Renovating Old Lawns and Making New Ones 
DEFINITE ADVICE FOR ACQUIRING AND MAINTAINING A SMOOTH 
GREEN SWARD—DETAILS OF SOWING SEED, ROLLING AND WATERING 
Curing Bad Lawns 
W HEN your grass plot begins to show 
signs of raggedness and the weeds be¬ 
come hopelessly persistent and unduly vigor¬ 
ous; when the ground is hard and patches of 
moss creep in, it is a warning that the soil is 
out of condition and that it should be restored 
before it is too late. There are many ways to 
do the work, all depending on the existing con¬ 
ditions at the time. For large areas, the 
plough, — and deep ploughing is the solution, — 
with the addition of plenty of manure and 
allowing the land so treated to lie fallow during 
the winter. In the spring it is to be harrowed 
and cross-harrowed, then smoothed off and 
seeded. This, in short, is the story for a large 
place. 
But for small areas such as we find about 
the average home, a general overhauling and 
much disturbance is not popular, and fre¬ 
quently the unwillingness to submit to it 
prevents the needed work being done. 
A way to make the proposition attract¬ 
ive must be found that will get results 
with the minimum of inconvenience. 
The purpose is to get into the soil 
enough fresh loam, with fertilizers, to 
overcome the condition that is causing the 
trouble, and it can be done in this way: 
Pick out the worst spots, and from these 
remove all the weeds, going deep enough 
to insure effective work. Afterwards take 
a heavy crowbar or a piece of “two by 
two” timber pointed at the end, and drive 
it into the ground to a depth of ten inches, 
with the holes one foot apart and well 
opened up. Next, fill these holes with the 
A small piece of sod should be rammed 
into each hole 
amounts to suit. Ram the loam hard into the 
holes flush with the top. Get a few weedless 
sods, and cut them into pieces to fit the holes. 
Pound the pieces of sod into each hole, soak 
with water, and go on to the next spot. 
These pieces of sods will quickly take root, 
and it will be but a very short time before an 
improvement will be noticed. When all the 
very bad places have been renovated in this 
way, procure a half-inch spike, and go over 
the rest of the place by driving this spike into 
the ground to a depth of ten inches. This is 
clone to allow water to get through the hard¬ 
ened soil. 
The work of renovation should be spread 
over a couple of periods, doing half in the 
Spring and finishing in the Fall. Later still the 
ground that has not been given the new loam 
should be attended to. The results will be 
just as satisfactory as if the entire place 
had been dug, and without any inconven¬ 
ience. 
Should the spike alone be used, a bet¬ 
terment will be quickly noticed, but, of 
course, the results will not be as lasting as 
if the manure and loam had been used. 
Where patching by seeding is preferred, 
it must be remembered that the mere 
scratching of the hard ground will not 
make a place where grass will grow, and 
it is very probable that the first few hot 
days will shrivel it up. Before putting in 
the seed loosen up the earth at least four 
inches, afterwards breaking it down very 
fine. Sow the seed, and, after rolling or 
Add new soil in the holes and pound in pieces of 
weedless sod 
Ram the crowbar down hard and open each hole 
well 
n e w material. It 
should be the best 
loam that can be 
had, with which has 
been mixed a liberal 
amount of manure 
that has been re¬ 
duced to an almost 
powdery fineness. 
Sheep manure is 
ideal for this, as it 
is not only effective, 
but it can be pur¬ 
chased in powdered 
form and bagged in 
leveling with the 
back of ' the spade, 
water lightly, but 
regularly. This sort 
of repair work gives 
a spotty effect, with 
slow recovery, but 
satisfactory in time. 
In patching with 
sods, as with seed¬ 
ing, loosen the soil 
deeply and hammer 
the sod into place 
with the back of the 
spade or a rammer. 
Select the bad spots first and use a half-inch spike 
to loosen up the earth 
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