Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 216, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 September 1915 — Making the Rock Garden. [ARTICLE]

Making the Rock Garden.

The rock garden, to be successful, must be along the lines approved by nature. It must not, in any point, resemble a piece of masonry or other formal construction, says a writer in the Minneapolis Journal. The most satisfactory location for it is at the foot of a gentle slope, where it can climb the declivity and the rocks be given the appearance of jutting out from the hillside. But very excellent results may be achieved on flat surfaces if it is remembered to let the rocks appear to crop out on the surface rather than appear to be placed there for a purpose. The rock garden should have its highest point or beginning at some natural or artificial boundary—a wall, or better still, a clump of trees and shrubbery which will serve to mask its origin. From this vantage point it may extend in a natural way to the limits marked out for it; here an isolated bowlder, here a group of less pretentious stones and again a group of large stones may find room in their pockets for a small tree. The extent may be two or three rods in width at one end and gradually narrow until at the other it becomes an occasional rock on the lawn.