40 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



September, 1914 



joints. Only the best soil should be used. 

 It is a good thing to mix with it well 

 pulverized and rotted manure, five parts 

 soil to one part manure. 



But no matter how well tamped the soil 

 may be, our beating rains and winds would 

 wash out much of it unless it be reinforced. 

 This assistance is given by laying sods in 

 with the soil near the wall face, roots out- 

 ward. They hold the soil in place until 

 the fibrous plant roots can grow sufficiently 

 to bind. By the time this is accomplished, 

 the sods have rotted, to become rich com- 

 post. 



But it is not enough to tamp soil and 

 sods into all the joints. When the wall is 

 finished and afterward planted, the roots 

 find it very difficult to get a start. 

 As there is no way to fasten the 

 plants securely, severe winds and 

 rains are apt to pull them loose, 

 permitting air to get at the roots, 

 or tearing them entirely out of 

 place. The only way is to set 

 them in their permanent places 

 while the wall is building. Then 

 the roots can be properly embedded 

 in soil and stones laid around them 

 will hold them in place. 



When the wall is built up, there 

 should be a hole between the wall 

 and the bank to be retained at 

 least 1 8 inches wide. This should 

 be filled with good soil, well 

 tamped down, to form a "back" 

 for the wall, and a gold mine for 

 such plant roots as penetrate to it. 



If these precautions are fol- 

 lowed, the result should be a 

 handsome wall garden providing 

 it is not more than three feet high. 

 This should not be exceeded with- 

 out special irrigation facilities, 

 except in unusually moist locations. 

 With heavy baths on the upper 

 side of the wall, water will sink 

 down two feet to the plant roots. 

 Watering at the bottom will take 

 care of plants one foot up the side. 

 'In a wall higher than three feet, 

 a special provision must be made 

 for watering the plants in the belt 

 between two feet down from the 

 top and one foot up from the bot- 

 tom. The best way to provide 

 this irrigation is with farm tile. 



When the soil back is being set, a line 

 of tile should be laid to extend the length 

 of the wall two feet below the finished grade. 

 All the joints must be left open. At the 

 ends and at intervals of not more than 

 fifty feet between, a T shape tile should be 

 inserted upside down, and the stems 

 brought up to the finished grade for water 

 inlets. At frequent intervals throughout 

 the growing season, the hose should be 

 played into each of the inlets until the 

 long tile pipe is filled with water, which will 

 seep out between the joints and through 

 the wall to the plant roots. 



A considerable variety of small shrubs 

 and herbaceous plants will thrive in a wall. 

 In making a selection keep in mind the 



particular effect desired. In some places 

 it will be desirable to plant quite bushy 

 things that will grow out some distance 

 from the wall face; in others it will be 

 better to keep the surface flat. Here con- 

 tinuous gay color is the thing; there simple 

 grays and greens are better. As a general 

 principle it is well to have a variety of 

 effects in rather broad masses, letting the 

 bushy plants and more vigorous vines cover 

 for twenty feet or so, then using the smaller 

 plants which leave more of the stone work 

 exposed. The planting next the wall at 

 the top and bottom will help very much to 

 get the desired effect. Vines especially, 

 are important. Do not use the rampant 

 growers where pains has been taken in 



Wall gardening and rock gardening are closely allied. 



in planting 



Copy Nature's methods 



building up the wall with soil, as they will 

 cover everything and the extra care will 

 have been wasted. The one exception, 

 perhaps, is the Roxbury waxwork (Celaslrus 

 articulatus, the Japanese species, is better), 

 which always looks its prettiest when 

 clambering over a stone wall. But this 

 should be sparingly used. 



The best vine for delicate lacy garlands 

 is the biennial Allegheny Vine (Adlumia 

 cirrhosa). As it usually seeds itself, it 

 may be considered among the perennial 

 plants. Bear-berry (Arctostaphylos Uva- 

 ursi) half vine, half shrubby perennial, 

 should be much used. Its fine leaves are 

 evergreen, and in time it will drop streamers 

 three or four feet long down over the rocks. 

 Don't lose patience if it does not succeed 



at once. Sometimes it takes much coaxing. 

 Leucothoe Catesbcei, too, has evergreen 

 leaves of particularly good texture and 

 color, with flowers in March. It grows 

 well in stone work, but likes a protected 

 location anywhere north of New York. 



The evergreen Euonymus radicans and 

 its varieties are too coarse growing for the 

 wall garden. But there is a new Euonymus 

 Kewensis with small leaves of a fine green 

 that keeps neatly in place, and promises to 

 be an acquisition for wall gardeners. 



Among the small shrubby evergreen 

 plants, none is prettier than the sand 

 myrtle (Leiophyllum buxifolium, var. pro- 

 stratum is best), which is covered with 

 diminutive pink flowers in spring and early 

 summer. The Garland Flower 

 (Daphne Cneorum) make a some- 

 what heavier mat of good green 

 with deliciously fragrant masses of 

 strong pink flowers in spring, and 

 scattered blossoms late in the 

 summer. Aaron's Beard [Hyper- 

 icum calycinum) has leathery ever- 

 green leaves which are dark aboA e 

 and whitish underneath with scat- 

 tering flowers all summer. Hyper- 

 icum Buckleyii is smaller and more 

 delicate, making a fine tuft eight 

 or ten inches high, with yellow 

 flowers from July to September. 

 Evergreen candytuft (Iberis sem- 

 pervirens and Tenoriana) accommo- 

 date themselves very well to a wall. 

 Some of the wood mosses do very 

 well between the rocks in shady 

 places, but it is not easy to find 

 them in the nurseries. The little 

 plant Arenaria glabra looks much 

 like a moss, and is very satis- 

 factory. It has white flowers in 

 July and August. 



The low growing evergreen phlox 

 are excellent for wall garden use. 

 Phlox divaricata, a very good light 

 blue; P. subulata, var. alba, white; 

 P. Stellaria, lavender, are perhaps 

 the best. It is well to avoid the 

 old-fashioned moss pink, as it 

 usually turns out a vile magenta. 

 Saponaria ocymoides, var. splendens 

 is an extra good trailing plant, 

 which takes hold quickly and for 

 weeks in June and July is covered 

 with pink flowers. At the same time the 

 best of the small leaved rhododendrons 

 (R. Carolinianum) is in flower of the 

 same shade. They should be used to- 

 gether, as the rhododendron does very well 

 on the rocks. 



The sedums are probably the best known 

 rock plants, and are worthy of their fame. 

 Golden stonecrop (Sedum acre) has yellow 

 flowers in the late spring. S. stoloniferum 

 has reddish leaves, and adjusts itself 

 very quickly and picturesquely to the 

 rocks. S. Sieboldii makes a pleasant 

 accent in the wall. 5. spectabile, the 

 pink stonecrop, is more seen than the 

 others, but is the least desirable, as the 

 pink is too assertive and not particularly 

 good. 



