Evening star., 1934-08-02
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES r. TRACEEELL.

] fury there must De a great deal Of
( rainfall, too.
( s%&%
I The obServant gardener knows bet
7 ter. He realizes that 1t takes more
/ than a normal rain to do good. after
7 the ground has become baked
/ II is Just here that peat moss enters
the picture. II helps prevent borders
I from becoming baked. Then when
I rain does fall. even in small amounts.
( the ground Is able TO take full ad-
( vantage Of II. and make use Of every
/ last drop. whereas hard-surfaeed boF-
I ders permit more than half of the
/ falling water to run away. Perhaps q
1 greater part OF the downfall is needed
/ TO soften the baked surface 10 a point
where it can absorb the remainder.
/ Peat moss. so-called tit is Just peat.
made from Spagnum moss contains
/ thousands Of minute cells. which abb
sorb and hold water. Naturally. when
these cells are in the ground around
and near plant roots. they act as
miniature reservoirs for the plants.
This is not their only action, how
ever. Placed on the surface rs q
mulch. they absorb water, and. to-
gether with the material of which
| they are composed. form mulch
which tends to prevent evaporation
from below.
There are two theories OF handling
this pleasant material One Is TO dig
1t under. and put it down a. close
10 the roots as possible. The other
is to use it merely as mulch. keeping
It on the surface for several months
before 1t Is dug in.
1t may be believed that for the
average home place either or both OF
these methods may be tried, without
much risk Of failure one way or the
other. Possibly q combination could be
tried out, or one neighbor might use
peat moss solely as a surface mulch,
and another dig the peat in. Then
at the end Of the season the two
might confer, and attempt to deter
mine which method they believe is
the best, according to the appearance
OF the plants in each border
The satisfying thing with peat, as
with bone meal. Is that no harm can
come to anything, no matter how
used The soil reaction OF peat moss
is undoubtedly slightly acid, but this
Is 50 slight that it would harm no
plants which preferred an alkaline
soil. Since so much of the earth in
the average garden is slightly acid,
anyway, q small addition thereto can
do no harm. Therefore peat moss
may be used as a mulch for rhododen-
drons, which like highly acid soil, and
also as q mulch for borders contain
ing any of the long list of ordinary
plant materials used in average home
gardens
II one feels slightly uneasy about
its basic reaction, q bit of agricul-
tural lime might be mixed with it,
just as EPSON salts may be added
TO make 1t really acid in reaction for
rhodedendrOns and azaleaS. EPSON
salts, sprinkled around such plants
like light snow is both excellent and
cheap. and ought to be used more
than it is.
In ordinary practice, no one need
regard peat moss as anything except
neutral.
Its big advantage, in a drought, is
that it holds its water, and keeps
some moisture around the plants
When one Is driven back to the
garden hose as the mainstay of the
garden, this ability is welcome more
than during ordinary times when nat
ural rainfalls do much of the water
ing
A satisfying feature Of peat moss
is that the purchaser gets so much
of it for his money The bale is
highly compressed. and when opened
fairly bulges peat at the owner for
months on end One is pretty sure
to find some OF the material whenever
he wants it, feature not always
found in other materials which seem
TO run out" just when the gardener
wants them most.