The Rock Garden 



uniform moisture that many plants love. Perhaps 

 the best way in which I give my own ideas as 

 to what a rock garden should be will be by first 

 stating what it should not be ; when a person 

 clearly knows what to avoid he has more than 

 half learned the lesson of success. 



The rock garden should never be near the 

 house ; it must always more or less partake of 

 savagery and wildness, and so is quite out of 

 harmony with studied lines of architecture. And 

 yet the most successful rock garden I have known 

 was close to a house in the suburbs of Worthing. 

 The house is the ordinary suburban villa, with a 

 slip of garden in front, and behind the house 

 another garden of the same width as the house, 

 and about double the depth. The whole of this 

 space is filled with what I can only liken to a 

 miniature meadow in front of but rather below 

 the windows of the house, and surrounded with 

 what looks like the entrance to a small Derbyshire 

 dale. Not a portion of the boundary walls can be 

 seen behind the rocks which have been formed 

 out of the rubbish of old houses pulled down in 

 the neighbourhood, and piled up and covered with 

 flowers and shrubs by the almost unaided labour 

 of an old lady and gentleman, both over fourscore. 

 The naturalness of the scene was complete. In 

 no part could you see anything that suggests that 

 it is all artificial, and it is a grand proof of what 

 can be done out of the most unpromising materials, 

 if there is only skill and enthusiasm. But this is 



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