TREES AND SHRUBS IN POOR SOILS
As there is vegetation to suit nearly all natural conditions, so those
who find they have to undertake planting in poor, dry, hungry sands and
gravels will find that there are plenty of trees and shrubs that can be
used, though the choice is necessarily a more restricted one than they
might make on better land. The very fact of the fewer number of
available trees and shrubs may even be a benefit in disguise, as by
obliging the planter to be more restricted in his choice the planting
scheme will be all the more harmonious.
As to trees, Holly, Thorn, Juniper, Birch, Scotch Fir, and Mountain Ash
are found wild on the poorest soils, and will even grow in almost pure
sand. Oaks, though they never grow to the dimensions of the Oak of loamy
woodlands, are abundant on poor soils, where they have a character of
their own that is full of pictorial value. The lovely _Amelanchier_,
daintiest of small trees, revels in sandy woods, as does also the Bird
Cherry, another good native tree, while the Wild Cherry becomes a forest
tree of large size and of loveliest bloom. Evergreen or _Holm Oak_ and
_Arbutus_ are excellent in the south of England, enjoying the warmth and
winter dryness of light soils.
Garden shrubs in general can be grown, though not so luxuriantly as on
better soils, but some classes are especially successful on poor land
such as _Genista virgata_. There are the Cistuses and Heaths, with
Lavender and Rosemary, in the drier parts, and in the wetter places
_Kalmias_, _Andromedas_, _Rhododendrons_, _Ledums_, _Pernettyas_, and
_Vacciniums_, with the Candleberry Gale and the native Bog Myrtle, also
Broom and Gorse, especially the Double Gorse. These, which are usually
classed as peat shrubs, will succeed in any sandy soil with the addition
of leaf-mould, and are among the most interesting and beautiful of our
garden shrubs.
Those who garden on poor and dry soils should remember that though their
ground has drawbacks it has also some compensations. Such soils do not
dry in cracks and open fissures in hot weather, and do not present a
surface of soapy slides in wet; they can be worked at all times of the
year, except in hard frost; they are easy to hoe and keep clean of weeds
and are pleasant and easy to work. They correct the tendency of strong
soils to the making of a quantity of coarse rank growth, and they
encourage the production of a quantity of flowers of good colour.