Though each fruit requires somewhat different treatment as to soil and climate, the ground should be given a general preparation, so that if each fruit is planted at the right time, the minimum of attention will be needed to bring the soil into just the right condition for maximum crops.
Site and situation are important, for where frosts are troublesome, those fruits flowering early should be omitted unless their blossom is frost-tolerant. These apples are frost-resistant: Annie Elizabeth; Claygate Pearmain; Monarch; Edward VII; James Grieve; Pearl; Laxton’s Superb; Howgate Wonder. (The best of all dessert apples, Cox’s Orange, is highly susceptible to frost damage.) Some pears which are frost-resistant are Dr Jules Guyot; Catillac; Conference; Fertility. These plums bloom late or are frost-tolerant: Pond’s Seedling; Belle de Louvain; Czar; Kirke’s Blue; Severn Cross; Denniston’s Superb.
The following blackcurrants are frost-resistant: Amos Black; Mendip Cross; Laxton’s Giant. (Blackcurrants are more susceptible to frost damage than other soft fruits.) In strawberries, Cambridge Early Pine and Favourite are more frost-tolerant than most varieties. In raspberries, plant Malling Jewel instead of M. Promise where there are frosts and Glen Clova if the garden is in a frost hollow. For reliable and heavy crops, select varieties to suit the district and the soil of your garden. Blackcurrants and blackberries require a heavy soil, containing potash. Plums and cherries do well in a limestone soil if given plenty of nitrogen; apples and pears do not, for they are often troubled by chlorosis (caused through iron starvation), in which the leaves turn yellow and the trees are stunted in growth.
Chalky soils are usually shallow soils and need liberal amounts of humus, such as material from the compost heap, composted straw or decayed manure. If the latter is in short supply it may be augmented by some peat or by ‘green’ manuring, in which rape seed is sown thickly over the surface in spring and the plants dug in when 7cm (3in) high.
Liming will not be necessary for chalk soils, but most town gardens should be given a liberal dressing before planting, to correct the acidity caused by deposits of soot and sulphur which may have fallen on to the soil over a long time. Give 0.5kg (1lb) of hydrated lime to every 6 sq m (6 sq yd).
Heavy clay soil may be broken up by treating it with caustic (unhydrated) lime obtained from a builder’s merchant. If applied during the early winter just before digging the ground, the action of the lime as it dehydrates will also break up the clay particles of the soil. Then, in March, when frost has left the ground, dig in some peat or popular bark fibre, old mushroom-bed compost, or decayed manure before any planting is done at the month's end.
Soft fruits require plenty of moisture to make growth and for the fruit to swell, so it will be sweet and juicy. To supply the plant with humus, dig in whatever materials are available, such as clearings from ditches, straw composted with an activator, leaf mould and peat. Shoddy (wool and cotton waste), used hops (obtainable from breweries) and farmyard manure have the advantage over other forms of humus in that they contain nitrogen, which is necessary for the plants to make plenty of new growth. Other forms of nitrogenous manure are bone meal, poultry manure and fish meal. Chopped seaweed is also valuable.