet of 

 dry sand and rock. Unless the things grown are 

 restricted to the few kinds already named, and some 

 of the sand-loving plants to be named presently, the 

 ground must be deeply prepared. But in a great 

 many places it would be distinctly desirable just to 

 grow these things and no others. The restriction to 

 the small number of kinds would be of the utmost 

 benefit in the way of saving the garden from the 

 usual crowded muddle of a multitude of single plants, 

 and it could be made and maintained with the least 

 possible labour, simple trenching and very moderate 

 enriching being all that would be wanted. 



N 



