26 Making a Rock Garden 



moisture. The best way is to decide what 

 plants are most desirable in the circum- 

 stances, omitting, as a rule, the difficult or 

 " finicky " ones ; there will be plenty of 

 time to experiment with those when you 

 have more experience. Make a face plan 

 of the several sections of the rock work 

 and mark on it where the plants are to 

 go. Use numbers, each corresponding to 

 a species. 



The general idea is that all the soil shall 

 be concealed, not necessarily at the mo- 

 ment of planting, but at the end of one 

 or two seasons' growth. Unless you are 

 a collector, variety is of little importance. 

 The main thing is that there shall be 

 beauty as a whole, a few marked seasonal 

 effects of color with massed bloom and 

 some green the year round; the garden 

 must never be bare at any time, as nature 

 will show you. Plants clustered here and 



