My Lath House for Ferns

Abstract

My early married years were spent in British Columbia, where I first became interested in ferns. Later we moved to Los Angeles. When in 1935 we eventually found a house on two lots, a lath house started to go up almost before we got settled. The first one was not large, only 16 by 20 feet with a roof eight feet high, but built so that it could grow in time. The uprights, redwood four by fours, were cemented into the ground, and the framework was constructed of two by fours, with laths for the roof. It is better to have a small lath house well conditioned than a larger one poorly cared for. After the small one is established, you can always add to it. This part of Los Angeles had once been swampland and salt grass grew everywhere. Salt grass roots are ropelike and go very deep, forming a sort of impenetrable mass of roots that sometimes completely cuts off drainage. Storm drains had not yet come and the water table was high in those years and the soil full of salt. Such a situation was mine, and so I eventually dug up the soil on the two lots two to four feet deep. I had a little grass and a mountain of roots to dispose of. But it was necessary to establish good drainage. A foundation of six inches of rocks was laid down. Every time we went for a drive, the old Hupmobile came home groaning with the weight of rocks. And we made many trips to the mountains for leaf mold. Our home was not far from peat beds at the foot of Baldwin Hills which used to catch fire and burn for months. Eventually the city controlled the fires and used the spot as a dumping ground for city sweepings. Over the years a