First Steps in Gardening. 
F. F. ROCKWELL 
[Editor’s Note. — While most readers of The Garden Magazine are familiar with garden work, and the words and phrases which 
crop up continually in garden articles, we know that we have many subscribers to whom these things are comparatively new. ^ It is with the idea of 
extending a helping hand to these new comers that we present this article. W e want to make plain the essentials which the beginner should know, and 
to explain the garden phraseology so that he can follow intelligently every article he reads, and readily apply to his own problems the suggestions and 
the information given from month to month.] 
T he beginner who must start in for 
himself, without previous experi- 
ence, meets many difficulties. In- 
formation he can find — magazines 
and books full of it. But it is in a new 
language, and he is sure to become more or 
less tangled up in attempting to follow the 
suggestions and the experiences of his fellow 
gardeners. 
“Putting the beginner next” in gardening 
would be a very easy matter — if one could 
take the beginner actually into the garden 
and explain things there. Doing it through 
the medium of the printed word, however, is a 
very different thing. “Word pictures” are 
all right for poets, but in learning to plant 
potatoes, ten minutes in the garden 
will give more definite information 
than ten pages of word pictures. 
As it is out of the question to take SOIL 
each “beginner” on a personally 
conducted tour, explaining point by 
point the making of a garden, the 
next best thing we can do is to 
make such a trip in fancy, and to dis- 
cuss just the definite, concrete prob- 
lems which would be encountered. 
To begin at the very beginning, we will 
assume that this is the reader’s first garden. 
You have decided to have a garden; and 
you have probably heard somehow that you 
should pick out for it a spot of ground that 
gets the full sunlight, and is, preferably, ex- 
posed to the east or to the south, and sheltered 
from the north or west. The plot selected 
will be either the site of someone’s last year’s 
garden; or a spot covered with trash and dead 
weeds, that has probably been used for a 
garden some years since; or “in sod” — that 
is, covered with grass, such as a part of the 
lawn, or a corner of a hay field. 
WHAT KIND OF SOIL? 
’ I 'AKE your spade or fork and dig out a 
-*■ hole eighteen inches square and from 
one to two feet deep. Remove the soil 
carefully, and if you find more than one kind 
— a change in color or in texture — as you dig 
down, put each kind in a heap by itself. 
If you keep one side of your hole straight and 
clean cut, you will see that a cross section of 
your garden through the twelve to twenty- 
four inches of soil, would present an appear- 
ance somewhat like that shown in the first 
sketch A — B is the surface of the soil and A-B 
and C-D is the ‘^surface soil” that is, the ground 
has been worked over, mixed with manure 
and vegetable matter that has decayed, and 
has been cultivated; in color and in texture 
it is quite distinct from the soil below it. 
E-F-G-H is the “sub-soil.” This may be 
of the same general physical character as the 
surface soil, but very often it is entirely dif- 
ferent; so much so that you will note a dis- 
tinct “layer” as plain as that in a fancy 
CROSS- SECTION OF SOIL 
otttvsiSsSXA iQ ^ A ‘ 
GERMINATION IN WELL 
PREPARED SOIL 
GERMINATION IN POORLY 
PREPARED SOIL 
GOOD SEED BED 
POOR SEED BED 
cake. If the “surface soil” and the “sub-soil” 
are of the same general make-up, there is 
likely to be an indistinct “layer” between 
the two. (See C-D-F-E.) It may not be 
plainly marked, but it is not as dark or as 
finely pulverized as the “surface soil” and 
yet is not composed of the lumps and the 
“raw” soil that mark the “sub-soil.” 
The “physical character” of the soil m your 
garden is determined by the proportions of 
stone, sand, clay, and humus which it con- 
tains. A calcareous soil is one which contains 
a large percentage of stone, often of a soft, 
easily disintegrated type. “Sandy” and 
“gravelly” soils are, as their names imply, 
composed for the most part, of sand or of 
gravel and are “light.” The “clay” soil is stiff 
and heavy. 
All these types of soil may contain more 
or less “humus.” Humus is decayed veget- 
able matter. It may have come from manure 
added to the soil; or from the roots and refuse 
of former crops; or it may be merely the gradual 
accumulation which nature has added during 
the growth and decay of countless generations 
of plants. Some soils are composed almost 
entirely of humus. These are known as 
“muck” or “vegetable mould” soils. Humus 
is an absolute necessity in garden soils. 
“Sandy loam” is the ideal soil for a garden. 
It is a soil in which clay, sand, and humus 
are so balanced that it is “friable”; — that is, 
of such a texture that a handful of it, when 
squeezed in the fingers, falls apart and 
crumbles readily, even when it is quite moist. 
The important thing to remember in connection 
with your garden soil is that adding animal 
manures and humus will improve both “sandy” 
and “clay” soils, and bring them nearer to the 
ideal garden soil. 
“Drainage” is vitally important. Surface 
soil with plenty of humus in it, will allow 
surplus water to drain down readily. If 
the “sub-soil” is porous, it will allow the 
surplus water to pass through; if, however, it is 
a hard clay sub-soil, which is impervious to 
water, artificial drainage with “land tile,” 
209 
which are made for this purpose, will be 
necessary. 
The first step toward making a garden on 
the spot you have selected will be to “work 
up” the soil. This is done by spading, fork- 
ing, trenching, or plowing. If your garden 
area is big enough, it will save a great deal 
of labor, and the work will probably be done 
better, if you get it plowed. However, the 
work may be done, the essential thing is 
to have the soil thoroughly turned and mixed 
as far down as the “sub-soil,” unless that is 
more than eight inches below the surface. 
It is well to mix, if possible a little of the sub- 
soil with the surface soil, especially if the 
latter is shallow; in this way, the surface soil 
may be made deeper each year. 
METHODS OF HANDLING 
^FADING” and “forking” are 
, practically the same, except that 
, ' - a different implement is used. The 
spade, or fork, is thrust into the 
• -. soil and each spade- or forkful of 
, .T’-' soil turned over, and thoroughly 
broken up with the back of the tool 
before the next spadeful is taken up. 
“Trenching” is really a double-depth spad- 
ing or forking. The top “spit” or spadeful 
of soil is removed for the length of one row 
or furrow; the soil below this is then broken 
up, but left where it lies as indicated in the 
diagram on page 2io. The top soil from the 
next trench is then thrown on top of this, and 
thesoil beneath that worked over but left where 
it is; and so across the plot to be “trenched.” 
ADDING FERTILITY 
^ANURES” and “fertilizers’; should be 
added at the time of preparing the soil. 
The term “manure” is applied to barnyard 
and animal manures of all kinds. There are 
now available “commercial” or prepared 
manures, such as “pulverized sheep manure,” 
and “shredded cow manure,” but so far as 
their application to the soil is concerned 
they may be considered as fertilizers. “Green 
manures” are crops, such as rye, vetch, and 
crimson clover, grown for the purpose of 
plowing or spading under to increase the 
“humus” in the soil, which is depleted by 
growing crops. Commercial humus is also 
available. ' 
“ Fertilizers” as generally spoken of, in- 
