THE DAWN OF SPRING 



about three inches long, inserted in sandy soil, and kept March 

 close until they begin to grow, then given abundance of ^^0-31 

 air. By making a correct choice of varieties, bloom can 

 be got in succession for nearly three months. 



Rockery Plants. — The rock garden is full of interest 

 in spring, and now is the time to go over it carefully, 

 restricting here, propagating there, making additions 

 both of stones and plants. One of my own rockeries 

 is neither more nor less than a nearly perpendicular 

 loose stone wall, which was put up to sustain the soil 

 of a "cutting." I recall the debates as to the best plan 

 of dealing with the cutting when it was first made. 

 Should it be " battered " at an obtuse angle, and turfed ? 

 Should it be covered with shrubs ? Or should it be 

 faced with rock? An intelligent builder turned the 

 scale ; and here let me say, out of gratitude, that builders 

 are not at all such terrible Vandals as they are supposed 

 to be, nor do they hate gardens with the virulence which 

 is accredited to them. They really have souls, and are 

 by no means devoid of a sense of beauty. A great deal 

 of the harm that they do they cannot help. It is a 

 necessity of their work that ground should be cut up, 

 and stacks of bricks built, and the place sown with 

 mortar morasses. I am convinced that they often feel 

 really sad when, in the addition of a new wing to the 

 house, they spoil a pretty garden corner. 



I mention my rock wall because it may convey a 

 useful suggestion to others. It has done many degrees 

 better than I ever expected that it would. To begin 

 with, the soil of the bank was very poor, near chalk. 

 Then, the angle being acute, very little rain could beat 

 in. According to all the canons of rock-plant culture, 

 a failure was to be expected. Nothing of the kind has 

 happened. Nearly all of the sixty or seventy kinds put 

 145 K 



