The Perfect Soil and How to Produce it.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20538, 13 February 1935, Page 10

The Perfect Soil and How to Produce it.

A Garden Corner

LOAM, the gardeners’ ideal soil, is the naVne given to a nearly perfect blend of clay and sand with a good proportion of vegetable residues. If the clay be in excess, the soil is termed a “ clay loam,” while an excess of sand would produce a “ sandy loam.” In this way, we can have a series of soils ranging from pure sand to pure clay, but for the general needs of the gardener a well balanced composition is regarded as the most desirable. Marl is the term given to certain chalky clay soils found in some districts. They are further classified as “ clay' marls ” and “ chalky marls,” according, to the predominance of one or other of the constituents. Peat represents a soil built up almost entirely from the residue of previous vegetation and has generally been produced in marshes by the long and continuous growth and decay of aquatic plants. Peat is nearly always deficient in lime and very apt to be waterlogged. On account of the acids that are produced by the decaying of the vegetable matter, peat is generally very sour. Draining and liming are the first essentials for the conversion of peaty soil into fertile soil, and the importance of these cannot be too strongly emphasised. T. D. LENNIE.