FERN ROCKERY 
75 
tants of llmt world cannot- live without the genial influence 
of sunshine. But Ferns court shady corners, rejoice in quiet 
gloom, and gladly occupy the places shunned by the gayer 
inhabitants of the sunny regions. 
As it will be mostly in shady corners rather than in shady 
garden glades that Ferns will be placed, let us first see how 
a fern rockery should be constructed which is destined to 
fill up either the angle formed by the meeting of two walls 
or by a single Avail and the ground. In both cases the Avails 
or Avail Avill constitute a support — to two sides or to one side, 
as the case may be — of -the rockery. The first operation 
necessary at the commencement Avill be the preparation of 
the site for the rockery. If the surface soil be too light or 
porous, it Avill be necessary to remove it to a depth of a foot 
or so, and fill in the space Avith good stiff loam. Upon this 
at the farthest outer edge of the proposed rockery, the largest 
blocks of stone should be laid. More earth should be tilled 
into what will now be the enclosure between the outer circle 
of stone blocks and the Avail. Then a second circle of blocks 
next the outer circle, but nearer the Avail, should be laid 
doAvn. Earth should again be filled in at the back, and the 
process should be continued upAvards and backwards towards 
the Avail, the smaller blocks, as a rule, being used for the 
higher tiers, until the Avail is reached. Care must be taken 
not to give the stones thus arranged in tiers one above the 
other a prim appearance. They should be placed irregularly, 
so as to present a variety of aspects, and the levels on each 
irregular tier should slope slightly backwards or toAvards the 
Avail, so that when rain or Avater from the garden-hose or 
Avatering-pot falls upon the rockery, it may not run off in 
the direction of an incline over the face of the rockery, but 
may sink into and thoroughly penetrate it. The secret of 
many a failure in the attempt to grow plants on a rockery, 
lies in the fact that the structure has been built like a cone, 
