THE ROCK GARDEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 32, 6 August 1936, Page 26

THE ROCK GARDEN

BUILDING A ROCKERY

(By T. W. Attwood.)

"Stone in Nature is never disconnected; each block is always as it were a word in the sentence," writes Reginald Far-rer -in dealing with rock.garden. construction. -'Remember that in-gently, boulder leads to boulder in an ordered sequence. A dump of disconnected rock,:. with discordant forms arid angles, Is mere gibberish, so that you must take < pains to treat your rocks as syllables'; join them carefully up in harmonious' order, and make your . compilation ~a coherent whole. Stone always lies on its'heaviest face, it never towers violently .aloft like a steeple gone mad. In the north (of England) this style of gardening rages among small gardeners, and nothing will grow in these almost pudding

rockeries but common ferns and Welsh poppy."

What is considered one of the finest rock gardens in the British Isles is that at the Edinburgh Botanical Gardens. The writer remembers seeing a series of six. photographs taken after the constructural work was completed but before any plants were set out and judging from Farrer's description as quoted above, we should say it wa= a splendid example; of how not to do it. Rock gardens such ,as Farrer would advocate . might be better termed "natural" rock gardens, such as may be seen at the. Chelsea Show in London in the month of May. Such examples are only possible where expense does not count, or where one has a natural "outcrop" of- rock face already on the spot. Two or three such places exist ,-iTi New Zealand, but seldom do we find these in our gardens, the only' one kno\vn being that in^Mrs. Fleming's garden at Akatarawa.

When all is said and done the object is to make a comfortable home for the, plants, and to, do this the

"pockets" should be made as level as possible, and soil *uch as will satisfy the demands of the plants you wish 10 grow provided; the rest is making the best use of such material as one is able to procure.