MY GARDEN AND ITS ENVIRONMENT 17 



with the vast number of Alpines, if not indeed with all 

 of them. At the same time I fully appreciate the great 

 advantage that real stone has, so far as its beautiful 

 appearance goes, and, needless to say, I should not 

 consider the concrete lumps if stone were obtainable 

 at anything approaching the same cost. As it was, 

 in beginning my Alpine garden, the absolute necessity 

 of such stone would have prevented my undertaking 

 the matter at all. I can unhesitatingly say that 

 anyone placed as I was, could without any appreci- 

 able disadvantage make good the deficiency arising 

 from the absence of stone by using the substitute I 

 speak of. 



The initial trouble of heavy soil I mitigated by taking 

 off the surface soil and putting in a layer of " hard core," 

 viz., broken bricks, clinkers, etc., to the depth of six 

 inches over the whole site of the rock garden, after 

 having roughly given the ground a fall to one point. 

 This rapidly conveys the excess of moisture from the 

 soil into which the plants are subsequently to root, to 

 some drain, or it can be made to serve a double purpose, 

 by arranging this drainage vein to terminate at a 

 portion of the garden devoted to a moist or boggy 

 corner, though as I will explain later, it is for some 

 moisture-loving alpines necessary to form what is 

 termed a well drained bog, viz., a place through which 

 fresh water is more or less constantly passing during the 



