Making a Lawn.

by Luke Joseph Doogue.

_THE HOUSE & GARDEN MAKING BOOKS_

It is the intention of the publishers to make this series of little volumes, of which _Making a Lawn_ is one, a complete library of authoritative and well ill.u.s.trated handbooks dealing with the activities of the home-maker and amateur gardener. Text, pictures and diagrams will, in each respective book, aim to make perfectly clear the possibility of having, and the means of having, some of the more important features of a modern country or suburban home. Among the t.i.tles already issued or planned for early publication are the following: _Making a Rose Garden_; _Making a Tennis Court_; _Making a Garden Bloom This Year_; _Making a Fireplace_; _Making Roads and Paths_; _Making a Poultry House_; _Making a Hotbed and Coldframe_; _Making Built-in Bookcases, Shelves and Seats_; _Making a Rock Garden_; _Making a Water Garden_; _Making a Perennial Border_; _Making a Shrubbery Group_; _Making a Naturalized Bulb Garden_; with others to be announced later.

Making a Lawn

THE SMALL LAWN, OLD AND NEW

To the thousands of anxious inquirers, seeking solution of lawn difficulties, it would be more than delightful to say that a fine lawn could be had by very hard wishing, but honesty compels one to change the words "hard wishing" to "hard work," in order to keep strictly within the truth. A well-made lawn is a testimonial to a hustler, whether the area is small or large.

The majority of inquiries about lawn needs come from people having small places, from a few hundred to a few thousand feet, and the symptoms described can be divided into two cla.s.ses: one where they want to make gra.s.s grow where it has never grown before, and the other where the call is for information to a.s.sist in restoring old lawns that have petered out. Let us take up the last condition first.

Where gra.s.s has grown for some years it is conclusive evidence that there must be soil beneath, which, perhaps because of neglect, has ceased to supply the nourishment necessary to maintain the vigor of the sod growing upon it. As a consequence, weeds gradually creep in and finally crowd out every blade of gra.s.s.

A condition like this is easily remedied and an improvement brought about in short order and at very small expense.

In the first place make a general clearing up of the weeds and do it as thoroughly as possible. Take them out with a strong knife, cutting deep into the ground. An asparagus knife is the best for this purpose.

If the place under treatment were to be spaded up, this weed-cleaning with the knife would not be necessary, but the object in this instance is to disturb the soil as little as possible.

With the weeds out of the way, go over the whole place with a sharp rake and scratch the earth to the depth of half an inch. In doing this remember to be not too severe on spots where there is any gra.s.s growing, applying the rake lightly here. After the raking, sow gra.s.s seed thickly and evenly, raking it in, and finish by watering and rolling. Be sure to roll heavily, water regularly, and good results will surely come.

This, in brief, is the most practical way to treat the conditions described.

If, however, you should find that the ground shows patches of moss and sorrel, the treatment just suggested will not apply. The land is probably sour, and should be plowed up, limed, and allowed to lay rough all winter. Use about a bushel and a half of air-slaked lime to every thousand square feet.

When the object is to make a lawn where there never has been one, the plow or the spade is the most effective weapon.

It must be kept in mind that gra.s.s on a lawn is a great feeder, and no soil can be made too rich to supply its food requirements. A lawn is a permanent planting, not something that is to last merely for a season.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Here is an interesting and ingenious scheme of getting a path over the lawn without increasing the labor of cutting. The stepping-stones are set flush with the ground]

Start this work of preparation for a new lawn in the fall. Spade the land to the depth of two feet, or, better still, run a plow through it, if the size of the place warrants. Work in plenty of well-rotted manure, and during the winter the frost and snow will greatly improve conditions, killing the weeds, and mellowing the soil as nothing else can.

In the spring, harrow and cross-harrow the plot, smooth out the surface, rake fine, and sow your seed. If, however, the soil is gravelly, there is no use trying to doctor it up with the expectation of getting good results.

As has been said, you need a good loam in which to grow gra.s.s, so that if it is not good you must dig out what is there to the depth of two feet and replace it with suitable soil.

There is no short-cut for reaching results with the aid of fertilizers, for all the chemicals in the land will amount to but little if the soil conditions are not proper to receive them.

It is simply a question of supplying the material to get results.

A NEW WAY TO RENOVATE A SMALL LAWN

On a small place where the necessity for radical treatment is apparent, yet where it is not advisable to upset the premises at that particular time, results can be reached in a way that will be effectual.

Take a round stick about an inch in diameter and three feet long, and sharpen one end of it. At frequent intervals about the grounds drive the stick to the depth of about two feet. Make many such holes, and into these ram a mixture of finely powdered manure, hardwood ashes, and bone meal. Cover the holes with loam, and on the top of each put a piece of sod and beat it down with the back of a spade.

In a short time the good effects of this treatment will manifest themselves, and during the subsequent season the treatment can be extended to the parts not touched before. It practically means that the land will be as thoroughly renovated as if it had been plowed and harrowed. This is no fanciful idea, for the operation justifies results whenever tried. It is advisable to water liberally and regularly for some time.

Of course this applies particularly to very small places, and nothing will be gained by treating large areas this way.

Shrubs and trees are greatly benefited by this method of administering nourishment, and where old plants have grown for a long time and are seemingly stunted, this feeding will stimulate them to immediate growth.

THE TREATMENT OF LARGE AREAS

While it is a very simple matter to shape up a small gra.s.s plot, renovating it as to soil and all that is necessary to lay the foundation of a successful lawn, it becomes another matter when large areas are in question. Here it requires taste, experience, and familiarity with prevailing conditions to enable one successfully to get out of the problem all that there is in it. If we have not had the necessary experience, it would not be safe to venture upon doing the work without expert advice.

Developing a large area means the making of a picture that, year in and year out, is to be before our eyes, and unless there is a most harmonious relation of all accessories--trees, contours, vistas, roads, and so on--there is sure to come a time of wearying monotony, caused by a realization of the fact that we had not been quite equal, through our lack of experience, to develop the place as it might have been developed.

A piece of ground in the rough must first be shaped up by draining, removing trees or stones, planning roads and such things, before the smoothing process can be attempted, and it is in this roughing-out process where the future landscape picture is either made or destroyed.

Here is where the professional landscape man can save you many dollars and much disappointment. I have seen so many sad results in cases of land development where too much confidence has been the stumbling-block on the road to success, that I feel justified in harping on the necessity of asking advice from those who are competent to give it.

SAVING TREES

Great consideration should be given to the matter of saving trees, whether these are large or small. Small trees can be handled like so much merchandise, and successfully moved from place to place. It is preferable to move these in winter. Dig about them so that there will be a ball of earth large enough to keep intact; then it is necessary merely to allow this ball to freeze up hard before tilting it onto a stone drag, shifting it and its fellows to positions that will most benefit the landscape.

Large trees can be moved, but at considerable expense, and such work should be left to the professionals. They have the facilities and from experience the knowledge and knack of it, and this means much for success. Some companies will even give a bond to guarantee their work.

Trees about which the grade is to be raised should be protected, so that the soil will not come within some distance of the trunk. A rough piling of stones about the tree, or a circle of drain pipe about it will give the needed protection. Trees play such a vital part in the adornment of a piece of land, whether large or small, that none that is needed should be sacrificed until every effort to save it has failed.

DRAINING LAND

Where the soil is soggy and retains too much moisture, this condition must be remedied before attempting to make it into a lawn. The remedy is found by draining, and this is done by digging ditches or laying tiles under ground at varying distances apart, all tending towards the lowest part of the land, to which the water must be induced to flow. The number of drains is to be determined by existing conditions.

Land that could not be used before will, after a system of drainage has been installed, be so benefited that most anything can be grown upon it.

Lawns made on such land are always luxuriant and resist the effect of drought even of long duration, drawing upon the supply of water that extends deep down below the surface.

GRa.s.s SEED