There is no other form of gardening can give you more color or charm for less maintenance than rock gardening. The amount of planting in the wall would depend upon the stone used for construction. Where beautiful cut stone is used, the charm lies in the balance of planted face to that of exposed stone. Usually it is 50-50. If the materials are of no special significance the whole wall is covered with plants. Instead of building retaining walls, long slopes can be handled by planting across them to check water flow and stop erosion.

A single or double row of shrubs or evergreens will suffice, as well as putting in a garden fountain. Plantings massed along the margins in curving lines further reduce the open area and checks the water flow in addition to reducing maintenance. Perennials with spreading roots can be added to the shrubs. These include daylily, funkia, yarrow, artemesia and iris.

When planting across a slope, the surplus soil is thrown in a slight ridge back of the shrub area. In this way the water, in addition to being impeded in its flow, is directed into the plants. None is lost. You will find, too, that after a time soil will collect at this point thus adding to the ridge. This form of landscaping corresponds to the agricultural operation of contour planting which is designed to conserve moisture.

The number of planted barriers you place across a slope will depend on the steepness of the grade as well as on the total length of the slope. On the average lot up to 140 ft. deep, one band should be sufficient unless the grade exceeds 24 per cent. The bottom of the slope is treated depending upon whether it ends at a street or merges with another property.

In the latter case another planting like that across the upper slope would suffice. Where it ends in a street or sidewalk, the decision about whether to use plants or build a wall depends upon the conditions existing. The most economical treatment is a hedge or row of shrubs. If the bottom is close to a sidewalk, the hedge or shrubs are set several feet back on the slope and the base planted with a ground cover.

This is double protection against soil washing. The shrubs need not be expensive. Choose those suitable to your region. Among those having a wide range, and inexpensive are Chenault coralberry, snowberry, Jetbead, shrub roses, barberry, spirea and mockorange.

Short banks around the home are a problem. They may result from construction, as when a driveway is cut through a grade leaving one or two low banks. Or a grade drops away to a path, a sidewalk or into the lawn. Some of these are suited to some form of rock gardening. Others must be planted closely with a ground cover, carpeting plants or shrubs. Where water is the problem (as it comes from the house roof cutting gullies in the bank) the only answer may be some methods of construction to conduct the water under the bank to an outlet.

To make both house and garden livable at the seashore, landscaping must solve several problems not found in inland gardens or even in gardens a few hundred yards from the shore. Wind, always a considerable force, dries out young buds, leaves and stems, stunting the plants. You can notice this on trees and shrubs. The sides exposed to the wind look as if they were sheared. Salt spray, carried in, drenches both soil and plants. Though this, strange to say, seems beneficial to many plants, it is injurious to others.

Most of all, there is the problem of moving sand. Extremely fine, it is scooped up from one spot by the wind and deposited in another and it's scouring action tears at tender foliage. Invading unprotected gardens, it collects on terraces or open porches. Dining on these places, unless protected, is difficult. Fine drifting sand gets into food. Nor is the interior of the house entirely free of it. The general and, of course, the quickest means to exclude sand is to build a wall or to set up a solid board fence around three sides of the property.