LAWNS, GLADES AND GARDEN WALKS. 



over with roofing slates or tiles. The latter is only useful in stiff clays and neither are 

 as good as pipes. 



After good drainage comes a good soil. It is often considered wrong to have a Soil for 

 good depth of loam on which to lay the turf or sow the seed, the impression being lawns. 

 that it encourages rank grass. I have seen even a large tennis lawn finished with less 

 than three inches of soil, with the result that in two years it was covered with moss. 

 A lawn, like a meadow, requires to be in good heart, and must have a sufficient depth of 

 soil. To prevent worms, however a layer of sharp clean ashes or coke breeze may be 

 laid under the turf, or, where the lawn is to be sown down, under the top spit of soil. 



Whenever good turf can be obtained, this should be preferred to sowing seed as the Turf for 

 tender grass takes a long time and much mowing and rolling before it forms a really good lawns. 

 lawn, whereas lawns laid with turf and well looked after would be available for games 

 etc., in a year's time or even less. The sods, carefully selected from a good meadow, 

 are lifted with a turf spade in pieces about two feet six inches long and one foot broad, 

 care being taken to cut it thick enough to carry away all the roots and plenty of loam. 

 To prevent damage in handling and to keep it moist, each piece is tightly rolled up 

 for transit and relaid as speedily as possible, when it must be made solid by being well 

 beaten with a turf beater, and occasionally watered if the weather is dry, until it has 

 become somewhat established in its new environment. 



Where turf is not available in sufficient quantities to cover the whole area of the 

 new lawns, it should, if possible, be used for the edges of all walks and for grass banks, 

 and the rest should be sown. Although the latter method takes a considerable period to 

 form a good lawn, it will, in time, be quite equal to one which has been turfed, and 

 even six weeks after it is sown, the tender grass, if sown in the spring, will be green and 

 fresh and pleasant to look upon. 



The following prescription for grass seed is the one which I have found the most Grass seed. 

 generally useful, in the proportions given. 



Cynosurus cristatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Ibs. 



Festuca duriuscula . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4^1bs. 



Festuca ovina tenuifolia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ibs. 



Festuca rubra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Ibs. 



Poa nemoralis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ibs. 



Poa nemoralis sempervirens . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. zfjlbs. 



Poa trivialis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ibs. 



Trifolium fepens . . . . . . . . . . . . ..'... 7 Ibs. 



Trifolium minus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Ibs. 



Dwarf perennial rye grass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Ibs. 



56 Ibs. 



April is perhaps the best month for sowing, though in the Southern Counties it 

 may be done as late as September. The best way of proceeding is to prepare the 

 ground early in Spring, removing all old roots, etc., and forming the surface. This will 

 not only allow time for settlement before sowing, but those troublesome hillocks and hollows 

 which appear after frost can also be dealt with. Every piece of newly turned ground 

 is full of weeds in a few weeks in Spring time, and the work should be done early 

 enough to allow of two crops of weeds being destroyed before sowing and, of course, 

 before they seed. This will give the grass seed a far better chance. 



Before sowing, roll the ground, then lightly scratch the surface with a rake, and 

 after , sowing roll firm and protect with a net or threads of black cotton, and again eradi- 

 cate all weeds as soon as they appear. When the seedlings are some two inches high, 

 roll again, and by no means allow the first cutting to be done with a machine, but with 

 a sharp scythe. Not only does the machine exert an upward pull and so tear and 



Sowing 

 lawns. 



129 



