WILD GARDENS AND ROCK GARDENS 



227 



ANOTHER FORM OF ALPINE GARDENING 



Fig. 175. — Rustic garden steps such as these should have six-inch risers and treads of not 



less than fourteen inches. The larger stones should be used for the base, and the soil well 



rammed to prevent settling. The treads should be tied into the cheek walls. In rustic 



work the cheek walls may be left without coping. 



plants; this may be done by installing a perforated wrought 

 iron pipe along the top at the rear of the wall; the perfora- 

 tion should be a thirty-second of an inch in diameter, spaced at 

 intervals of one inch. The pipe should be placed with the holes at 

 the bottom, on a bed of crushed stone, seven inches below the sur- 

 face, and covered with three inches of cinders, allowing four inches 

 of top soil above. The water supply should be controlled by a 

 valve set flush with the grade, in a neat box, and located at a con- 

 venient point. 



GARDEN STEPS WITH POCKETS FOR PLANTS 



Garden steps of field stone (Fig. 175) in fashion with the 

 retaining walls may be so constructed as to leave pockets for the 

 planting of Alpines. Following a first principle of wall construc- 

 tion, such steps should be as regular as possible, not in absolutely 

 straight lines, but the structure in general should be regular and 

 uniform. This regularity should not be followed in the planting; 



