LAWNS 



THEIR MAKING, MAINTAINING AND 

 RENOVATION 



It has been well said that the Lawn is the heart of a British garden, 

 and he who has lived abroad and experienced how impossible it is 

 to maintain there any good turf is quick to recognize, and appreciate 

 at its true worth, the importance and charm of a well-kept grass-plat. 

 There is about it a certain freedom and freshness, a vigour and 

 stability, which impart a delightful sense of breadth and homeliness, 

 so that a garden without a lawn seems not only cramped and arid but 

 strange and alien. Most of us must have seen — and revelled in the 

 mere sight — the beautiful, smooth-cut, velvety sward of the " backs " 

 of Cambridge, the very perfection of cultivated turf, and perhaps have 

 sighed at the futihty of attempting to rival it in our own garden. 

 But though lawns may doubtless be reckoned among those things 

 that are best when old, no one, with the resources now at hand, 

 need despair of making a good lawn in a short time. 



For those who are in a hurry and must have a lawn ready-made, 

 so to speak, the practice of putting down turves cut 

 from a pasture has somewhat to recommend it, the t*!Jn'°c'^'5^ 

 chief objection being that it is very difficult to obtain " '^ ^^ 

 grass which is not full of weeds. To the casual glance, when viewed 

 in a field, it may look suitable enough, but no sooner is it laid down 

 and become established as a lawn than it reveals itself as mixed with 

 an immense number of weeds, the eradication of which entails much 

 arduous labour. Unless, therefore, it be possible to obtain reaUy 

 good turf for lasting down, it is better, and far cheaper, to make a 

 lawn from seed, which, if it be purchased from a seedsman of 

 repute, such as Carter of London, or Sutton of Reading, has 

 the double advantage of being free from weeds and obtain- 

 able in different mixtures suited to the soil and position of the 

 intended lawn. 



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