THE GARDEN WEEK BY WEEK 



Jan. are reclaiming damaged pitches all the summer 

 16-31 through. 



To placate the seedsmen, I am very willing to admit 

 that seeds make nice lawns under particular circumstances, 

 but you cannot sow seed over as long a period as you 

 can lay turves, and you have to be very thorough in two 

 things — to clean the ground, and to keep off birds. With 

 all your care the result may not be satisfactory if bad 

 weather follows the sowing. Soil chilled by cold, sleety 

 rains in spring is not favourable to the germination of 

 grass seeds; but it is a fact worth noting that weed seeds 

 will grow, and they get a start of the grass which the 

 latter is long in catching up, to say nothing of the labour 

 of weeding. 



The normal seasons for sowing grass seeds are (i) 

 mid-March to mid-May ; (2) September. So far as the 

 first is concerned, experience teaches me that in districts 

 where cold springs prevail May is quite early enough. 

 The longer the seed lies in the ground ungerminated, 

 the more prolonged is the battle with the birds, which 

 love grass seeds. But May sowing does not give much 

 chance of a thick, firm sward the same year. Three- 

 quarters of a pound of seed per square rod is a fair 

 allowance. 



A playing lawn, whether for tennis, croquet, or Bad- 

 minton (but particularly for tennis, which is a more 

 forceful game than either of the others), ought, I think, 

 to be made of turves. The soil, if poor, needs to be 

 dug and manured, but all the same it must be firm, or 

 the grass will sink in places and holes be formed. It 

 takes longer to lay turves than to sow seeds, but the 

 task is not a very long one, provided the turves are 

 carefully cut, so as to be not only of the same size, but 

 of the same thickness. If they are not of the same size 

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