Innovations haven't changed the roots of gardening

Has gardening changed much in the last 100 years? Well, yes and no. There are so many innovations now, in plants and equipment, but the basics remain essentially the same.
One of my most cherished gardening books is "A Woman's Hardy Garden" by Helena Rutherford Ely, published in New York by the MacMillan Company in 1903.
It could be a reliable recipe for gardening today - 103 years later!
In her introduction she points out that "Love of flowers and all things green and growing is with many men and women a passion so strong that it often seems to be a sort of primal instinct, coming down through generation after generation, from, the first man who was put into a garden 'to dress it and to keep it.'"
And that certainly seems to be true today. People have a sort of primal instinct to plant and nourish and tend and bring growing things to fruition, whether it's a tiny forget-me-not or a tasty tomato.
We buy seeds and plant them, watch them sprout and grow - or damp off and die. If that's the case, we don't usually give up; we plant more seeds and tend them carefully. And we try to figure out what went wrong the first time.
Helena learned her gardening skills from an old gardener who taught the young child how to bud roses and fruit trees, to transplant seedlings and make slips, and even trim grapevines.
And she learned that to attain successful growth as well as effect, plants must be so closely set that when they are developed no ground is to be seen. Thus their foliage shades the earth and moisture is retained, a superior situation to that which places individual plants 6 inches to a foot apart at maturity.
Where to start? With the preparation of the soil, of course. Dig deep, rake out stones and debris and add organic material to make a rich seedbed, or a planting bed if you prefer.
Today we have mechanical equipment such as rototillers to make the initial step easier. But the basic premise is there: Give the plants the food they need, plenty of water and a smooth root run for their feet. Warm sunshine will do the rest.
And Helena is blunt: "Unless one is willing to take the trouble properly to prepare the ground, there is no use expecting success in gardening."
Her method was to stake out the bed, then dig out the entire space 2 feet deep. Sometimes stones would be found requiring the strength and labor of several men, with crowbars and levers, to remove them. Some even needed blasting.
Once all the stones were removed, she put down a foot of rotted manure in the bottom, then filled it up with alternate layers, about 4 inches each, of the top soil taken out of the first foot dug up, and manure.
Today we're more likely to use compost or other organic amendment, and mix it well together - but the principle is the same. Make a friable, nutritious base for the garden.
All in all, this is a delightful book, loaded with good and practical ideas. The pages are somewhat brittle and yellowed with age and must be handled carefully, but they contain a wealth of gardening information, just as valid in 2006 as it was in 1903!
Helen Bale can be reached at htbale@infostations.com.