36 ROCK GARDENS 



be most carefully hidden by either plants 

 or soil. 



Examples of this kind of work are the 

 building of a small terrace of stones along 

 the front of some ledge, incapable of holding 

 any or a sufficient depth of soil, or the fixing 

 of wedge-shaped pieces of stone with their 

 thin ends up in some large vertical fissure to 

 keep in the soil, which otherwise it would be 

 found difficult, if not impossible, to prevent 

 being washed out by heavy rain. 



Bare rocky ledges which slope outwards in 

 such a way that the rain is thrown off, instead 

 of being directed back towards the soil behind, 

 can have this fault remedied by raising the 

 front with a layer of concrete. 



Steps may also have to be cut to give access 

 to the plants. These should never be formal, 

 but as uneven as possible, and merely form 

 stepping-stones from one ledge to another. 



Where a stream comes over the face of the 

 rock, its volume and course should be so con- 

 trolled that even in time of flood it can do no 

 damage to the plants growing beside it. 



The two chief things to remember in the 



