CHAPTER IV 
ON WALL GARDENS 
WALL garden, when it is properly constructed, 
suitably planted, and well established, is a feature 
of exceptional interest, and great attractiveness; but a 
wall must be adapted for the purpose of growing plants if 
it is to be a source of satisfaction, for it must not be 
supposed that every garden wall may be made a wall 
garden. Plants cannot be expected to thrive on a bare, 
sunbaked, solid brick or stone wall, and it is horrible to 
see trumpery little troughs and pockets made of tiles and 
cement stuck at intervals along the face of a wall of solid 
masonry or brickwork. The handful of soil such ridiculous 
receptacles can hold is totally inadequate, for one dry day 
in summer will convert it into either dry powder or a 
hardened cake of baked clay. 
One frequently sees a wall of rough stones or burrs 
packed together with little or no soil to fill in the crevices. 
Thus, drying winds cut through and shrivel to death any 
roots a plant may contrive to make during a period of wet 
weather, and ere long the plants are brought to the end of 
a miserable existence. 
The ideal wall garden is one where the stones are backed 
33 c 
