THE GARDEN PRIMER 



ordinary garden will thrive in the unusual conditions 

 which special places present. The rockeries" which 

 men make ordinarily — those monstrosities of piled-up 

 stones, gracing (?) a corner or the center of a lawn — are 

 no more suitable for the growth of naturally rock-loving 

 plants than the heart of the woods is suitable for growing 

 green corn. Think how unhappy the wild, free, shy 

 things from the mountain must be in such a spot — as 

 bad as the animals in a zoo! You do not believe that 

 plants can be unhappy ? Well — I do. 



Rockeries — or preferably, rock gardens — should 

 be of necessity, not of choice. Where the only space 

 available for gardening is boulder land, sparsely covered 

 with earth in places — in crannies and pockets and de- 

 pressions — and altogether bare in places, where trees 

 cling by long, strong roots that clutch at the stone, find- 

 ing every cranny and pocket and working their tenacious 

 way into it, there is the place for a rock garden — there is 

 a rock garden, willy-nilly. Or where a bed of stones — 

 round stones and odd shaped, of varying sizes — mark 

 the course of some long-forgotten stream, here again is 

 a rock garden — of a different character to be sure, but 

 nevertheless a rock garden and nothing else. 



Ground that is like a sponge, oozing water at every 

 step, from springs that rise beneath it, is so difficult 

 to imitate that artificial ''boggeries" (thank fortune!) 

 are unknown. And usually such ground is avoided by 

 all those who have a choice given them — ^but some there 

 be who have it thrust upon them. These are rather 

 discouraged mortals — and small wonder if they have 



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