CHAPTER VIII 

 WALL GARDENING 



GARDENING on walls is considered by many ta 

 be in the nature of a novelty. It is not so, how- 

 ever, though, compared with gardening- as a craft, it 

 is certainly modern. Forty or more years ago the 

 writer had charge of an establishment largely devoted 

 to hardy plant gardening wherein not less than a quar- 

 ter of a mile of walls — retaining walls, chiefly — were to 

 be found, specially constructed to receive plant life, 

 A small part of these had existed for some time; the 

 majority, however, were, so to speak, of the moment. 

 One long stretch was in woodland shade throughout, 

 but the efforts to grow plants, ferns or otherwise, were 

 not crowned with much success. This I attributed to 

 dryness, the overhanging woodland trees preventing 

 the rain reaching the wall. The ferns we desired 

 to clothe it with by the introduction of their spores. 

 Wall-Rue (Asplenium ruta muraria) and Black Ribbed 

 Maidenhair Spleenwort (Asplenium trichomanes) were 

 a continued non-success. The woodland trees, chiefly 

 clean, young oak, were more precious in the eyes of my 

 employer than the success of the ferns, hence the latter 

 had presently to take the proverbial back seat. I am 

 fully persuaded, however, that such a wall, with its 

 north-westerly exposure, would have given but little 

 trouble in the open where occasional rains would have 

 materially assisted vegetation. The unusual dryness 

 in this case precluded success, and it is emphasised here 

 for what it is worth. For the rest our success was 

 proverbial, the majority of the walls being quite 

 features of the place in which they were situated. 



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