i88 GARDEN DESIGN 



ite. In the Lake District of England one may read 

 endless lessons from the exposed sides of the hills, 

 with little glades of short grass running between 

 rocky promontories. In Switzerland and the 

 Tyrol the same thing is seen more vividly owing 

 to the colonies of bright mountain plants taking 

 advantage of soil and moisture. It will be noticed 

 that the rocks serve for shelter, or to support soil 

 which otherwise would be washed away, and in 

 themselves are necessary to very few plants 

 for instance arenaria balearica which seems to be 

 most thriving when pressed to a moist rock surface. 



In designing a rock garden, where elevation is 

 as important as the plan, the most satisfactory 

 method is to work it out in clay or plasticine. A 

 piece of wood to represent the area is required, 

 and sides and back can be added if the rock- 

 work is to be against a bank or in a quarry. 

 The model should be worked to a fairly large scale, 

 say 2 ft. to i in., and the vertical scale is twice as 

 large, in this case i ft. to an inch. The doubling 

 is a great help to the working, as the vertical di- 

 mensions are very much smaller than the horizontal 

 ones, and the increased scale makes the modelling 

 less fidgety to do. With clay one can experiment 

 and alter until a satisfactory miniature rock for- 

 mation is attained. 



The intended ground line is pencilled out on the 

 board, and the clay built up to the required height. 

 While building, the designer must know clearly in 



