WILD GARDENING ON WALLS OR RUINS.
[Illustration: Arenaria balearica, in a hole in wall at Great Tew.]
There are many hundred species of mountain and rock plants which will
thrive much better on an old wall, a ruin, a sunk fence, a sloping
bank of stone, with earth behind, than they do in the most carefully
prepared border, and therefore their culture may be fittingly
considered here, particularly, as once established in such positions
they increase and take care of themselves unaided. Indeed, many an
alpine plant which may have perished in its place in the garden, would
thrive on any old wall near at hand, as, for example, the pretty
Pyrenean Erinus, the silvery Saxifrages of the Alps, pinks like the
Cheddar Pink, established on the walls at Oxford, many Stonecrops and
allied plants, the Aubrietia and Arabis.
A most interesting example of wall gardening is shown on the opposite
page. In the gardens at Great Tew, in Oxfordshire, this exquisite
little alpine plant, which usually roots over the moist surface of
stones, established itself high up on a wall in a small recess, where
half a brick had been displaced. The illustration tells the rest. It is
suggestive, as so many things are, of the numerous plants that may be
grown on walls and such unpromising surfaces.
[Illustration: Cheddar Pink, Saxifrage, and Ferns, on cottage wall at
Mells.]
A mossy old wall, or an old ruin, would afford a position for many
rock–plants which no specially prepared situation could rival; but
even on well–preserved walls we can establish some little beauties,
which year after year will abundantly repay for the slight trouble of
planting or sowing them. Those who have observed how dwarf plants grow
on the tops of mountains, or on elevated stony ground, must have seen
in what unpromising positions many flourish in perfect health—fine
tufts sometimes springing from an almost imperceptible chink in an
arid rock or boulder. They are often stunted and diminutive in such
places, but always more long–lived than when grown vigorously upon
the ground. Now, numbers of alpine plants perish if planted in the
ordinary soil of our gardens, and many do so where much pains is taken
to attend to their wants. This results from over–moisture at the root
in winter, the plant being rendered more susceptible of injury by
our moist green winters inducing it to make a lingering growth. But
it is interesting and useful to know that, by placing many of these
delicate plants where their roots can secure a comparatively dry and
well–drained medium, they remain in perfect health. Many plants from
latitudes a little farther south than our own, and from alpine regions,
may find on walls, rocks, and ruins, that dwarf, ripe, sturdy growth,
stony firmness of root medium, and dryness in winter, which go to form
the very conditions that will grow them in a climate entirely different
from their own.
In many parts of the country it may be said with truth that
opportunities for this phase of gardening do not exist; but in various
districts, such as the Wye and other valleys, there are miles of rock
and rough wall–surface, where the scattering of a few pinches of
Arabis, Aubrietia, Erinus, Acanthus, Saxifrage, Violas, Stonecrops, and
Houseleeks, would give rise to a garden of rock blossoms that would
need no care from the gardener. Growing such splendid alpine plants as
the true Saxifraga longifolia of the Pyrenees on the straight surface
of a wall is quite practicable. I have seen the rarest and largest of
the silvery section grown well on the face of a dry wall: therefore
there need be no doubt as to growing the more common and hardy kinds.
A few seeds of the Cheddar Pink, for example, sown in a mossy or earthy
chink, or even covered with a dust of fine soil, would soon take root,
living for years in a dwarf and perfectly healthful state. The seedling
roots vigorously into the chinks, and gets a hold which it rarely
relaxes. A list of many of the plants which will grow on walls will be
found among the selections near the end of the book.
[Illustration: The Yellow Fumitory on wall (Corydalis lutea).]
[Illustration: Large Japan Sedum (S. spectabile) and Autumn Crocuses in
the Wild Garden.]