Part 3

THE TREATMENT OF LARGE AREAS

While it is a very simple matter to shape up a small grass 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.

GRASS SEED

So much has been written on the subject of lawn-making that about every one interested in this work is fully competent, theoretically at least, to carry through the process of land renovation and preparation, whether it be for a small lawn or an area consisting of acres. The subject along these lines has been exhaustively treated, but, strange to say, the equally important subject of grass seed has been rather neglected. While many amateurs can talk freely on the preparation of the land, they are not so confident when treating of grass seed. It seems strange that this is the case when so much depends on the suitability of the grass seed to the land for the making of a successful lawn. The only reason, as far as I can see, why people are not versed in this matter is that they have been frightened by the botanical names of grasses, which seem wholly unsuitable and too difficult of pronunciation for such commonplace things. There is, however, just as much individuality in a plant produced from a grass seed as in the choicest plant in a greenhouse. One kind of grass seed will produce a low-growing plant while another grows high; one wants a moist situation, another a dry one; some will germinate in the shade, others will not, and so on through the list. If a person knows each kind and its possibilities and requirements, he will be able to choose the grass best suited for his wants, and by careful trials arrange the mixtures with better success than the man in the wholesale house who is obliged to guess at what is best for his wants. Start out, then, in the primer class and tabulate some of the best grasses used for lawns, and tag them with both their names, the botanical and the common ones.

Kentucky Blue Grass--Poa pratensis. Fine for lawns; grows slowly but vigorously almost everywhere but on an acid soil.

Red Top--Agrostis vulgaris. Shows results more quickly than Blue Grass; will thrive on a sandy soil; fine in combination with Blue Grass.

English Rye Grass--Lolium perenne. Grows quickly and shows almost immediate results; good to combine with the slow-growing Blue Grass.

Various-leaved Fescue--Festuca heterophylla. Good for shady and moist places.

Rhode Island Bent--Agrostis canina. Has a creeping habit; good for putting-greens, sandy soils.

Creeping Bent--Agrostis stolonifera. Creeping habit; good for sandy places and to bind banks or sloping places. Combined with Rhode Island Bent for putting-greens.

Crested Dog's-tail--Cynosurus cristatus. Forms a low and compact sward; good for slopes and shady places.

Wood Meadow Grass--Poa nemoralis. Good for shady places; is very hardy.

Red Fescue--Festuca rubra. Thrives on poor soils and gravelly banks.

White Clover--Trifolium repens. Good for slopes; not to be recommended for a lawn.

Sheep Fescue--Festuca ovina. Good for light, dry soils.

Now, with so much as a reference library, you will have sufficient knowledge of the kinds of seeds to draw from to make combinations that will fit any situation. I would further suggest that you go to a wholesale house and get a sample of each of these seeds and examine them. Get just a little of each in an envelope. Make a comparative examination of the seeds, holding a little in the palm of the hand. As you look at each seed repeat its name a few times and recall its characteristics, and you will be surprised to find that on the second or third trial every name will suggest itself the moment your eyes rest on the seed. With a knowledge of the seeds you can then go to your dealer and tell him what you want--not necessarily what he thinks you want. You are then a better judge than he is.

It is worth while following the subject farther, for the results will more than repay the trouble. Test the seeds. Make shallow boxes and fill them with loam, and sow each kind of seed just as you would on a lawn. Put a label at the head of the box and on it the time of sowing the seed. Do this with as many as you can. Then watch and make notes of the time it takes for germination. Note also the character of the blades. Having finished this you will have a very liberal education in the subject of grass.

Should you not care to do as suggested above, you will be dependent on others to get what you most need. If you should go to a dozen people and ask them to suggest a combination of seeds, they would all give them readily to you, but no two proportions would be alike. If you should ask for a single grass, the majority would suggest Kentucky Blue Grass. For a single grass there is nothing better suited for all conditions. There is this objection to it, however: it is not a nervous man's grass. You cannot plant it to-day and have a lawn next month. If you can afford to wait, sow Kentucky Blue and your patience will be well rewarded. It makes a permanent lawn.