A Cure for the Unproductive Garden 
FALL TREATMENT OF THE SOIL IN THE GARDEN THAT USUALLY DISAPPOINTS—MUCH 
GOOD CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED NOW IN LIGHTENING AND SWEETENING POOR SOIL 
BY E. O. Calvene 
’'HP HERE are many gardens, of course, that come naturally by 
excellent garden soil; but there are as many more which do 
not. Particularly lacking in needful elements, and particularly 
unsatisfactory as to its physical condition, is the soil in the subur¬ 
ban sections of a large city. Just why this should be so, I do not 
know. Possibly it is because the land was farmed and run out 
before the city itself took form; and possibly it is because such 
lands have been overgrown with weeds and frequently run across 
in various directions, until the earth is beaten down and grown 
hard. Grading operations, which are often extensive in the devel¬ 
opment of a suburb, also have much to do with unsatisfactory soil 
conditions. 
Whatever the circumstances may be that lead up to the condi¬ 
tion, however, a great deal may be done by proper manipulation 
of these areas at this time of the year. The ideal garden soil is, 
as everyone knows, not too heavy, yet not too light, and loose and 
well supplied with humus. Soil that is naturally a heavy clay or 
the hard sub-soil exposed by grading is the farthest removed from 
this ideal, and as a consequence it is the soil requiring most atten¬ 
tion and the greatest amount of labor to bring it to anything like 
a satisfactory state. Yet that something must be done to it, there 
can be no doubt, for nothing will grow upon such soil, and it is 
simply out of the question to dress it sufficiently with top soil to 
make it support life. For top soil is, after all, only on top, and is 
a help, consequently, only to shallow-rooted things. Anything 
that goes into the ground more than six inches, or even less, is 
not helped out much by top soil. 
Deep working of the ground is the first requisite on heavy soil 
or hard-baked clay. And by deep working, just that is meant. 
Two feet down at least must the spade or the plow reach to accom¬ 
plish anything. Into the ground as this spading or plowing is 
being done, lime should be worked—from a teaspoonful to two 
tablespoonfuls per square foot — and the siftings of coal ashes 
scattered, about a peck to every three or four square feet on very 
heavy soil. The latter, of course, have little merit in the ferti¬ 
lizing sense, but together with the lime they are excellent light- 
eners of heavy soil, and they are always available without the 
necessity of purchase. In addition to these two, manure may be 
used in quantity, provided always that it is worked down till it is 
well below the surface. It contains so many weed seeds that un¬ 
less it is well buried it is a great menace to a successful lawn or a 
successful garden. These seeds, moreover, retain their vitality for 
an astonishing length of time; consequently it should be kept well 
below the surface and not uncovered in future operations. It will 
of course, disintegrate and mix with the earth, but in doing this 
it only scatters the seeds contained in it to a still greater 
degree. 
On a small plot of ground or on the beds of a flower garden or 
vegetable garden a great deal may be done by working and re¬ 
working during these fall days. That is, after the initial deep 
spading, the ground may be allowed to lie for a few days until 
there has been a good rain, when it may be turned over again with 
a spading fork — not sooner than the third day after the rain — and 
thus lightened still more. In such plots all stones down to those 
not larger than a bird’s egg should be raked out, collected and 
thrown away. 
Of course, such work is impracticable over a large area, but for 
the home garden it is really quite possible to work the soil into 
something very nearly aproaching the perfection demanded by the 
hothouse or greenhouse; and if this is done, the work of planting 
and cultivation, whether it be flowers or vegetables, becomes much 
less arduous and much more of pleasure, and the results are ever 
so much greater. 
The action of the sun and frost which is to supplement any 
work done now is, of course, one of the reasons for doing such 
work at the present time. Freezing and thawing during the win¬ 
ter will still further loosen up and separate the soil particles that 
in clay lie too close together. Thus air will be permitted to enter 
the soil more freely and there will be more room for moisture be¬ 
tween these particles when another summer comes. 
The use of lime is an old-fashioned custom, scientifically re¬ 
vived with an understanding of what lime does to the soil. 
Whether or no the old-fashioned users of it understood its prin¬ 
ciples is somewhat uncertain, but they hit upon a very excellent 
soil treatment, if they did not fully understand it. Some plants 
like an acid soil, but the greater majority of them do not. Very 
often the lack of bloom in shrubbery is occasioned by sour soil, 
and many things will not live at all where this condition prevails. 
And lime is, of course, a sweetener primarily. Strictly speaking, 
it may not be needed on any soil that is not acid, but I have found 
it very efficacious in the lightening up of heavy clay.' The Litmus 
paper test generally recommended to determine whether or no soil 
is sour seems hardly necessary if one has a good nose and can 
recognize an angle worm. Sour soil has a queer smell, if not one 
exactly sour, when it is turned over sufficiently deep to reach mois¬ 
ture; and is usually an angle worm paradise. But if this is not 
enough, get some Litmus paper from the drug store and insert one 
end of a strip into a cup of the suspected soil that is moistened 
sufficiently to become mud. Let it remain there for a couple of 
hours, then take it out and rinse the end that has been submerged. 
If it is pink, or not a very deep red, the soil is acid and needs 
lime. The lighter the pink, the greater the acid content. Lime in 
the form of powder is more quickly affected than ground or lump 
lime. I use ordinary quick lime, usually, air slaked and scattered 
as evenly as possible over the space to be treated. 
Soil that has been manipulated as suggested and treated with 
lime and ash siftings is made ready for planting in the spring by 
forking over once with the addition of a light sifting of bone 
meal, or a dressing of poultry manure, if this is available. 
But after all has been done that may be, we must still recognize 
the limitations which are inherent in soils of marked physical 
peculiarity—and not attempt the impossible. Only such recog¬ 
nition will save us from disappointment, for actual physical 
change in any soil, beyond a certain point, is out of the question. 
Clay will never be anything but clay-like, however much it may be 
worked and treated; and sandy soil will persist in being light not¬ 
withstanding all the humus that may be worked through^. So after 
the most that may be done is done, the garden’s success must still 
depend to a certain degree upon suiting its plants to its soil. A 
vast number of things that will grow in any “average” garden soil 
may be coaxed into satisfactory growth in soil that tends to one 
extreme or the other. But it is folly to undertake to force the 
clay lovers to endure sandy loam—and vice versa. Supplement 
manipulation of all soils having strongly marked peculiarities with 
planting suited to these peculiarities therefore; and be resigned 
to the omission of those things which are not intended by Nature 
to grow there. Unless it is the intention to do this, treatment of 
any kind is large!}' a waste of energy. 
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