A Garden Made on a Rock Ledge E - s - F ^SE^ GTON 
HERBACEOUS BORDERS ESTABLISHED AND EVEN WATER PLANTS SUCCESSFULLY GROWN ON A SITE OF SOLID 
ROCK BY BLASTING OUT POCKETS FOR SOIL, ETC. 
W HEN Mr. William Sherman built 
his all-year house overlooking a 
Massachusetts bay, he had to blast 
out every foot of the cellar excava- 
tion. When he came to make his garden he 
found that every inch of his lot was underlaid 
with a solid ledge a hundred feet or more 
deep. Could anything have been less prom- 
ising? Yet the Sherman gardens have be- 
come so charming that they are famous in a 
local way. 
There being rocks everywhere, Mr. Sher- 
man simply made them the basis of his gar- 
dening scheme. What most people would 
have considered an insuperable obstacle, he 
found to be an asset. In other words, he 
turned his whole place into a rock garden, 
with a lily pool as its central and crowning 
feature. To begin with, the lot, which is 150 
feet deep with a frontage of 83 feet, was com- 
pletely covered with Blueberry bushes and 
Horse Briers, whigh had found enough thin soil 
on the surface and in the rock crevices to cover 
their roots. 
When this tangle had been cleared away, 
it was found that the ledge made a long slope 
at the back of the lot from one side to the 
other. A certain amount of leveling was done, 
Hardy Waterlilies flourish in this artificial pool on a ledge 
of rock 
much larger and more elaborate pool was 
soon planned. This second pool was made 
on the top of a long sloping rock that pro- 
jected itself above the ground well toward 
the rear of the lot and had always been very 
much in evidence. It required a man with 
imagination to visualize that piece of granite 
transformed into a beautiful pool of still 
water, but the transformation was made and 
wholly by the labor of Mr. Sherman and his 
two sons. Of course it required more than a 
snap of the finger and a “Presto, change” act. 
It necessitated the building of a concrete 
wall three feet high and a foot across the 
top for one thing, and that was done with the 
aid of boards set up on the rock for a mould. 
In order to create a more natural effect on the 
side nearest the house a number of large 
stones were set up and cemented together. 
At the upper end only a few small stones were 
needed, because of the ledge’s slope. 
When the pond had been finished it was 25 
feet long and about 15 feet across at the widest 
point, but was quite irregular in outline, as 
it conformed to the shape of the boulder on 
which it was built. It was fully two feet deep 
at the lower end, but only six inches at the 
end opposite. Prepared soil was placed in one 
part of the pool and a few Lilies planted in it. 
The other Lilies are grown in tubs, which are 
taken into the basement of the house in the 
fall, although only hardy Lilies are used. 
The soil for the tubs and that in the pool 
comes from a compost heap in a rear corner of 
the yard, mixed with well rotted stable manure 
and sand. The Lilies planted in this soil grow 
with the greatest luxuriance and great numbers 
of plants have to be removed every year to 
keep the pool from becoming overcrowded. 
Among the best sorts grown are Nymphaea 
W. B. Shaw, pink; N. Marhacea chromatella, 
yellow; and N. Marliacea rosea, rose-pink. 
There are masses of Lotus at one side and 
behind them a bed of Cattails, which grow 
both in and out of the water and are perfectly 
at home in spite of the seeming anomaly found 
in the growing of bog plants on a hillside ledge. 
Just where the Cattails came from Mr. 
Sherman does not know. He had desired 
some of these plants for several years, but had 
never obtained any so far as he was aware. 
Yet one year they came up in the most nat- 
ural sort of way and made “cats” the next 
season in profusion. The explanation must 
lie in the fact that it is a common practice for 
Mr. Sherman to go into the woods and marshes 
and bring home wild plants which he sets out 
along the water’s edge. Among some of these 
plants there must have been roots of the Cat- 
tail, although no plants were to be seen. 
When the sun shines on the pool in mid- 
summer, the water is brilliant with gold fish. 
There were ten of these fish to begin with; 
now there are at least a hundred. Across the 
shallow upper end of the pool Mr. Sherman 
has made a miniature wall with small stones 
and into the retreat thus created, the gold 
fish come to spawn. Afterward they are 
driven out and kept excluded until the spawn 
have developed into little fish and these fish 
have attained a length of half an inch. It is 
not until then that the danger of cannibalism 
on the part of the older fish is over. As it is, 
there is considerable loss each year, and yet 
the fish multiply fast enough to keep the 
two pools well stocked. I say two pools, 
for the smaller one was not given up when its 
bigger neighbor came into being. Both are 
kept filled with Lilies and are a delight all sum- 
mer long. They are filled with a hose as 
may be necessary, but the water is seldom 
Surely not one’s conception of a garden site! But look at 
the other pictures 
with a little blasting at one 
corner, but it was some 
time before the possibilities 
of the place began to shape 
themselves in the owner’s 
mind. Almost at the be- 
ginning, however, he made a 
little bird bath near the 
house by stopping up one 
end of a crevice between two 
rocks, and filling it with the 
hose. Soon robins, blue- 
birds and other feathered 
visitors began to come in 
large numbers, and as many 
as 25 birds have been 
counted in the yard atone 
time. 
The next season another 
natural hollow, but a larger 
one, was utilized to create 
a lily pool, which proved 
such a delight that a 
drawn off, and the gold fish 
prevent the breeding of 
mosquitoes. The Lilies 
planted in the larger pool 
and the gold fish winter 
outside without loss. Al- 
together these water gar- 
dens are most satisfactory. 
Water plants, however, 
are not depended upon for 
flowers to the exclusion of 
other kinds. On the con- 
trary, the whole lot is bright 
with blossoms, except for a 
narrow lawn that has been 
made just back of the house 
and on the sides. By haul- 
ing in some loam and utiliz- 
ing the thin surface cover- 
ing already there, much of 
the ledge has been hidden 
from view, but here and 
there great boulders poke 
