o not attempt slavishly to copy the rock garden of some one else. All
the money in the world would not create an exact duplicate for you,
since nature has made no two rocks precisely alike. Study them, of
course; get all the ideas you can. But study first, and most,
nature--more particularly its ways in your own neighborhood. Anywhere
there is abundant opportunity. Take a leaf or two from the book of the
Japanese gardeners. They are past-masters of the art of making rock
gardens, with a bit of water thrown in. They make use of comparatively
few blossoming plants, but their example is invaluable in the
disposition of rocks with simple effectiveness, in the simulation of
height and distance, in the proper employment of turf, and in the
planting of such small trees and shrubs as are suitable for a rock
garden scheme.

Measure carefully the space at command, and then lay out the plan on
cross-ruled paper. Call each of the little squares a square foot and the
labor will be made easy. Next, figure out a good entrance, and, if
possible, an equally good exit--the one invisible from the other. Then
outline the main path, which should be as devious as the situation
allows, and, if byways cannot be added, provide for bays, or more
pronounced recesses. Remember that you are not merely to simulate
nature; you are, by a process of compressing much in little, to
epitomize it.

Then comes the selection of the rocks. Usually the rock close at hand,
perhaps on the very grounds, will answer every purpose. If you are not
fortunate enough to own any, very likely there is more than one townsman
who will be glad to give you all the boulders and smaller rocks that you
want, if you will only remove them from spots where they are not
desired. The cost of removal, even in the case of boulders of fair size,
is not great.

Barring quartz rock, which does not look well, almost any kind of
natural stone may be made use of to the best advantage. Artificial
stone should be shunned like the plague. Limestone and sandstone are
good materials; granite is better. Granite, however, does not stratify,
and if stratified effects are desired, another stone must be selected. A
good plan is to use more than one kind, but to keep them properly apart.
Weather-beaten granite is excellent material, and, in general, it is
well to have the rock look anything but newly quarried. Pick out some
rocks with a growth of lichen on them, and be sure that this is not
distur