The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Rockweler Rockgardens
Fourthly, and lastly, to give additional body to the plant food, we add good light garden loam. This, however, should be wholly free from clay, which is the last thing, in the way of soils, to be used where rock plants are to go.
All this has required some time in the telling, but if you boil it down it comes to this. To make a satisfactory all-round rock-garden soil, mix thoroughly together the following :
1 part clean, gritty sand,
I part stone chips, or clean, gritty gravel,
I part granulated peatmoss, or sifted leafmold,
I part clean, light garden loam.
And there you have a soil in which ninety per cent of the rock plants you are likely to try at the start will grow satisfactorily !
SPECIAL SOILS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES
Occasionally, however, you will find plants that require something different from the above in the matter of soil; these will grow in the above mixture, but will grow better if their tastes are catered to. Some insist upon having an extremely acid soil, or a lime soil, in order to survive at all. Such plants as these may either be grouped by themselves, as already suggested (see page 16), or may be started in pockets filled with a soil supplying their own special dietary requirements.
These special soil mixtures may be made up according to the following prescriptions, the chief changes being an increase in one part or another of the several ingredients. These proportions are approximate; there is no necessity for weighing out the ingredients on a jeweler's scale.
I part sand,
I part stone chips,
3 parts acid leafmold
(that is, leafmold gath-
ered from under evergreens,
laurels, or the like).
Lime (or Sweet) Soil.
1 part sand,
2 or 3 parts old plaster,
1 part loan,
1 part peatmoss.
Dry Soil.
3 parts sand,
2 parts stone chips,
1 part loam,
1 part peatmoss.
Moist Soil.
1 part sand,
1 part chips,
1 part loam,
3 parts sphagnum mossi,
or granulated peatmoss, or
both.
