HOW TO MAKE A SMALL ROCK-GARDEN 87 



It is important that these corner stones should be rather 

 long and set very firmly in the soil, or they may slip or tilt 

 down and spoil the continuity of the main lines of the 

 front. 



Now we can get on better. We can lay another layer of 

 stones along the same direction as the stone just laid, 

 finishing off as usual with an out-cropping stone. 



The next layer may be laid similarly. There must be 

 a sloping craggy stone at the lower end and a steep out- 

 cropping stone at the top end. And so we go on laying 

 layers of stone till we reach the top of the mound. 



The top is generally a difficulty at first. If the mound 

 is fairly large the top will of necessity be a flat one or nearly 

 so. Rather than use more soil, and pile up stone to make 

 the mound have a conical appearance, I would either leave 

 it as it is and plant a few dwarf rock-garden shrubs thereon 

 (see next chapter), or I would partly sink a few stones in 

 it, to give it an appearance similar to that of the moors in 

 Derbyshire, that of " stray rocks " lying as they were left 

 by nature, with soil creeping over them. 



The stones used for the building up of the mound should 

 not be put too close beside each other. A gap of 3-9 ins. 

 between each is useful, and the soil can be held up by a 

 smaller piece of stone, thus forming a neat " pocket." 

 The soil between the first, second, third, and other layers 

 of stone may be divided into pockets by inserting small 

 thin stones across the width. These should only just show 

 above the soil. 



Such is the way, to my mind, of building up a rock mound, 

 and every rock mound is a unit of the rock-garden. The 

 same process may be carried out with the other mounds. 

 And if there is sufficient space it is interesting to have the 

 rock dipping a different way ; the rock-garden then appears 

 more artistic than if they are all arranged to dip the same 

 way throughout the garden. 



The mounds having been built they must be united. Up 

 t of the present the garden consists of separate units with 

 soil paths between them, To incorporate these into one 



