38 



IRISH GARDENING 



How to make a Moraine 



By Reginald A. Malbv. 



c 



During the winter the whole moraine and its 

 contents are wrapped in a thick snow mantle 

 which protects the Httle plants from any varia- 

 tion of temperature, until the sun again thaws 

 ONSIDERABLE interest has been taken them out the following June or July. 



recently in that adjunct of the Rock From the foregoing it will be seen that the 



essential features of an artificial moraine should 

 be as follows : — (i)The sharpest possible drain- 

 age ; (2) a plentiful supply of water during the 

 growing season ; (3) some method of keeping 



Garden — The Moraine — and it has been 

 found that many hitherto difficult plants to 

 grow in our Alpine gardens thrive there in 

 quite a surprising wa_\-. 



It may be of interest to relate a simple way of the crown of the plants dry during the winter, 

 constructing a highly efhcient moraine at an in- coupled with comparative dryness of the 

 significant cost. 



Before pro- 

 ceeding to the 

 technical de- 

 tails, however, 

 it will be well 

 to glance at the 

 conditions pre- 

 vailing in a na- 

 tural moraine, 

 and try to learn 

 therefrom the 

 special points 

 to bear in mind, 

 and if possible 

 to reproduce. 



It will be 

 readily seen 

 that the piled- 

 up heaps of 

 stone detritus 

 which one finds 

 at the lower 

 end of every 

 glacier afford 

 ample drain- 



I'holo by] 



Draba AIZOIDES, VAR. PEDEANA 

 In Moraine Garden 



age, since they are usually on sloping ground 

 and consist of pieces of stone of all sizes down 

 to small grit. 



Through this mass of debris, during the 

 growing season, water is constantly passing 

 from the melting snow and ice above, thus not point of the floor, which in my case was 



morame soil 

 itself. 



I started op- 

 e r a t i o n s by 

 selecting a 

 position in the 

 Rock Ciarden, 

 fully exposed 

 to the sun, 

 where I could, 

 by digging out 

 the soil, form 

 a trough with 

 the bottom 

 sloping to- 

 wards one 

 point of the 

 front. This 

 trough was 

 roughly t w o 

 feet deep, and 

 its sides were 

 built up with 

 bricks and ce- 

 ment until 

 nearly on the 

 level with the surrounding rockwork, and then 

 topped wiili decorative pieces of stone. The 

 whole was then lined with cement to make it 

 impervious to water. 



Before this was done, however, at the lowest 



only keeping the roots of the moraine plants 

 moist but carrying away with it the bulk of 

 the fine particles of stone which may have 

 existed there. 



When the season is waning, growth is 

 checked by low temperature, shortly followed 



immediately above a bog bed, I inserted a valve 

 which could be opened or closed at will (easily 

 hidden by a piece of stone placed in front of it), 

 carefully covered on the inside with a piece ot 

 perforated zinc to prevent choking. 



1 also arranged several openings along the 



by the freezing-up of the water supply from the front at a height of six inches from the 



glacier above, when the moisture in the stones bottom. 



of the moraine gradually soaks awav. It will now be seen that if watci is allowed to 



