CHAPTER VIII 



SOME PROBLEMS IN WALL-GARDENING 



The illustration shows one of the many pleasant 

 ways in which a little careful study of ground pro- 

 blems and ingenious adaptation of material can be 

 worked out and made into a simple thing of beauty 

 and delight. 



A half-sunk garden passage leads on a gentle uphill 

 slope from house to stables. The walls are of blocks 

 of stone with wide joints, all laid a little sloping back, 

 so that the whole face of the two walls lies back. The 

 wall was planted, both as it was built, and also after- 

 wards, with quantities of spring-flowering plants; 

 Arabis, Aubrietia, Violets, Pinks, Cerastium, and 

 others of early bloom. The crowning pergola, on 

 which grow Vines only (late-leafing in England), 

 does not over-shade the early flowers when they are 

 in bloom, while later it rather gives them comfort by 

 sheltering them from the summer sun-heat. The 

 path is paved with flags so that it neither wants weed- 

 ing nor repair from being washed out, while the very 

 easiest sweeping keeps it clean. 



Many are the unsightly and featureless places that 

 by some such treatment might be made beautiful, and 

 more quickly than in any other way of gardening ; 



