THE ROCK AND WATER GARDEN 153 



ceed without delay to make the necessary alteration. The 

 three main factors to bear in mind in this connection are 

 (i) ample provision for the shortest possible drainage ; (2) a 

 copious supply of water during the growing season ; (3) some 

 provision to ensure the utmost dryness of the crowns of the 

 plants during the winter, coupled with comparative dryness of 

 the moraine soil during that time. 



It is easy to understand how our little mountain friends 

 obtain these conditions in their alpine homes. The heaps of 

 stone detritus which accumulate at the foot of a glacier, often 

 piled up at an acute angle, ensure ample drainage, while the 

 continuous melting of the ice and snow on the slopes above 

 during the warm or growing season not only supplies copious 

 volumes of ice-cold water to the little plants, but carries away 

 all the finer parts of the broken stone and so greatly adds to 

 the rapidity of drainage. When the falling temperature 

 causes growth to cease, the water supply is automatically 

 cut off by the freezing up of the glacier, usually accompanied 

 by heavy falls of dry snow, which effectually protect the 

 plants from any sudden change of temperature, should it 

 occur, while the considerable time it takes for this snow 

 blanket to melt through and expose the plants in the follow- 

 ing spring ensures that they come forth into a year so far 

 advanced that the likelihood of a check is improbable. Often 

 June is well advanced before these high mountaineers see the 

 sunlight after their long winter sleep. With some care and 

 thought we can do a great deal to minimise the widely 

 different conditions which prevail in our gardens from those 

 existing in the Alpine regions. When one's garden is situated 

 upon a comparatively retentive soil and I suppose but few 

 of us are favoured with a coarse gravel or rock subsoil the 

 best way to proceed in making a moraine is, from my own 

 experience, as follows : 



Position for the Moraine. Having decided upon the posi- 

 tion, which must be an open one, and preferably where the 

 rock-garden slopes gently up, dig into this mound so as to 

 form a trough about two feet deep, and with the bottom 

 falling gently to one point, say, in the front. Either brick up 

 the sides of this compartment or build up with stone or 

 concrete, so as to make this " dish " water-tight to at least 

 8 inches from the bottom. At the lowest point of the bottom 

 an outlet should be arranged which can be easily opened or 

 closed from the outside. It will be readily seen that if this 

 bottom valve is closed and water allowed to enter the com- 

 partment, it will rise to the depth of 6 inches in the front 



