THE GARDEN COLLECTOR'S CABINET 



T. SHEWARD 



Build the Rock Garden at This Season so That Winter's Action May Settle and Ad- 

 just Soil and Stone Work Ready to Receive Specimen Plants When Spring Comes 



Every layer of soil 

 must be packed to 

 hold firmly 



[HE one possible provision in small space for specimen 

 plants acquired from many places and climes and re- 

 t§> t quiring widely different exposures and conditions, is 

 made by the rock garden; hence it is in one way the 

 most intensive of all forms of garden. Opposed to the limita- 

 tions which such intensive purpose might be expected to 

 impose on the gardener, however, is the 

 fact that the plants which are thus to be 

 given a growing place must have all of 

 the conditions of nature duplicated as 

 nearly as possible, else they will decline 

 to live. Hence the rock garden un- 

 avoidably becomes naturalistic; and the 

 aim should always be to give it the form 

 and the lines and the union with its sur- 

 roundings that nature gives to rocks 

 which she has piled; this even While fol- 

 lowing in its inner construction a carefully 

 detailed plan. 



Let the site for a rock garden be open 

 and free; and before any rocks are placed 

 well dug over and trenched, with leaf soil 

 worked through it. Further soil 

 for the rock pockets will be pre- 

 pared by mixing with 

 ordinary garden soil an 

 equal amount of peat and 

 leaf mold, with enough 

 broken rock to keep it 

 porous. Add to this for' 

 the lime -loving plants 

 mortar rubble and grit 

 or crushed limestone. In placing the rocks slope them in 

 and downward so that the rain will settle toward the roots 

 of the plants, always. Make all plantings in masses and 

 colonies, putting those things that form rosette growth on 

 a slant so that water will not lodge in their crowns in 

 winter and cause them to rot. Sprinkle granite chips over 



^0^WM$' Stones should slope down and in 



always, to catch and hold rain 



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The "Moraine" 



This last word in rock gardening re- 

 quires a sub-surface water supply 



Steps have stone risers set into the 

 Slope with treads all or partly of earth 



the surface of the ground after 

 planting, to prevent undue 

 evaporation in summer and 

 damping off in winter. 



Where space is too limited, or 

 a suitable site is not available 

 for an actual rock garden, a 

 retaining wall may be used as a 

 substitute. This will of course 

 provide only one exposure and 

 will not afford opportunity for 

 growing as wide a variety of 

 plants; nevertheless a 

 great many things can 

 be planted in it that 

 would not grow any- 

 where else. Tilt the 

 first layer of rocks back- 

 ward against the 

 graded slope, packing 



the soil in firmly behind them and against them on their 

 back edges; and with each succeeding layer be sure to 

 do this, else the action of rain and frost will be likely to 

 wash it down and out and bring the entire wall to grief. 



"Moraine gardening" is the most modern refinement of 

 rock gardening and is as yet hardly begun in the American 

 garden. The conditions of a moraine are created by mixing 

 a soil of rock grit, peat and leaf mold together, with an inch 

 of granite chips spread on top to retain the moisture, which is 

 supplied through a perforated pipe buried within. All of 

 this should be laid on a bed of concrete where the soil is very 

 sandy. Set here the plants that grow naturally in moraine 

 situations, i. e. plants liking heat above but water always 

 moving at the roots. 



In these diagrammatic details is a 

 suggestion of the varying slopes and 

 exposures that may be treated or created 

 in building a rock garden 





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