CHAPTER XVI 



My Rock Garden 



MY rock garden is a home-made affair, that is to say I 

 planned, built, and planted it, and have had the chief hand 

 in caring for it for twenty years. When I say built I mean 

 I chose out the stone for each position, helped to move it 

 and generally gave it the final lift or shove, or jumped up 

 and down on the top of it, to fix it in place just as I 

 wanted it, but, of course, several heads and hands helped 

 me, especially with the large blocks and the excavating 

 and shovelling up of soil. It was formed a bit at a time, 

 and always under the belief that the present piece of work 

 was to be the very utmost extent that was likely to be 

 undertaken, and so of necessity it possesses many faults. 

 I can see that had it been planned as a whole I could have 

 greatly improved it, and as the oldest portion, which dates 

 from 1893, was my first piece of work of the kind, I have 

 learnt something since then. It is a rock garden but by 

 no means an alpine garden, for though alpine plants have 

 a first choice of places I have always been ready to plant 

 any bush or even tree in it, that I think will grow better 

 for the advantages of drainage and protection the chosen 

 site will afford it. I often say that I must reserve a new 

 wing for choice alpines only or clear out an older range 

 for them, then I come along with a choice young Euca- 

 lyptus in a pot, or one of the giants of the Eryngium 

 family such as E. serra or E. Lasseauxii, or some other 

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