182 



TRTSH GARDENING 



Notes on a Wall Garden at 

 Llandaff, South Wales. 



When my garden was planned I was very 



anxious to have a dry wall for rock plants, and 

 eventually succeeded in getting one to bold up 

 a small terrace in front of the house ; it is aboul 

 30 yards Long and 2 feet 6 inches high. The 

 stones used, of irregular sizes, are of a Local 

 conglomerate of a good red colour, and loosely 

 buill together without mortar, so that plants 

 can he put in. bigger holes being left every here 

 and there for the larger ones. The wall laces 

 south, and has a slight lean backwards : the soil 

 behind is a heavy rich loam, and was not specially 

 prepared. 



All t lie plant- 

 ing has been 

 ili me since the 

 u all was made, 

 and t his is l>\ 

 no means easy 

 work, as it is 

 e\t reniely dif- 

 ficult to do it 

 sat isi'act orily 

 and press the 

 e a r 1 h w e 1 1 

 home in the 

 very small 



Spaces bel ween 

 t he S t ones, 

 while on t lie 



other hand if 

 t hese were Left 

 biggei it would 

 (I e s t r< ' 5 the 

 charact er <> f 

 t he wall: in t he 

 larger gaps it 

 is. of course, 

 less difficult . 

 Weighing t he 



a (I v a ii t a ges 

 ami disadvan- 

 t ages i if a wall 

 garden, there 

 might be put 

 on the side of 



the advantages — (1) the increased warmth 

 from the more direel rays of the sun. the reten- 

 tion of this warmth by the stones, and. if facing 

 south, the protection from the cold winds in 



spring that do SO much harm : (2) the excellent 



drainage no small advantage in a climate Like 

 we have here, where the average rainfall is about 



II inches, last \ear it was Over 55 inches: 



(3) no earth to be splashed about on the Leaves 

 of t he plants by rain. 



The disadvantages are (apart from the diffi- 

 culties of planting) (1) slugs, wood I ice and milli- 

 pedes, which have an ideal place for hiding in 



and cannot be touched by Y.T.II. or other slug 



traps: extremely unpleasant butchery at night 

 with a pair of scissors and an electric torch after 

 laying down pat dies of lira n seems to be the only 

 remedy last winter I destroyed marlx 1.1)0(1 



slugs alone in this way. (2) The impossibility of 



giving any protection by glass against wilder 



rains; the southerly gales here bring the wet, 

 and would soon dash to pieces any contrivances 



DlANTHTJS EYBBID, ANTIRRHINUM (IIJ'TIXUSUM AM) 

 ERIGERl IN M UCRONATTJS: 



On a dry w all. 



for holding glass. (3) The difficulty of watering : 



but once a plant gets established it seems able 

 to hold its own against almost any drought. 



As to the plants 1 have tried (and all those 1 

 name have been out for one winter and most for 

 two or more) very high up on the list 1 should 

 place Convolvulus maui itanicus. with its long- 

 trailing steins and profusion of azure-blue 

 flowers. ('. Cneorum I am just trying: it 

 {lowered freely in the rock-garden for two years, 

 but rotted away last winter. Acantholimon 

 venustUm is quite happy, and slowly increasing 

 in a small crevice : this summer it had nearly a 

 dozen spikes of bloom. A. glumaceum thrives 

 well in the rock-garden, but one piece unaccount- 

 ably turned suddenly brown and died this spring. 

 I mean to try some now in the wall. Sphseralcea 

 munrana, with its mallow-like deep pinkflowers, 



is almost too 

 exuberant, as 

 it has ext ended 

 right across 

 the path at t he 

 foot of t h e 

 wall, tile stems 

 being live I'eet 



long. Francoa 

 s onchi f ol ia 



(from the \{. 

 II. S.) looks 



happy, a n d 

 flowered well. 



but. as I be- 

 lieve often 



happens. (he 



stems become 



fascial ed (clul - 

 bing together 



of the buds. 



forming a b - 

 normally big 

 and flat stems) 

 and 1 he full de 



\ e I o p 1 1 1 e n t of 

 the (lowers was 

 spoilt. Of the 

 E podiu iii s I 

 have E. Rei- 

 chardii (quite 

 happy, I hough 

 by no means 

 in t he moist 

 :i recommends 'in. his invalu- 

 IMauts " ). E. sibt horpianum 



sandy soil .Mi 

 able book on 



.Meredi 



Alpine 

 and E. supracanum, all I am sun- would do wi 

 but others ol' this interesting family, such as 

 E. guttatum, I-;. cheilanthifolium, I*;. corsicum, 

 &c, I have in t he rock-garden. 



For profusion of bl i one of the best things 



is Antirrhinum glutinosum : it spreads itself out 

 close against the wall like a mat. and was one 

 mass of Mowers, as the photograph shows. A. 

 sempervirens, which is much like it. curiously 

 enough did not prosper last summer. Apparently 



the sun's rays or the drought were too much lor 

 it. as Mie leaves curled up and withered away. 

 A. Asarinum is such a prodigious spreader in the 

 rock-garden that I am afraid of introducing if 

 into the wall, as it would smother everything. 

 Campanula muralis, though extremely free- 

 fiowering, should be introduced with caution and 

 carefully watched, as it spreads with wonderful 



rapidity, ami the Long white roots gei behind 

 the stones and are very difficult to eradicate: 



