SPECIAL METHODS OF PLANTING 81 



effect, to furnish oblique seams between the larger 

 lumps of rock in another part of the garden. 



Often when building fairly steeply, I found that the 

 pieces of stone would so arrange themselves as to give 

 me a crack perhaps one foot long and one to one-and-a- 

 half inches wide, at an angle of say forty-five degrees. 

 This slanting fissure I dealt with in the following 

 way. Firstly, when the stones were firmly settled down 

 and the soil well hammered in behind them, I shaped a 

 piece of wood, just the right size to pass freely into the 

 crack (approximately one inch by two inches) and 

 with this I found I could drive the soil well home 

 through this small gap, to a much greater extent 

 than by any other means. 



For the method of planting I am about to detail 

 the thorough packing of the soil in the first place is 

 of great importance, since it is almost impossible to 

 do it afterwards. 



Starting from the bottom, I fitted into the crevice 

 a splinter of stone, which would wedge tightly and 

 close up the lower two or three inches ; after filling in 

 with limy soil to this point and well compacting it, I 

 put in my first plant or small tuft of Sax. cochlearis 

 so that its neck rested on the upper surface of the 

 wedge of stone, with the roots well spread out almost 

 horizontally on to the soil behind, but sloping slightly 

 downwards. 



