THE LAWN: MAKING AND 

 MANAGEMENT 



FEW gardens are without grass of some kind. To call this 

 " grass " in all cases a lawn is incorrect. Many lawns are 

 patches of bad turf, but every one appreciates the close, 

 deep green " velvet pile " that good seed and good manage- 

 ment will give. 



In Forming a New Lawn the ground must be carefully 

 prepared. An open, level piece is preferable, but where this 

 is not obtainable the soil must be removed from the highest to 

 the lowest parts until the surface is quite level. If the ground 

 is wet and retentive, drain pipes three inches in diameter 

 should be laid in two and a half feet deep, each row of pipes 

 being twelve feet apart. These will carry off the surface 

 water. The pipes must have a gentle fall, and be connected 

 with a cross main drain with a safe outlet. 



The ground must be well dug to 'a depth of eighteen inches 

 or two feet, and if poor, enriched with well-decayed farmyard 

 manure. Digging completed, tread and rake the surface, 

 finally well rolling it to make it firm. Where the natural soil 

 is not of sufficient depth more must be added, and it should 

 be wheeled, not " carted," on to the plot, as the cart wheels 

 make hard ruts, and where the soil subsides an uneven surface 

 is left. Planks should be laid down for wheeling on. The 

 surface soil to a depth of three or four inches should be of a 

 rather fine character, as the seed germinates more quickly 

 and the grass gets a better start in such a medium than in one 

 of an opposite nature. The quickest and probably the best 

 means of securing a good lawn is by covering the plot with 

 grass sods, but unless they are of first-rate quality, the more 

 common method of sowing lawn grass seed should be resorted 

 to. The sods may be laid down any time during fine weather 

 from October to April ; if laid later, they are apt to suffer from 

 drought during a dry spring. From one and a half to two 

 inches is a good thickness for the turves, and they should be 

 laid close together, and afterwards well rolled at intervals 

 throughout the winter preferably after copious rains. If all 

 goes well, the grass will commence to grow freely in April, 



