46 
House & Garde 
MAKING A GARDEN OUT OF A SAND HEAP 
An Experience Which Goes to Show That Intelligent Attention Can Surmount the 
Difficulties of Limited Space and Unproductive Soil 
T. C. TURNER 
T here is much 
truth in the 
old saying, “once a 
gardener always a 
gardener”. If you 
are brought up 
with a garden, the 
instinct grows and 
you never lose it, 
even though the 
garden and you 
part for many 
years. 
The garden of 
my boyhood was an 
old-fashioned one 
in East Anglia, 
where gardens are 
as much a part of 
household life as a 
steam radiator is a 
part of the average 
The tall stalks of the ^"ew York apart- 
hollyhocks lend an ment. It had proba- 
old-fashioned touch bly been a garden 
for the best part of 
a hundred years, facing the highroad for 125' 
and running back at a very gentle slope about 
another 200'. Box edgings, roses, a low brick 
wall, a cottage at the end of a straight little 
pathway—these are some of the memories of it 
which followed me through the twenty garden¬ 
less years of business until at last I felt again 
the pleasure of putting spade to soil. 
We had found a home in a new suburban 
development, but my poor garden in which I 
planned to atone as well as might be for that 
long lapse of years was nothing more or less 
than a sand heap. So good and pure was that 
sand that it could be used as it was for plaster 
or concrete mixing; in fact, the contractors had 
availed themselves of it, in this 
direction, in the construction 
of the house. 
The problem was what to do 
with my sand heap to make a 
garden out of it. Two things 
were possible. One was to take 
out a good foot of the surface 
and replace it with the best 
kind of top-soil. This would 
have produced results, but like 
most other quick methods 
would have cost a considerable 
sum to accomplish. The other 
method was to make the soil 
myself—more a question of 
time than expense, but as all 
successful results in gardening 
depend more upon patience 
than money, I decided on the 
latter plan. 
Beginning the Work 
The first thing was to take 
my line and lay out the beds. 
The paths were left untouched, 
except so far as leveling them 
was concerned, and they have 
remained untouched to this 
day, when they are almost as 
firm as sandstone. The intended beds I turned 
over to a good depth with a digging fork, and 
let the earth lie in a rough state for a week; 
then I applied a hundred pounds of the best 
mixed fertilizer, and turned the beds over once 
more. YTile this digging process was going 
on I cleared the ground of large stones, various 
Asters there are, of course, annuals which, 
with zinnias, scabiosas and antirrhinums, 
would be sorely missed 
tin cans, pieces of concrete, etc. Then when I 
had things about to my liking I spent an entire 
day applying the rake, and let me say here that 
the rake is a very important factor in the 
preparation of any ground for seeding. Rake 
deep and plenty, breaking up the ground well, 
for unless the soil is pulverized you cannot get 
the best results from it after seeding. The rake 
and cultivator are more important than the 
hose and watering can in the making of a 
good garden. 
In the course of a few days I sowed all the 
beds thickly with crimson, clover previously 
treated for the production of strong and rapid 
growth. It was then early June, and I made 
no effort to plant anything except the clover. 
After this I rested for a time and planned out 
what should he done in the autumn. 
Autumn Activities 
By the middle of September I had a fine 
green crop 6" to 10" high. Now came some 
more hard work, for by the first of October the 
entire clover crop was to be turned under, my 
object in planting it being to provide the soil 
with what it lacked—the necessary nitrogen 
and humus. Crimson clover is one of the best 
legumes; its roots take down into the ground 
more nitrogen than any similar crop, and the 
growth above ground gives the needed humus. 
These together with the fertilizer gave me a 
nucleus for a garden, though I had yet by no 
means a first class soil such as one needs for 
producing really good specimens. It takes a 
good three years to make a garden out of raw 
material, but I was at least ready to make a 
start. 
Early experience had taught me that all 
things would not grow in one kind of soil, so 
at the beginning I went carefully in planting 
and bought a lot of inexpensive roots of the 
various things of which 
I ultimately intended to 
grow better varieties. 
These were put in during 
the month of October. 
At the end of November 
I got a load of stable 
manure which I used as 
a winter cover and in 
spring turned into the 
ground to help improve 
it. The trouble was well 
for most of the 
varieties of that autumn’s 
{Continued on page 58) 
Madam Coste ts one of the pink 
peonies which has done well 
close to the boundary fence 
The strawberry bed is attractive 
throughout the growing season, 
besides yielding fine fruit 
