August : Second Week 



MAKING A NEW LAWN; REMAKING AN OLD ONE; 

 PEONIES TO PLANT NOW 



The lawn is the most conspicuous and permanent feature 

 of the place. To avoid future trouble and expense, it should 

 be well made at the beginning. Where the summers are hot 

 and dry the best time to make new lawns or to remake old 

 ones is in August or September, so that the newly started 

 grass will have the benefit of fall rains, and yet have time 

 to become well established before winter. When spring- 

 sown lawns have not been wholly successful they should 

 be tuned up early in the autumn, so they will go into winter 

 in good condition. 



In making a new lawn both the particular conditions that 

 exist in each case, and the probable expense, should be care- 

 fully considered. Any set of directions followed blindly 

 may get one into serious trouble, for varieties of grass and 

 methods of soil preparation that are all right for one place 

 or climate may be all wrong for others. Immediate results 

 are often possible only at considerable cash outlay, espe- 

 cially if the lawn is large. A gradual method of lawn build- 

 ing, giving satisfactory results in the end, would mean a 

 very considerable saving. 



Take, as an illustration, the grounds about a newly built 

 house: The soil, though probably fairly good in latent pos- 

 sibilities, has become run down, is without humus, and is 

 covered with heaps of raw soil thrown out from the cellar 

 excavation. If you could give the landscape gardener free 

 hand he would have all this poor soil removed, together with 

 six inches of unsuitable topsoil and subsoil, and fill in with 

 ashes or gravelly soil for drainage, and good loam. When 

 he was through he would have the foundation for a fine 



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