THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



March in have established themselves, and some have spread 

 16-31 a good deal. The stone used is a fairly hard Kentish 

 "rag." This is not an ideal stone, but the quality of 

 the metal varies in different quarries, and I appear to 

 have struck a good vein. One thing in favour of rag 

 is that plants like it. It is a limestone, and they appear 

 to enjoy getting their roots down to the base of the 

 pieces. Of course, there is a good thickness of soil at 

 the back of the plants, and although the crevices 

 between the stones are small, the plants have a deep 

 rooting area, such as it is. 



The liking which many plants have for lime induces 

 me to wonder how far we may expect chalk or limestone 

 to compensate for what we call " poor " soil. I call my 

 thin soil over soft chalk poor, because it lacks humus, 

 and fruit and most vegetables grow with very little 

 vigour in it. But soil that is poor for fruit and vege- 

 tables is apparently by no means poor from the stand- 

 point of low-growing plants. They do not require so 

 much humus, nor so much moisture, as plants with 

 much expanse of leafage. I make these remarks in full 

 cognisance of the orthodox advice (which I have re- 

 peated myself before now) that rock plants should have 

 a liberal allowance of fibrous loam. They certainly 

 need it in a rockery, where the soil has to be made up, 

 but apparently not so much in a bank, where there is 

 considerable " back run " for their roots. 



The lover of rock plants who looks them over in 

 spring with a view to propagation sees that they differ 

 a good deal in their habit of growth. Some of the 

 clumps consist of a series of shoots springing separately 

 from the soil, almost like a Michaelmas Daisy. It is 

 obvious that these may be increased by division. Parts 

 of the clump may be cut away, and pressed into the 

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