THE 



GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



AND 



HORTICULTURIST. 



DEVOTED TO HORTICULTURE. ARBORICULTURE AND RURAL AFFAIRS. 



Edited by THOMAS MEEHA.N. 



Vol. XXII. 



MAY, 1880. 



Number 257 



Flower Garden and Pleasure Ground. 



SEASONABLE HINTS. 



There are few things more annoying to the 

 good gardener than fall grass in the lawn. 

 Our summer heats are rather hard on the kinds 

 of grass usually employed for lawns, while the 

 hot weather is just what the fall grass likes. 

 Thus it is in a favorable situation to attack just 

 as its enemy is the weakest, and how it conquers 

 everybody knows. In itself it might be tolerated 

 in spite of its dull and rather coarse look, if it 

 were not that after crowding out everything else, 

 it is very dilatory in its appearance in spring. 

 Large brown spots remain till nearly a month 

 after the lawn ought to be lovely, and makes the 

 ugliness of the grass plot almost unbearable^ 

 We read now and then of a cure for fall grass • 

 but all who have had to grapple with it practi- 

 cally know that nothing so far has been success, 

 ful. A few years ago a lawn under our observa- 

 tion was sown with English rye grass. It made 

 a beautiful lawn, but the severe winter of three 

 or four years ago, destroyed it. A good deal of 

 natural grass in the mean time had appeared 

 with the other, chiefly blue grass, and the owner 

 decided to let the lawn take its chance with the 

 natural herbage. With the seeds of rye grass 

 here and there came up plants of the Sheep Fes- 

 cue — Festuca ovina. These have entered the lists 

 against the fall grass, and it is interesting to 



note that it crowds it out little by little whenever 

 it has the chance. We feel almost sure from the 

 observations of last year, that if those who are 

 troubled with fall grass will sow thickly with 

 Sheep Fescue, they will find no mean friend in 

 the effort to get rid of it. 



In regard to general lawn management, mow 

 lawns very early the first mowing, or at every 

 subsequent mowing the lawn will look brown. 

 A thin sprinkling of salt is good for the lawn, 

 just enough salt to see the grains on the surface, 

 about a quarter of an inch apart. An overdose 

 will destroy the grass. Frequent rolling is one 

 of the best ways to get a good close sod. When 

 coarse weeds get in the lawn, hand weeding is 

 the best remedy. 



In planting trees i-ather late in the season, it 

 is often a practice to pour a little lake of water 

 about the roots. We have noted that the losses 

 after this practice are often greater than under 

 any other. Taking up such dead trees, we see 

 why it is. The mud presses down on the upper 

 surface of the roots, but is taken away from 

 beneath them. Indeed the whole under surface 

 beneath the level of the roots is a sort of Mam- 

 moth Cave. In short just one-half the roots are 

 not in contact with the earth, and may as well 

 not be on the plant at all. Indeed as we have 

 often said, if the earth is pounded in about the 

 roots, firm as a rock, shovel by shovel full as 



