HOUSE AND GARDEN 
October, 
1909 
The very hopelessness of changing things where great boulders 
and shelves of solid rock thrust themselves up through the earth 
prevents the possessors of such land usually from even trying. 
They are convinced from the beginning that nothing will grow, so 
what’s the use? That is, they are apt to be thus convinced if they 
are unfamiliar with plants. 
There are a great many things that will grow—not what 
is seen in common gardens to be sure, but isn’t that in their 
favor? Distinctly rock-loving plants must have the conditions 
which they like, and these cannot be supplied them everywhere. 
You are fortunate if your location affords them. Such species 
are spoken of sometimes as “alpines,” but this is incorrect. True 
alpines are too difficult for the amateur to attempt to grow, as 
they are at home only above the line where trees and shrubs cease, 
high up in the mountains. Make your selection from the long 
list of rock-loving plants that do not need the high altitude— - 
the simple, easily grown, hardy and charming things which almost 
any good nursery carries in stock. These, with suitable ferns 
and mosses which you may find already growing among the 
rocks, will supply the needs of such a situation completely. 
The arrangement of such a garden should of course conform 
to Nature’s grouping; there should be no attempt at precision, 
either among the plants or in the walks or paths, and the look of 
extreme tidiness which spoils everything but the most fo.mal 
plan, should be avoided like the plague. Keep out the weeds, but 
■don’t bother about stray wildlings that may take up their abode 
among your treasures. There is as much beauty in common 
toad flax as there is in many highly prized aristocrats of the 
flowery kingdom — and long feathery grasses are more in keeping 
with rock or wild gardening than close cut, trim turf; likewise 
edges should never be sharply defined nor trimmed. 
Stony land requires 
rather more considera¬ 
tion in the planting than 
in the planning, and is 
therefore outside the 
scope of this article 
which has to do with 
planning. There is one 
“don’t,” however, for 
stony land and that is, 
don't attempt anything 
formal. The stones are 
thicker in some places 
than in others and will 
not allow the same 
amount of moisture to 
reach each plant. Con¬ 
sequently the plants will 
not grow at an even 
rate — which they simply 
must do in a formal de¬ 
sign. - 
Of the bog garden on 
wet land I have already 
told. If there is so 
much water that it lays 
on the surface constantly, 
it is better to dig out 
enough earth at the low¬ 
est point to make a pool, 
even though it is a very 
small one. You will be 
giving the birds a bath¬ 
ing place and yourself 
an opportunity to grow 
one or two real aquatics. 
as well as the other things which love dampness, though they 
do not actually live in water. 
If this pool can be located in the open where it can catch the 
sunlight, have it there by all means rather than in the shade. 
There is very apt to be gloom about a shaded bit of water that is 
depressing, but water in the sunlight has just the opposite effect —- 
and cheeriness is essential to the success of any sort of garden. 
Stock the pool with a few goldfish, or something more ordin¬ 
ary if these cannot be had, to keep the mosquito larvre down— 
and you will have a garden at a quarter the cost, both in labor and 
money, that will be ten times more interesting than the conven¬ 
tional lawn could possibly be, in that particular location. 
Uncleared land, full of rank underbrush and wild growths, is 
not common, because one of the first things that an up-to-date 
development company does is clear away every scrap of growing 
thing. Even the trees are not always spared. But now and then 
one does come across such a plot and it is a great piece of good 
fortune, if handled properly. Leave the wild growth along its 
boundaries and let it form the backing for whatever shrubs you 
may wish to plant, instead of mowing down and digging out every 
thing on the place. Many times there are shrubs which, left to 
grow, will develop into as fine specimens as anything you may 
buy—and the advantage of having them native is immense. 
Common elder is much used in shrubbery borders by the best 
landscape architects, also sumach which grows so freely wild. 
Cornels and viburnums between them furnish more — and more 
pleasing — varieties for general landscape work than any other 
two species in the world, and both are to be found in almost any 
patch of woods or underbrush. Woodbine clambers about lux¬ 
uriantly very often, over all the rest — one should learn to distin¬ 
guish it from its undesirable relative, the poison ivy, however; 
