The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924, 1918-04-12
SELECTING SITE FOR The GARDEN
and PREPARING PLANTS READY TO
SET OUT TO CROW own VECET ABLES

All except the most unfavorab1e soil,
however, can be brought, by proper
handling, to a fair degree of pro-
ductiveness. Commercial crops are
successfully grown on everything
from pure sand to the heaviest muck
soil, so the home gardener should not
feel that he is fore-doomed to failure
merely because his soil does not hap
pen to be ideal to begin with. U1d-
mate success in the majority of cases
will depend largely on how the soil
is handled and upon it's natural quail
tiles.
The ideal garden soil is ''a rich,
sandy, loam''-such soil usually, how
ever, is made, and not found.
RICH in the gardeners sense of
the word, means abundantly supplied
with plant-food in available forms.
Most manures and fertilizers which
we add to the soil become available
gradually, SO that the garden which
has been cultivated for two or three
years in succession is in better condi-
| ton to grow good crops than new
| soil. Proper use of very thoroughly
rotted manures and of high grade fer
tilizers will make the garden rich for
the first year. It is, Of course, posi-
BILE to gradually wear out or rather
to temporarily "use up" soils which
! are cropped year after year with
| out having manures and fertilizers
added to make up what the crops take
from the soil. AS a general rule.
however, the gardener who is picking
a garden this year will do better to
get soil that was used last year and
the year before than a brand new
plot.
In the description used above-that
is "a rich, sandy 1oam'-the word
SANDY is used not in the sense of
being like the seashore, but soil
containing sand enough so that the
water will pass through it readily, and
a handful squeezed in the fingers will
disintegrate again easily even where
it is thoroughly moist. This is in
contra distinction to a "clay" soil
which has a tendency to form in hard
humps, both when it is wet, or very
dry. The ideal soil, then. should con-
tain an excess of neither sand or clay
but a mixture of the two. If to such
a soil there is added enough humus
or decayed vegetable matter to make
it thoroughly light and friable, we
have the ideal garden sofia ''rich
sandy, loam." What ever your gar
den may be to begin with that is the
ideal to work toward in building il
, up. The use of manure, of greer
, crops to dig under, of ashes and O.
lime, will all help either a sandy sol
. or a clay soil in that direction.
t Pick Place in the Sun.
( The ideal exposure for the garde1
= site is a slight slope to the south O
= southeast. This protects it from tn
4 cold north winds Of early spring Will
r at the same time affording, good nat
n ural drainage. OF course not ever
i gardener can find such a spot for hi
g garden. Natural protection affordet
: by buildings, wind-breaks, fences
etc, should, however, be considere
y in picking out the garden spot
o good fence or wind-break may mea.
e difference of week or ten days i
d getting the early crops ready for tn
: table, and consequently an early sta1
d N getting the fan and winter cror
/ into the ground
e Tho search for ideal condition
t however. should not lead one to Il