Light and Air 



are to be crowned with a moderately full measure of 

 success. Even when large trees exist at some distance 

 from the rock garden, the shade is detrimental to plant 

 life, while light and air — which are among the life- 

 giving essentials to alpine vegetation — are in large 

 degree excluded from the plants. Even the more or 

 less prevailing practice of planting Pines or tall-grow- 

 ing coniferous plants within the limitations of the rock 

 garden merits vigorous condemnation, if only because 

 of the exceeding dryness and soil-robbed conditions 

 existing in the near proximity, to such trees. Outside 

 the boundary these trees might be tolerated or even 

 desirable, though that would depend upon the imme- 

 diate surroundings. Shade of a kind, and shelter, too, 

 must be embraced if we would cultivate all the best a 

 rock garden might contain, but these can be provided 

 by the arrangement of the rock itself through the intel- 

 ligent thought and work of the operator from within. 



Equally bad, too, near to rock gardening of any kind 

 is the presence of high buildings ; light and air ex- 

 cluders of the worst type, and, often enough, the pre- 

 cursors of a set of conditions quite uncongenial to 

 alpine vegetation. Extreme dryness is almost sure to 

 be one of them, the rain being prevented from reaching 

 the plants. Occasionally, however, one sees a rock gar- 

 den surrounded by high walls — one so encompassed on 

 three sides is in the mind's eye at the moment — its ill- 

 effects, the outcome largely of dryness consequent upon 

 a prevailing vacuum, not likely to be forgotten. Worst 

 of all, the rats discovered in its unoccupied recesses a 

 safe retreat; eventually it became to them a veritable 

 stronghold as well. Thus it will be seen that, for vary- 

 ing reasons, even the selection of a suitable position — 3. 

 modification of the " best " — is a matter of some impor- 

 tance. The "best position," therefore, is undoubtedly 

 one quite in the open, one unfettered by tree life, and 

 far remoYed from the formal garden and the house. 

 It should, indeed, be a thing apart, a phase or depart- 

 ment of outdoor gardening worthy of careful study 



