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THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



The Art of Lawn Making 



T^OUR things are required to make a good 

 A lawn: time, soil, climate and intelli- 

 ■gent labor. In England, the)' have a saying 

 that it requires a hundred years to make a 

 lawn, and two hundred years to make a good 

 lawn. In this country, where we are trying 

 to make suburban homes while you wait, 

 and where a month or two seems a very 

 long time, people are too impatient. It 

 speaks well for their ambition that they want 

 lawns as soon as they move into their houses, 

 tout they are really expecting too much. At 

 the very best, it requires no less than three 

 years to make a presentable lawn, and five 

 or ten years to make what we uncritical 

 Americans call a good lawn. 



Many lawns fail for lack of soil. It is 

 well known that our dwelling-houses are 

 often built in most unlikely places. Build- 

 ing lots are old excavations or "fills." 

 It is too much to expect to found a good 

 lawn on a geological formation of empty 

 tomato cans. A rejected dump of coal- 

 ashes is not a favorable site. Even an 

 ordinary sand-bank cannot be transmuted 

 into a good lawn — at least, not without great 

 •expense of time, labor and money. Many 

 suburban lawns are disappointing for this 

 fundamental reason. In many cases good 

 .soil must be brought in. 



MAKING A NEW LAWN 



If the soil has to be brought in, it should 

 De fairly stiff, though well drained. A good 

 preparation of clay with just enough humus 

 to give it life gives the best results. Sand is 

 to be avoided. 



Whatever the nature of the soil, it must be 

 deeply stirred, partly because it will need 

 good drainage and partly because a lawn 

 cannot be replowed frequently after it is 

 ■established. If the drainage is not perfect, 

 it will be well to put in stone or tile drains, 

 although there is some danger of their being 

 choked with the roots of weeds. 



The surface of the lawn should be very 

 carefully prepared, both with regard to the 

 artistic effect of the curves of the surface, 

 .and with regard to the seed-bed furnished 

 by the top-soil. It should be fine, friable, 

 warm, and adapted to germinating seeds 

 •auicklv. 



The lawn should be sown in early spring — 

 the earlier the better. An abundance of 

 seed should be used. The best lawns in 

 middle latitudes are made of June grass, 

 ■sometimes known as Kentucky blue grass. 

 In Southern States, the Bermuda grass is 

 "best. This often gives a fairlv good lawn. 



though inferior to the June grass. June 

 grass should be sown at the rate of three 

 bushels to the acre, often more. Four 

 bushels will not hurt. Bermuda grass should 

 be sown at the rate of fifteen pounds to the 

 acre. Seedsmen offer for sale various lawn 

 grass mixtures, all of which are good, provid- 

 ing they are made up of good seed. Still 

 none of them is better than pure June grass, 

 at least for most conditions. Unfortunately, 

 some of the less scrupulous dealers dump 

 their refuse grass seed into their lawn-grass 

 mixtures. If any one prefers to use a mix- 

 ture of grass seed, he may as well make it 

 himself. The following formula will be 

 satisfactory in most places: June grass, three 

 bushels; red top, one bushel; timothy, three 

 quarts; and white clover, two quarts. 



There are nearly always patches which do 

 not catch well at the first sowing. Resowings 

 may be made two or three times during the 

 first year, choosing cool rainy weather for the 

 work. Similar resowings under certain cir- 

 cumstances will probably be required for 

 two or three years. Even when a lawn has 

 been established for many years it some- 

 times becomes dead in patches during very 

 dry summers. 



The lawn should be liberally fed. It 

 should be well fertilized when it is sown, or 

 preferably the fall before. So far as the best 

 plant food is concerned, there can be no 

 doubt but that well-rotted stable manure is 

 best. It has this drawback, however — it is 

 likely to be contaminated with weed seeds. 

 On this account chemical fertilizers are 

 largely used. These must be strong in nitro- 

 gen. Many dozen of these are prepared and 

 sold by the leading dealers in fertilizing chem- 

 icals. The rule should be to use these liber- 

 ally. See the Fertilizer Department for 

 formulas adapted to the lawn. 



REPAIRING OLD LAWNS 



There are thousands of people in this 

 country who have lawns already fairly estab- 

 lished that need frequent and more or less 

 expensive repairs. Some of them show 

 yellow patches, where grass is often absent, 

 and some are badly infested with weeds. 

 The majority of cases are hopeless, and the 

 most effective thing would be to plow up the 

 entire lawn and begin again. In some cases 

 this treatment can be limited to the worst 

 spots in the lawn. If the soil is in good con- 

 dition, fairly good results can be secured by 

 scarifying the surface deeply with a sharp 

 rake. On larger law-ns such places may be 

 gone over with a spading harrow. It is a 

 good plan to accompany all such sowing with 

 a liberal top-dressing of well-rotted barnyard 

 manure, or with the nitrogenous fertilizers 

 already mentioned. 



A LAWN FULL OF WEEDS 



The best way to get rid of weeds is to 

 crowd them out with grass. A first-rate 

 lawn will overcome all intruders, except 

 dandelion and plantain. This means, of 

 course, when the fundamental conditions 

 discussed above are complied with. The 

 frequent use of a good lawn mower is one of 

 the best means of discouraging weeds. The 

 application of lime or land plaster to soils 

 w-hich have a tendency to be acid encourages 

 the growth of grass. In certain cases, how- 

 ever, when everything has been done aright, 

 some weeds will persist, especially plantain 

 and dandelion. The only thing to be done 

 in such cases is to pull them out by hand. 

 This work is expensive, though it sometimes 

 proves much cheaper than was expected. At 

 any rate, a good lawn is worth the price, and 

 there is no other way. 



126. This picture was laKen len days after the one at the top of the page, and indicates me improvement 

 made by digging out dandelions by hand. A lawn full of dandelions should be plowed up 



