To create good soil for your plants, the best way is to get turf from an upland pasture taking a three inches thick piece. This soil should be kept in a heap for about a year so the grass roots decay and the soil mellows. Chip it up and turn it over four to five times during the year, making it finer and better to use.
As you turn over the soil, you will need to check form works and grubs, especially wire works, and pic them out. These are enemies to your flowers. The soil should be passed through a coarse sieve or screen, and the fiber needs to be rubbed through the soil.
The soil in which plants bloom, and the soil that they are wintered in should be different. The soil should not be as nice as the summer soil in the winter because the plants should not be stimulated as they are not required to make any progress.
This can be done by abstaining from the use of stable dung, using pure loam, and such decayed vegetable matter as is afforded by the grass naturally growing in loam when the turves are cut. Neither should the loam be too adhesive, but sufficiently porous to allow the water to percolate freely; should it not be so naturally, a little sand may be used to lighten it.
The soil should be prepared in order for the plants to bloom. This is done by taking three parts of the loam, one part decomposed leaf mould, and well rotted cow dung in one part, and one part sandy peat.
You can also add a small portion of old lime rubbish mixed among the compost. The mixture then should be placed under a shelter and left to dry for a period of time before the potting season.
Plants that you buy from a nursery will need to be potted in the fall, in four inch pots, with two inches at the bottom for drainage. Spread the roots around as much as possible and make sure the pot is filled with dirt, with it being highest in the middle.
The soil should only just cover the roots, and be pressed down very gently. After watering so the loam will settle at the root, place the plants on a garden frame with a hard bottom, where water cannot soak in. It should be gently sloping so water can run through the pots and not lie in the pot.
The only winter objective should be to proved the plant with as much air as possible in mild weather, by taking the lights off, give them water very seldom, and not until they actually want it. If to be grown in pots, they should be re-potted early in twelve-inch pots, two or three plants in a pot, using the soil above directed.
