Jan. 1907. J 



33 



HORTICULTURE 



Lawns, Their Making and Upkeep, 



By H. F. Macmillan. 

 (Illustrated.) 



It has been well said that a lawn to a garden is what a background is to a 

 picture. An expanse of smooth and verdant lawn has a charm all its own ; it 

 enhances the beauty of surrounding objects, whether they be trees, shrubs, or 

 flower-beds, and forms an adornment to a bungalow which no other feature can 

 equal. Lawns also contribute to healthy recreation in the popular games of bowls, 

 croquet, &c, and form the most delightful meeting-place for social gatherings. 

 Unfortunately the average garden in this country is limited in extent and cannot 

 afford much space for a lawn, but even the confined compound with its modest plot 

 of smooth green carpet of turf presents a soothing and refreshing effect to the eye, 

 more especially iu the dry hot weather when the surrounding pasture land is 

 generally parched and brown. 



The question of how to make an effective lawn concerns practically every 

 owner of a garden, and seems at first to present not a few difficulties, though as a 

 matter of fact is simple enough. Different methods of forming a lawn may be 

 recommended, according to local circumstances, but whichever plan is adopted it is 

 essential that the ground be first properly prepared. The surface should be thoroughly 

 trenched and uniformly levelled, all stones, roots, &c, raked off ; if the nature 

 of the ground requires it, provision must be made for drainage and for the escape of 

 excessive rain water. Ground that is undulated with a gravelly sub-soil may not 

 require artificial drainage, but if the cost is not prohibitive it is difficult to err on the 

 side of excessive drainage in the tropics. It is important that the soil for a depth of 

 several inches (the deeper the better) should be fairly good, and when this condition 

 is lacking it is certainly advisable to make up the defect by adding soil of better 

 quality, otherwise after-results will be disappointing, the turf being patchy and 

 liable to suffer from the shortest drought. The work should be considered as of a 

 permanent character, in which defects cannot afterwards be satisfactorily remedied. 



Turfing (i.e., laying turf by hand) is the quickest and, for the low country at 

 any rate, generally the most satisfactory method of forming a lawn. Though it has 

 certain objections, either on account of scarcity of suitable turf or prohibitive cost, it 

 is a less precarious method than seed-sowing. The turves should be obtained from 

 close-grazed pasture, being cut as uniform as possible in thickness. It is difficult to do 

 this with the mamoty, but there is an implement]made for the purpose called a turf- 

 cutter. As the turves (which should be used as fresh as possible) are being laid, the 

 soil should be worked in between them to fill up all interstices, a sprinkling of some 

 fine soil being afterwards thrown on the surface and brushed in. The turves being 

 beaten down into position with a flat heavy piece of wood, the whole surface should 

 then be thoroughly rolled over and watered. In the case of a large area, or when turf 

 or labour is scarce, economy of both may be effected by laying the turves a foot or more 

 apart, sinking them level with the surface; seed may be sown in the intervening spaces, 

 and the surface then watered and well-rolled down. Another successful method of 

 forming a lawn is as follows : Having obtained a smooth level surface where the lawn 

 is to be formed, procure roots of a suitable kind of grass (that forming the best turf in 

 one's neighbourhood should be selected), and dibble these in the ground three or four 

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