80 
HOW 
House & Garden 
T O 
PREPARE THE SOIL 
7 hese Facts of Soil IVorking and Fertilizing Should 
Be Understood By All Beginners in Gardening 
ELSA REHMANN 
A LL gardeners know the value of soil 
preparation so well that they go 
about it rather intuitively and seem 
to know just how much to allow for it in 
the budgeting of garden-making. At least 
they can never be too enthusiastic upon the 
subject, and I suppose that once you have 
trenched a border with your own hands 
you are apt to become a devotee for life to 
sufficient soil preparation. It is a ques¬ 
tion, however, just how one can impress 
the novice who knows very little or nothing 
of gardening and garden-making so that 
he will be willing and eager to spend money 
and labor, too, upon that which seems 
stored away in the earth like a hidden 
treasure. 
Someone has said that it is better to spend 
a dollar on a hole and ten cents on a plant 
for it, than to spend a dollar on the plant 
and only ten cents for the hole. Such ex¬ 
aggeration is valuable for its very emphasis 
and we cannot over-emphasize the value 
of soil preparation in the ultimate beauty 
of plants and in the final success of a gar¬ 
den. We all know, however, that such 
statements must be tempered by existing 
conditions. It is surprising, for instance, 
that the interesting growth on the sand 
dunes of Long Island, all the bayberry 
and scrub oak, beach plum and pitch pine, 
so characteristic of the location, is growing 
in a very few inches of soil—sometimes 
in not more than 2". It must be remembered, 
however, that in such extreme cases the 
plants are used to that condition actually 
from birth and that such growth is composed 
of certain plants especially adapted to such 
situations, and therefore characteristic of 
them. The problem of garden-making and 
gardening for more or less ornamental or 
decorative purposes for the surroundings of 
our houses is a different one and requires 
intensive soil preparation. 
R ULES and regulations cannot be 
followed blindly and generaliza¬ 
tions are of little value without 
adapting them to existing conditions. A 
knowledge of the usual soil condition and 
character of your neighborhood is of first 
importance. Roughly, we can divide the 
eastern half of our country as follows:— 
The soil of the Central Valley—our mid- 
western states—is generally a heavy clay, 
rich in lime. That of our Appalachian 
range is part clay, part limestone. The 
Hudson valley and much of New England 
is a glacial till, a mixed soil of clay and 
sand and gravel which is good. Long 
Island, much of New Jersey, much of Vir¬ 
ginia, sections of New England, such as 
Cape Cod and Nantucket, are a light sandy 
soil which, with some extreme cases ex¬ 
cepted, is excellent for gardening. 
There are exceptions, of course, to such 
a very general statement of subdivisions but 
they are helpful in determining the usual 
character of the soil of your neighborhood. 
The ideal soil is a rich sandy soil—what 
is sometimes called a black loam. The 
ideal soil is not merely a fertile one; it is 
one that drains easily and one that is fri¬ 
able. It is our problem, then, to neutralize 
our own existing conditions so that they 
will approach as near as possible this ideal. 
T HE matter of drainage is of first 
importance. Clay soils are too re¬ 
tentive of water, while in soils that 
are too sandy the water, and with it the 
soluble plant food, seeps away too easily. 
Clay soils are too sticky to work when wet, 
and crack and bake and become cloddy 
when dry. Do not mistake a sandy soil 
for clay, however, if it seems a bit sticky 
at times. You can tell a clay soil by rub¬ 
bing a bit between your fingers. A clay 
soil is very smooth for it is made up of 
very fine particles while any bit of sand- 
papery feeling will show the presence of 
sand. 
Clay soils are improved by drainage. 
On large areas tile drainage is necessary, 
in some garden borders a layer of broken 
stone at the bottom of the trench is enough. 
Sandy soils do not require this at all. 
Clay soils are improved by deep cultiva¬ 
tion. Spading is done in garden borders, 
ploughing in large areas. The ground 
should be worked over deep enough to 
break through the hardpan. And at this 
point it might be well to emphasize the 
necessity of using good tools for the proper 
soil preparation. Hardpan is a layer of 
hard infertile material just below the soil. 
This means usually digging to the depth of 
two feet. This working of the soil helps 
to drain the land and to make the soil 
open and friable. It is good to leave such 
ground rough until ready for planting and 
if it is possible to do the preparation in 
the fall for spring planting this additional 
time in which the action of the weather can 
do its work of breaking up the hard soil 
is of value. Sandy soils do not need and 
are not benefited by deep cultivation. The 
nutritious part of this soil is often not more 
than eight or twelve inches in depth and 
the subsoil, which is often a red loam with¬ 
out nourishment, can be left as it is be¬ 
cause it drains well enough and, acting at 
the same time as a kind of barrier between 
the good soil above it and the sand below, 
prevents too much drainage. In too sandy 
soils the water and the plant food tends 
to leach through and be lost. Plants find 
a foothold in this subsoil, but it is the 
fibrous roots which stay near the surface 
that are of real value. 
Heavy clay soils can be loosened and 
lightened by mixing in humus or manure 
and sand. Occasionally clay soils require 
lime. Its need can be determined by a 
litmus test. Sandy soils are improved by 
humus or manure and lime. The lime 
reacts against any sourness in the soil, the 
humus gives it nourishment and body and 
good texture. 
It is very difficult to pin down anyone 
to definite quantities, mainly because no 
two problems present identical conditions. 
My authority gives three and a half tons 
of lime and six to eight tons of manure to 
the acre as a minimum for sandy soils. 
For clay soils the proportion of manure 
should be increased to ten tons minimum. 
For soils of average fertility four tons of 
manure and a half ton of lime per acre 
ought to make a good garden. An ordinary 
one-and-a-quarter yard load of manure 
weighs about a ton when rotted. The same 
amount of fresh manure with any consider¬ 
able quantity of straw in it weighs as little 
as a half a ton or even less. 
^ OIL food is a necessary ingredient 
in the preparation of soil for plant¬ 
ing. All plant food, humus, ma¬ 
nure, leaf fold, etc., are not only valuable 
as food but they make the soil mellow, por¬ 
ous, friable, easy to work. The more 
thoroughly mixed and pulverized it is the 
better. Commercial fertilizers have no such 
effect and are useful merely as foods and 
stimulants after the planting has been done. 
I heir value in soil preparation is 
negligible. 
The first landscape problem that I ever 
worked upon was a veritable eye-opener 
for the effects of soil economy upon plant 
starvation. It was, of course, an extreme 
case. The house was built upon land that 
was made of salt sand that had been 
pumped in over marshes to raise the level 
of the land above the high tide line. Soil 
was scarce and expensive to buy and to 
haul. Certain important sections of the 
place, especially around the front of the 
house and the garden path, were covered 
with a foot and a half of good soil. If you 
have any conception of the little soil there 
is in a load you may appreciate what it 
would have meant to cover the entire acre 
or two with soil of sufficient depth. In this 
foot and a half of good soil plants with 
(Continued on page 106) 
