THROUGH THE YEAR IN A GARDEN 213 



up when they need it, making little "tunnels" 

 to the plant roots so water may reach these. 

 A good plan is to remove a couple of inches of 

 soil from around the choice shrubs and after 

 watering until the soil will soak up no more 

 moisture, to replace that which we have taken 

 out, crumbling it fine and letting it act as a 

 mulch. 



Some of September's blistering days (days 

 that do make us forget the cool sound of the 

 month's name and that it is not still midsum- 

 mer), are often discouraging to lawn-makers. 

 But one need not despair if a goodly water sup- 

 ply and hose are available. Just sprinkling 

 the lawn actually does more harm than good. 

 The kindly intentioned who sprinkle the lawn 

 for five minutes every day probably wonder 

 why the grass still sizzles up! The point to 

 bear in mind is that lawns need to be drenched. 

 They require many and frequent thorough 

 wettings, although one must be careful not to 

 rip up places in the sod by turning the stream 

 of water from the hose nozzle directly upon 

 the grass plot. The nozzle should be so 

 manipulated that the water will drop from it 

 in the manner of falling rain. 



