Not so many years ago the rock garden was considered a very specialized and rather “high-hat” type of gardening, suitable only for the large estate, with its corps of trained gardeners.
Today the existence of thousands of attractive rock gardens on small plots bear witness to the fact that the home owner of limited space and means, and doing his own work, can also enjoy the fascinating sport of rock gardening.
Indeed one very marked advantage of a rock garden for the small plot is that it enables the gardener to grow a great variety of plants in a limited space, and still avoid the spotty, “collector’s corner” effect that they would inevitably present if crowded in an ordinary flower bed.
Moreover many of the charming little flowers which are generally known as “rock garden plants” thrive much more vigorously with the conditions of drainage and soil that they find in a well constructed rock garden than they do on a level, open surface where they are constantly beaten down and spotted with mud by heavy rains, and are subject to the competition of stronger growing neighbors.
The rock garden, moreover, may be made a most attractive feature of the general garden scheme as well as a happy home for these little denisons of mountains and high meadows. On many a property the rock garden is the “piece de resistance” which the owner exhibits with pride to friends and neighbors.