291 
Rockery and Alpine Garden . 
this work in the autumn and let the winter’s rains settle it as it is done, or the 
hose can be turned on with good effect; for remember that earth settled by 
water is much more natural than when pressed in dry with the foot or a 
rammer. See also that all the chinks and crannies are filled up ; as when a 
plant is placed with its roots just over a hollow, death ensues sooner or later. 
When the terraces are completed, it is a simple matter to arrange pockets here 
and there for such soils as may be wanted; for example, one spot can be made 
up of all loam, another all peat, a third made sandy, and a fourth calcareous, 
for such plants as may require these various soils, and yet the one need in no 
way interfere with another. 
In the diagram sections the idea is shown of dealing with the normal 
suburban garden plot as already referred to. In addition to the rockwork just 
described, it is not only possible but easy to quite mask an uninteresting wall 
or even a fence, and get a most pleasing result. The ubiquitous dustbin, too, 
can be hidden in the manner shown in the cut. Of course the amount of 
rock required for a whole garden, even if a small one, would be great, and the 
labour, perhaps, even more so; but the results would be most gratifying, and 
the enormous number of plants of a most beautiful kind that could be suc¬ 
cessfully grown would astonish anyone ; for with good well-drained terraces 
and ledges like these, proper soil and a little attention, many of the rarest and 
most beautiful alpines will flourish as well in the suburbs of a town as on their 
native mountains. 
Another very pretty way of dealing with an alpine garden is to entirely do 
away with the straight gravel paths and substitute for them winding rock 
paths, with steps here and there for descending the little valley or ascending 
to the higher parts of the rock garden. The gravel can be utilised for 
making concrete, and a capital resemblance to natural conglomerate rock 
thereby produced. 
Suppose it is not desirable, or possible, to mask the whole of the boundary 
wall or fence with rock terraces, but only partially so, then the rest should be 
covered with some dense growing climbers; but nothing is really so incon¬ 
gruous in an otherwise tastefully laid out garden than the orthodox ugly bare 
fence or wall. Perhaps the most difficult question in this matter of an alpine 
garden in a suburban plot is that of soil. In most places there is certainly 
some vegetable mould, but in others the soil is a stiff, cold, unworkable clay, 
and very disappointing stuff it is. Much can be done with this by mingling 
it with ashes and putting it up in ridges during frost, so as to get it broken up 
