36 



MANUAL OF GARDENING 



a thing it is to make an attractive mass-plantation. One may 

 make the most of a rock (Fig. 26) or bank, or other undesirable 

 feature of the place. Dig up the ground and make it rich, and 

 then set plants in it. You will not get it to suit you the first 

 year, and perhaps not the second or the third; you can always 

 pull out plants and put more in. I should not want a lawn- 

 garden so perfect that I could not change it in some char- 

 acter each year; I should lose interest in it. 



26. Making the most of a rock. 



It must not be understood that I am speaking only for mixed 

 borders. On the contrary, it is much better in most cases that 

 each border or bed be dominated by the expression of one kind 

 of flower or bush. In one place a person may desire a wild aster 

 effect, or a petunia effect, or a larkspur effect, or a rhododendron 

 effect; or it may be desirable to run heavily to strong foliage 

 effects in one direction and to light flower effects in another. 

 The mixed border is rather more a flower-garden idea than a 

 landscape idea; when it shall be desirable to emphasize the one 

 and when the other, cannot be set down in a book. 



