MAINTENANCE 97 



only point which the author wishes to make clear is that from the very 

 informal nature of the garden the question of maintenance cost is not 

 as great as the maintenance cost of the formal garden. 



ROCK GARDEN. Many persons labour under the impression that 

 the rock garden does not require constant attention. To successfully 

 develop a rock garden planting requires more thorough knowledge 

 of plants than the development of the refined flower garden or the 

 informal garden. The reason for this is that those plants which 

 succeed in the rock garden development are much more uncommon 

 than the plants which succeed in other types of gardens and less oppor- 

 tunity is afforded for intelligent study of their habits of growth and 

 flowering characteristics. The rock garden, like the wild garden, is 

 often thought of as a garden in which plants enter into a competition 

 for "the survival of the fittest." Quite to the contrary, intelligent 

 maintenance must be applied in order to eventually develop the plan 

 as originally intended. Most of the plants adapted to the rock 

 garden are the dwarf, slow-growing types which continue to become 

 larger from year to year. They must be kept within bounds by intelli- 

 gent pruning which will not destroy their effect. Occasionally many 

 plants are introduced into the rock garden planting which require 

 much more attention on account of the water which is necessary 

 for their normal growth. A rock garden is not a garden from which 

 flowers are to be picked. The period of bloom is usually the period 

 when the plant is most valuable for its effect in the garden and the 

 flowers should not be removed at that time. 



CUTTING GARDEN. The cutting garden is perhaps the most simple 

 garden and the easiest garden to maintain. The only problem of such 

 a garden is to provide easy access to plants placed in definite rows with 

 sufficient space for easy cultivation. In a garden of this kind plants 

 are permitted their freedom of growth and the object is to feed them 

 heavily with fertilizer in order to produce the most desirable flowers 

 which are to be cut at a time when the plants are at their height of 

 bloom. The problem of maintenance is one of supplying sufficient 

 fertilizer to keep the flowers growing vigorously, of cultivating them 

 frequently, and watering freely. 



ROSE GARDEN. The object of the average rose garden is to produce 

 an abundance of bloom and to produce large individual flowers. The 





