CHAPTER V 



THE LAWN AND FLOWER GARDEN 



THE LAWN. 



NO one feature of the outside decoration of the 

 home is of so great importance as the lawn. 

 We may have beautiful buildings, and an 

 abundance of trees and shrubs upon our grounds, but 

 if the grass is poor the place has an unkempt appear- 

 ance. The lawn is the carpet or foreground upon 

 which the various objects of beauty or comfort about 

 the place are arranged. 



To make a perfect lawn easily and cheaply one must 

 have good grass land i.e., a deep, strong loam, clay 

 loam, or clay soil, well underdrained. For the most per- 

 fect growth of lawn grasses the land should be under- 

 drained, if springy, deeply worked, and made rich with 

 stable manure or suitable fertilizers. 



Time for Sowing Seed. 



Upon rich, moist soil, grass seed may be sown upon the 

 lawn at any season of the year with good success, but 

 the spring from April to June, or August and Septem- 

 ber are perhaps the best times for sowing. If the seed 

 starts later than September, during the fall it makes 

 little growth, and the roots not extending deeply dur- 

 ing the winter, the little plants are heaved out and we 

 have a poor catch. Then with late fall seeding, unless 

 the land is well covered with deeply rooted plants, it is 

 likely to wash on sloping surfaces. The natural seeding 



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