AMERICAN WALL GARDEN 
(SEE PLAN NO. 12) 
IVEN a long, low retaining wall of rough boulders, laid up with 
good soil and no cement, backed by good loam, facing in an east- 
erly or westerly direction, and a skillful gardener can grow upon 
it many alpine and rock-loving herbs, even in our northern states. Wit- 
ness the “‘weeds”’ that fill the crevices of many a mossy old pasture wall. 
A much finer result for near effects can be thus obtained than by plant- 
ing the wall with clinging vines below or scrambling vines to hang down 
from above. 
Let us imagine such a wall about five feet high and of unknown 
length. It is at the back of the house, along a much-used walk to the 
barn, garage, or other necessary feature of the home. Let us plant a 
portion of it. There are three parts of the planting—erect bushy herbs 
to partly hide the large stones at the base, slender-stemmed herbs to 
hang down on the wall face, and low tufted sueculent herbs to grow on 
the top of the wall at the edge of the lawn. The first and last beds can 
be better planted after the stones of the wall are well settled in place, and 
the soil become firm, but upon the wall face greater success may be looked 
for if the herbs are put in as the wall is laid up. So as we build the wall 
we shall insert our colonies of plants, running their long roots as far back 
as possible. 
A gritty soil with no clay, but plenty of well-decayed vegetable mat- 
ter, must be insisted upon. As there is no cement used the stones must 
be carefully placed, that the weight of the soil behind, aided by water and 
frost, cannot topple the wall over. Big flat stones, the long diameter 
reaching back from the wall face, will help anchor the whole. Don’t 
forget to lay each large rock with an upward tilt to the front, and give 
the whole wall a pronounced batter, for further stability, and to catch 
the rain. Put flat shaly chips in the soil that the big rocks may not lie 
too closely together, but leave root room for the plants. 
On the plan the wall face is shown as if we were looking at it from 
the path—as if it stood before us at eye level. The foot of the wall 
shown below it, and the wall top shown at the top of the plan, are drawn 
as if seen from above, looking down upon them from the upper lawn. 
These three parts are thus shown as disconnected, except by guide lines 
at either end, so that the two different ways of looking at the wall may be 
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