A PLAN FOR HOME GROUNDS. 38 1 



In producing a good lawn, the first and most important thing 

 is the soil. If one is careless in the preparation of the soil at the 

 beginning, no amount of care afterward will make up for it. The 

 soil should be as free from weeds, roots and stones as it is possible 

 to make it. It should be pulverized deeply, raked fine and heavily 

 manured. Use thoroughly decomposed stable manure. The best 

 lawns of Minnesota are made of nearly pure Kentucky blue grass. 

 A little white clover and red top are sown with it, because they 

 start quickly and blue grass does not; but when the blue grass is 

 once started it usually kills out the clover. Perhaps for this section 

 three bushels of blue grass with five pounds solid red top, and five 

 pounds white clover per acre is as good a mixture as any. Early 

 spring is the best time for sowing the seed because there is plenty 

 of water then, but if water is plentiful so the seed can be kept from 

 dying out, August will be found a good time. The lawn around 

 the house for thirty feet or more should be cut with the lawn mower. 

 The rest of it can be cut with the field mower. 



In a country place, it is a good plan to have as few drives and 

 walks as possible, for they do not add to the beauty of the grounds. 

 Have the drive at the side rather than in front of the house. Let 

 these lead to their destination by the most direct curves. Crooked 

 walks and drives are expensive and too often unsightly and neg- 

 lected. If one is to have any drives or paths in the garden, I like 

 a sod best as it is easy to start, easy to keep in order, and does not 

 require much attention after it is once started. 



Put trees, shrubs, or flowers in the curves as that will give a 

 reason for having the curves where they are. 



In the grounds on my plot there are several groups of 

 flowers and shrubs along the driveway. At the main entrance is a 

 group of Norway spruce. At the entrance toward the house is a 

 bed of annuals. A bed of old-fashioned holyhocks forms an attrac- 

 tive spot at the entrance from the barn to the house. A wild grape 

 arbor is found in one corner of this little plot about the driveway. 

 The arbor is simple and yet a thing of beauty. Those who are famil- 

 iar with the one on these grounds know what a good effect can be 

 obtained with a few poles and a wild grape vine. Elm trees make a 

 pretty shade tree along a drive and do well in Minnesota. 



We cannot always make things as we wish them at once, but 

 we can do a good deal to hide that which is not beautiful. Perhaps 

 there is a board fence on one side of the lawn, or something else 

 just as unsightly. Nature will help make such an object a thing 

 of beauty if a few wild grape vines are set out where they can use 

 the fence, stump or whatever it may be as a trellis. 



