The first important consideration in creating a rock garden is the location of it on the property. Its relation to other garden units and garden statuary is very vital. Since this garden reflects more of nature than art, it should be removed from the smooth lawn and formal garden, and linked with the wild garden (of which it is a part) in relation to woodland, water, marsh, or other undressed feature, and yet placed where the soil surface is uneven and where rocks appear to have some geologic reason for location.

Location and construction are primary considerations. Then comes the problem of the plants. Before beginning any making of lists of plants to include, you must realize that rock plants are those which are rarely used in other kinds of gardening and would largely be considered as weeds elsewhere. Some common plants can be grown anywhere by anyone, but real gems of the rock garden are very difficult of culture and have very rigid ideas of conditions under which they intend to thrive.

For Primrose and Gentians, every soil pocket must be especially constructed for the needs of each species; and none of this effort is visible, since each little weed seems to be merely happily placed for good growth. After being planted, this area must be given special care at all seasons, or it soon becomes bare of rock plants and full of weeds. Knowledge of after care will help in proper planning; and skill in construction and real insight into the requirements of each plant for best growth will reduce maintenance greatly; thus this garden will outlive the average.

Theoretically, the rock garden thrives for many years, but often the love for it dies when the garden has gone wrong, and it rarely outlasts the enthusiasm of its owner. Besides common rock gardening, you can include special effects, such as alps, wall gardens, stepping-stone walks, bog gardens, shade gardens, special groupings for season, flower effects, ecology combinations, and definite families or genera of plants.

The planting may be made as elaborate as knowledge of vegetation permits and ability to provide the plants and means to maintain them will allow. There is no end to a rock garden - it is never complete even if every plant thrives wherever it is set out. Without a doubt creating a rock garden is the most fascinating and difficult type of ornamental planting. There is a charm in the unusual surroundings for these plants, a relief from clipped lawn, formal trees, or a well-ordered border.

You should make all possible use of the element of nature and yet all the order and art of man's garden training is also brought to bear upon it. A rough or rocky piece of ground, useless for agriculture, lawn, play area, or any human purpose, becomes the ideal site of a rock garden. What was worthless as real estate now becomes a garden. The vegetation is wholly unlike that of formal or informal plantings. It is a type of its own, from a world apart, supposedly suggesting alpine peaks and barren crags as its home.

Frequently, the smaller the plant, the more it is beloved, and tiny weeds less than an inch high (e. g. Veronica repens) are actually admired from kneeling position. The lure of rock plants is a special cult. The rocks themselves lend an interest, and geology, though secondary, is added to alpine botany. There should be more plant surface than rock area in the finished effect; yet as the garden is bare of flowers many months of the year, the rocks and evergreen foliage are a vital part of the picture.

In a spring garden with a special planting list it is possible to get good bloom in summer and autumn. A rock garden may be built in any climate or country where rocks are available. The mechanical construction does not change, but the list of plants must vary greatly. A ledge of the Grand Canyon bears Cacti and Pentstemons; a cliff in Labrador blooms in Primrose and Saxifrage. Much of our garden practice has followed English climates and methods in attempt to grow the flora of the Alps , but by changing the plants you use, a rock garden can be made wherever you want to place the rocks.