CHAPTER II 



DRY-WALLING AND ROCK-GARDEN CONSTRUCTION 



A ROCK-GARDEN may be anything between an upright 

 wall and a nearly dead level. It is generally an arti- 

 ficial structure of earth and stones, and alas ! only 

 too often it is an aggregation of shapeless mounds and 

 hollows made anyhow. Such a place is not only 

 ugly but is very likely not suitable for the plants 

 that are intended to grow in it. If any success in 

 the cultivation of rock-plants is expected, it is only 

 reasonable to suppose that one must take the trouble 

 to learn something about the plants, their kinds and 

 their needs, and it is equally necessary to take the 

 trouble to learn how their places are to be prepared. 

 Happily for the chances of success and pleasure in 

 this delightful kind of gardening the right way is also 

 the most beautiful way. There is no need to sur- 

 round every little plant with a kind of enclosure of 

 stones, set on edge and pointing to all four points of 

 the compass ; it is far better to set the stones more 

 or less in courses or in lines of stratification, just as 

 we see them in nature in a stone quarry or any moun- 

 tain side where surface denudation has left them 

 standing out clear in nearly parallel lines. It matters 

 not the least whether the courses are far apart or 



