WALL GARDENING 89 



garden I saw at Waltham Cross, at the home of Sir Hugh Myddle- 

 ton. The lay of the land required a wall only two or three feet 

 high to keep a bank of earth from tumbling into the driveway. 

 When a wall is as low as this it is possible to use more earth than 

 stone and thus get enough soil in the wall itself to support a lux- 

 uriant growth of vines. But, of course, it is a great advantage to 

 have behind the wall an inexhaustible supply of moisture and 

 plant food. The wall I speak of had just enough rocks in it to hold 

 the bank together and these rocks were all but obscured by vines 

 and flowers. It was pleasant, however, to catch a glimpse of the 

 rocks occasionally, as they gave a feeling of stability. I should 

 not expect so crude an arrangement to be effective for the rock roses 

 or helianthemums which glorify English walls of the same character, 

 or any of the more difficult alpines, such as edelweiss, gentians, or 

 saxifrages. The proper thing for such is a scientifically con- 

 structed rockery. But this plan of having more earth than stone 

 gives us a chance to plant long low walls with great stretches of 

 easily grown perennial flowers sheets of golden tuft in April, 

 fragrant breadths of rock-cress and woodruff in May, cool lines of 

 Cerastium tomentosum or "snow in summer," cascades of wild 

 pinks in June, tender blue alpine forget-me-nots, dainty masses of 

 Kenilworth ivy, and hundreds of little blue spires of veronicas 

 all of which have the true alpine feeling. (All these you can buy in 

 the form of plants in spring or raise from seed which is best sown 

 in a coldframe in July.) 



If you will take a slow automobile or trolley ride this afternoon 

 and examine the stone and brick retaining walls that line the road 

 in city and country your eyes will be opened to a sickening amount 

 of ostentation and stupidity. For people who have to deal with 

 sloping land generally do one of two foolish things. 



