Sand should be mixed with clay land that is heavy and sticky. Lime is valuable where soil is ‘sour,’ dark, and mossy, and some plants need it, as a child needs milk; but you had better not try to apply it by yourself. It has to be ‘slaked’ by the air or with water before it is used, and makes a white powdery dust that would not be liked on your clothes. Mortar from buildings contains lime, and is easier to manage. If you cannot enlist a gardener, and are going to make your own garden, you must learn to dig it over properly, and for this you will want a strong spade suited to your height. You begin by digging a trench ten inches deep from one end of your garden to the other. The earth you take out should be put in a wheelbarrow or on the farther side of the border. When the first trench is finished you put some manure all along it; then you start a second one, close to the first, and this time you put the earth you take out into the manured trench ready for it. In this way the manure and the soil that was on the top get buried beneath soil that has been hidden till now from the light and air. You go on making these trenches side by side until you reach the edge of the border, and you fill the last one with the soil you first removed, which is waiting for you in the wheelbarrow. In digging you should put your spade straight down into the ground, and help it with your foot to go in deep; then lean back on it, lift it out full of soil, and tilt it sharply into the empty trench. But you should not try to dig with a full-sized spade, as even with a small one you will find it hard work. The operation is a most important one, because when the buried soil is brought to the top the weather comes and gardens for you there, as well as deeper down, where the manure now lies covered. The winter frosts, the summer rains, the air and the sunlight, all affect it strongly, sweeten it, break it, and make it ready for your flowers. In the winter the surface of your beds should be left as rough as possible, because then the frost can get in easily and do its work. We will tell you later several ways of protecting some of your plants from frost, for the degree of cold that improves your soil will kill your favourite plants if you do not take care of them. But if you become a really keen gardener, you will find that you often look at the weather from the gardener’s point of view. The rainy day that is disappointing other people will be settling in the newly-planted things, or helping your seeds to germinate, or persuading your bulbs to put out roots. When warm weather comes, you know that everything will take a start, and get on quickly; but the frosty days that skaters love will make you anxious, especially while you are a beginner. When you have had a garden for a year or two, you will have seen many a plant hang its head for a time and after all recover.