ACCESSORIES OF THE GARDEN 43 



Among its chief disadvantages are these: first, it is artificial in 

 appearance; second, the grass on these steep four-to- ten-foot 

 drops is extremely difficult to mow and edge; third, in hot cli- 

 mates the grass burns quickly on these slopes and is therefore 

 hard to keep fresh-looking; foiu1;h, the labor, cost of up-keep, 

 of such slopes is high. The substitute for them, of course, is 

 the retaining wall. Such a wall should be built of the material 

 of the house, if that material is brick or stone; if it is wood, the 

 nearest procurable inconspicuous stone, be it only cobbles, should 

 be used. The first cost of the wall is higher than that of the so- 

 called terracing; but in the end it will be less. The wall requires 

 little or no attention. It may well be covered here and there; but 

 only here and there, if its stone or brick is attractive in kind and 

 color, with such beautiful fine creepers as Ampelopsis Lowii, 

 which is not nearly well enough known in America. At the top 

 of such low walls, charming effects may be had by planting, to 

 fall a little over the edge, such things as those hardy, handsome 

 shrubs which have an interest during the entire year, Thunberg's 

 barberry, or Rosa wichuriana. In Tacoma I recall some rather 

 high retaining walls giving directly upon the sidewalk, where 

 most lovely rock-plants were blooming in the interstices of the 

 stones; and so finely were these Alpines used with regard to color 

 and position, so beautifully were shrubs grouped above the wall, 

 that this small property, on a corner, in a situation that must 

 have been most difficult to treat, from the horticultural stand- 

 point, became to me a point of intense interest and enjoyment. 



Almost all our hilly cities and towns in America have suc- 

 cumbed, however, to this plague of the grass-terrace. Its com- 

 mon accompaniments are a copious use of a very white or light 

 cement for street and sidewalk and service-drives and walks in 

 the property, and a long stretch of what I may call heavy-Udded 

 small houses, bungalows with weighty roofs, which are neither 



