EXECUTION OF SOME OF THE LANDSCAPE FEATURES - Continued
The lawn will profit by an annual application of good chemical
fertilizer. Ground bone is one of the best materials to apply, at the
rate of three hundred to four hundred pounds to the acre. It is usually
sown broadcast, early in spring. Dissolved South Carolina rock may be
used instead, but the application will need to be heavier if similar
results are expected. Yellow and poor grass may often be reinvigorated
by an application of two hundred to three hundred pounds to the acre of
nitrate of soda. Wood ashes are often good, particularly on soils that
tend to be acid. Muriate of potash is not so often used, although it may
produce excellent results in some cases. There is no invariable rule.
The best plan is for the lawn-maker to try the different treatments on a
little piece or corner of the lawn; in this way, he should secure more
valuable information than can be got otherwise.
The first operation after draining and grading is the plowing or spading
of the surface. If the area is large enough to admit a team, the surface
is worked down by means of harrows of various kinds. Afterwards it is
leveled by means of shovels and hoes, and finally by garden rakes. The
more finely and completely the soil is pulverized, the quicker the lawn
may be secured, and the more permanent are the results.
The kind of grass.
The best grass for the body or foundation of lawns in the North is
June-grass or Kentucky blue-grass (Poa pratensis), not Canada
blue-grass (Poa compressa).
Whether white clover or other seed should be sown with the grass seed is
very largely a personal question. Some persons like it, and others do
not. If it is desired, it may be sown directly after the grass seed is
sown, at the rate of one to four quarts or more to the acre.
For special purposes, other grasses may be used for lawns. Various kinds
of lawn mixtures are on the market, for particular uses, and some of
them are very good.
A superintendent of parks in one of the Eastern cities gives the
following experience on kinds of grass: "For the meadows on the large
parks we generally use extra recleaned Kentucky blue-grass, red-top,
and white clover, in the proportion of thirty pounds of blue-grass,
thirty pounds of red-top, and ten pounds of white clover to the acre.
Sometimes we use for smaller lawns the blue-grass and red-top without
the white clover. We have used blue-grass, red-top, and Rhode Island
bent in the proportion of twenty pounds each, and ten pounds of white
clover to the acre, but the Rhode Island bent is so expensive that we
rarely buy it. For grass in shady places, as in a grove, we use Kentucky
blue-grass and rough-stalked meadow-grass (Poa trivialis) in equal
parts at the rate of seventy pounds to the acre. On the golf links we
use blue-grass without any mixture on some of the putting greens;
sometimes we use Rhode Island bent, and on sandy greens we use red-top.
We always buy each kind of seed separately and mix them, and are
particular to get the best extra recleaned of each kind. Frequently we
get the seed of three different dealers to secure the best."
In most cases, the June-grass germinates and grows somewhat slowly, and
it is usually advisable to sow four or five quarts of timothy grass to
the acre with the June-grass seed. The timothy comes on quickly and
makes a green the first year, and the June-grass soon crowds it out. It
is not advisable to sow grain in the lawn as a nurse to the grass. If
the land is well prepared and the seed is sown in the cool part of the
year, the grass ought to grow much better without the other crops than
with them. Lands that are hard and lacking in nitrogen may be benefited
if crimson clover (four or five quarts) is sown with the grass seed.
This will make a green the first year, and will break up the subsoil by
its deep roots and supply nitrogen, and being an annual plant it does
not become troublesome, if mown frequently enough to prevent seeding.
In the southern states, where June-grass does not thrive, Bermuda-grass
is the leading species used for lawns; although there are two or three
others, as the goose-grass of Florida, that may be used in special
localities. Bermuda-grass is usually propagated by roots, but imported
seed (said to be from Australia) is now available. The Bermuda-grass
becomes reddish after frost; and English rye-grass may be sown on the
Bermuda sod in August or September far south for winter green; in spring
the Bermuda crowds it out.
When and how to sow the seed.
The lawn should be seeded when the land is moist and the weather
comparatively cool. It is ordinarily most advisable to grade the lawn in
late summer or early fall, because the land is then comparatively dry
and can be moved cheaply. The surface can also be got in condition,
perhaps, for sowing late in September or early in October in the North;
or, if the surface has required much filling, it is well to leave it in
a somewhat unfinished state until spring, in order that the soft places
may settle and then be refilled before the seeding is done. If the seed
can be sown early in the fall, before the rains come, the grass should
be large enough, except in northernmost localities, to withstand the
winter; but it is generally most desirable to sow in very early spring.
If the land has been thoroughly prepared in the fall, the seed may be
sown on one of the late light snows in spring and as the snow melts the
seed is carried into the land, and germinates very quickly. If the seed
is sown when the land is loose and workable, it should be raked in; and
if the weather promises to be dry or the sowing is late, the surface
should be rolled.
The seeding is usually done broadcast by hand on all small areas, the
sower going both ways (at right angles) across the area to lessen the
likelihood of missing any part. Steep banks are sometimes sown with seed
that is mixed in mold or earth to which water is added until the
material will just run through the spout of a watering-can; the material
is then poured on the surface, which is first made loose.
Inasmuch as we desire to secure many very fine stalks of grass rather
than a few large ones, it is essential that the seed be sown very
thick. Three to five bushels to the acre is the ordinary application of
grass seed (page 79).
Securing a firm sod.
The lawn will ordinarily produce a heavy crop of weeds the first year,
especially if much stable manure has been used. The weeds need not be
pulled, unless such vicious intruders as docks or other perennial plants
gain a foothold; but the area should be mown frequently with a
lawn-mower. The annual weeds die at the approach of cold, and they are
kept down by the use of the lawn-mower, while the grass is not injured.
It rarely happens that every part of the lawn will have an equal catch
of grass. The bare or sparsely seeded places should be sown again every
fall and spring until the lawn is finally complete. In fact, it requires
constant attention to keep a lawn in good sod, and it must be
continuously in the process of making. It is not every lawn area, or
every part of the area, that is adapted to grass; and it may require
long study to find out why it is not. Bare or poor places should be
hetcheled up strongly with an iron-toothed rake, perhaps fertilized
again, and then reseeded. It is unusual that a lawn does not need
repairing every year. Lawns of several acres which become thin and mossy
may be treated in essentially the same way by dragging them with a
spike-tooth harrow in early spring as soon as the land is dry enough to
hold a team. Chemical fertilizers and grass seed are now sown liberally,
and the area is perhaps dragged again, although this is not always
essential; and then the roller is applied to bring the surface into a
smooth condition. To plow up these poor lawns is to renew all the battle
with weeds, and really to make no progress; for, so long as the contour
is correct, the lawn may be repaired by these surface applications.
The stronger the sward, the less the trouble with weeds; yet it is
practically impossible to keep dandelions and some other weeds out of
lawns except by cutting them out with a knife thrust underground (there
are good spuds manufactured for this purpose, Figs. 108 to 111). If the
sod is very thin after the weeds are removed, sow more grass seed.
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