28 VILLA GARDENING part i 



many of the alpines will grow in good ordinary garden soil, but 

 there are a few for which special preparation must be made. In 

 constructing the beds or mounds for both Ferns and alpines, it 

 will be best fii'st to excavate the paths forming the mounds with 

 the soil thrown out, keeping the bad subsoil in the bottom. When 

 the work is completed the rustic arches, if any are needed, should 

 be built. Arches roughly built of stone, and covered Avith creepers 

 or Ivy, have a telling effect. Arches built with rough Oak for 

 creepers also look well. The roots or logs of timber should be 

 disposed in as natural and pleasing a manner as possible ; and the 

 site for any dwarf conifers or other plants should be prepared first 

 of all before any elaborate fixing of stems or logs takes place ; and 

 in the arrangement of the shrubs or plants of large growth, they 

 should not be set out on any regular formal system, but arranged 

 as natiu^ally and informally as possible. Sometimes a dwarf 

 conifer, or a Barberry, or a Mountain Ash, may grow out of the 

 summit of the mound ; at other places it may seem to be clinging 

 to^the side. Again, occasionally a group may be dropped down in 

 some suitable position to avoid the sameness which too many single 

 specimens dotted about would inflict on us. These and many other 

 necessary details, which can only be glanced at here, will require 

 careful thinking out by the planter. 



CHAPTER lY 



Laying out the Alpine Garden. — If this is formed in con- 

 nection with the fernery it should occupy the sunniest position, 

 as shady spots for those alpines which love shade can always be 

 improvised by placing a shrub or a stone on the sunny side. 

 Ambitious persons may succeed in obtaining pleasing imitations of 

 alpine scenery on a small scale, if they go the right way to work, 

 without any stones at all. An imitation mountain, with a tower- 

 ing peak, may be obtained without difficulty. The peak, of course, 

 must be planted with the Snow plant (Antennaria tomentosa), a 

 close-growing, white-foliaged plant, having the appearance of snow 

 when viewed from a distance. The sides of the miniature mount- 

 ains must be clothed with suitable vegetation, and in i)lantiug an 

 alpine mould there is scope for a good deal of taste and ingenuity ; 

 and such a feature is calculated to inspire a good deal of interest 

 without incurring much expense. All the various kinds of Ivies 

 may be utilised in the rockery or fernery, or their immediate 

 neighbourhood, such as the approaches to their site. Some of 

 the most ornamental may climb over trunks of trees set upright in 



