CHAPTER IV, 



THE BOG GARDEN OR ROCK 

 GARDEN POOL 



I HOLD that the bog garden proper should be with- 

 out the rock garden, amid moist woodland scenes 

 or other place apart. Water, however, in some form 

 or another — the tiny streamlet or the overflow from 

 dripping cave supplying the rock garden pool, and 

 from thence to a low-lying depression, might fittingly 

 constitute an adjunct to the rock garden of an inter- 

 esting and useful kind. For present purposes, there- 

 fore, we might assume we have such at our disposal; 

 the water supply adequate yet under control. Drip- 

 ping from fern-lined cave, or falling more abruptly as 

 from a miniature cascade (Figs. 6 and 7), the first func- 

 tion of the surplus would be to occupy a pool, from the 

 overflow of which the whole of the remainder would 

 be supplied. By fixing the pool at a slightly higher 

 level, or by more deeply excavating the depression at 

 the other extreme, gravitation would be secured. If 

 needs be the water-loving things could be accommo- 

 dated first, the moisture and cool-loving subjects later. 

 Throughout the great guiding principles should be 

 vested in the securing of adequate moisture without 

 stagnation. The one is life, the other is death. 



Making a Bog Garden. — In its arrangement a water- 

 tight foundation is a necessity. It may be of puddled 

 clay or concreted. When of any extent it should be 

 arranged in sections so that the water may moisten the 

 soil without passing too quickly away. If arranged in 

 one section only, the outlet should be so raised and 

 plugged that saturation of the whole at will is thereby 



