The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

American Rock Gardens

Considerations

IN debating whether or not to add a rock planting to our garden equipment, there are many things to be decided. Of course such a garden is popular and has many inducements to offer. But there are definite problems to be faced before the rocks and plants are ordered.

First, there is the expense. Except for formal gardens where heavy grading is undertaken, no kind of garden is so expensive as this in construction or operation. Like many simple effects in other arts, they are not created casually, but at great mental pains and mechanical effort. For a reproduction of nature it seems disproportionately costly, though some are built and maintained with little difficulty. If not constructed with careful planning and proper materials, the rock garden soon goes back to nature (weeds), and the area becomes more unsightly than when in its natural state. There is an actual price to be paid for every rock garden— can you meet it?

A special knowledge of plants and materials is needed for this garden, not only in construction, but in operation. While a man with crude tools can build a hut for a night's shelter, he would not attempt a permanent home with the same equipment. The building of this special garden takes more skill than would seem possible, and the few good examples testify how infrequently the needed technique was at hand. Not only is the planning technical, but laborers who can carry out the work are rare; for a man who can use a spade or set out cabbages is not trained enough to follow instructions. The great puzzle of rock planting is that it requires methods and achieves results quite unlike normal gardening. Much of usual gardening craft must be forgotten.

With the warning that unusual skill and unforeseen expense are a part of the construction, we are ready for practical problems. The first is location. Many rock piles seem shot anywhere in the smooth lawn and are inhabited mostly by weeds. As a presentation of nature, this would seem to outrage both nature and art. If this garden cannot be made to appear to some degree at home in its surroundings, it would be better were the spot smooth lawn, a pool, a group of trees, or any normal kind of culture. If no rocks exist there, it would be folly, as a rule, to drag them in.