LAWNS: GRADING AND UPKEEP 65 



CHAPTER V 



LAWNS- GRADING, CONSTRUCTION AND UPKEEP 



No single feature connected with the landscape development 

 of a property is so important as the lawn. We speak here of a lawn 

 principally in the sense of an open grass plot, not in the composite 

 sense of turf and plantings that we often think of when the term 

 "lawn" is used. Possibly the old EngUsh term "greensward" would 

 be a better word to use to describe a lawn in its single meaning, 

 and we may revert to its use occasionally to keep the thought fixed. 



The lawn is the base that we must work on to make a pleasing 

 landscape picture. It is the central feature and requires strict 

 attention to all details. It is the element in landscape gardening 

 that continually lends or takes. It is framed by pleasing shrubbery ■ 

 borders and, in turn, frames lovely vistas. Made perfectly level, 

 and hedged in tightly with border plantings, the whole property 

 looks cramped and contracted. Given gentle slopes and slight de- 

 pressions, and allowed to run off here and there, a feeling of expanse 

 is created. A house set lower than the street level may, by care in 

 the lawn grading, be made to appear much higher than it is. In 

 these and in many other ways does the lawn enter largely into the 

 best landscape development. 



PRELIMINARY PREPARATIONS 



Good greenswards are not often met with, and the majority of 

 failures may be traced to lack of forethought in the making, that is, 

 lack of forethought in the physical construction. Too often soil 

 and seed alone enter into the question and no thought of drainage 

 or future upkeep. Such lawns are never a success and can never 

 be improved unless torn up and a fresh start made. 



Let us look well, then, to a right beginning, so that our finished 

 lawn will be a unison of the proper relation to house, best drainage 

 and construction, proper seeding, and ease of upkeep. In order to 

 do this it is essential that we familiarize ourselves thoroughly with 

 all existing physical conditions before the work is started. 



