Part 4

To introduce the ready-made lawn, use a combination of Kentucky Blue, Red Top, and English Rye. The Blue Grass is slow, but the Rye and Red Top produce speedier results. The first month will see the newly seeded space a carpet of green. In time the Rye passes, the Red Top continues to cover, while the Blue Grass grows sturdier each day until it crowds everything out by virtue of its own strength. Use 12 lbs. of Kentucky Blue Grass, 5 lbs. of Red Top and 3 lbs. of English Rye Grass to the bushel, and sow 3½ to 4 bushels to the acre. This makes a reliable combination. It is common to hear people asking for grass that will grow in shady places, but it is always difficult to determine the degree of shade. A place may be shaded and yet suitable for growing grass, or it may be so shaded that no grass known could be made to germinate there. In places where there is no heavy dripping and where the ground is not absolutely dark, use the following:

Kentucky Blue Grass, Wood Meadow Grass, Various-leaved Fescue, and Crested Dog's-tail. Use 35 per cent. of the first two and 15 per cent. of the last two.

For conditions that require a quick-growing grass, and something that will bind and make a holding upon slopes under difficult conditions, the following is recommended: Kentucky Blue Grass, 30 per cent.; R. I. Bent, 30 per cent.; Creeping Bent, 25 per cent.; Sheep Fescue, 10 per cent., and White Clover, 5 per cent. This is one of the places where White Clover is an essential. Under these conditions it fulfils its mission perfectly. While all the named kinds may not flourish, there will be enough to make the work successful.

The turf on a putting-green must be dense and low, and tough enough to stand a lot of rough usage. A combination of Rhode Island Bent and Creeping Bent is about the best thing for this purpose. To check up, just refer back to your schedule and see what it says regarding the qualities of these grasses.

The soil on a putting-green should be of a sandy nature. This keeps the grass stunted through lack of much food, and consequently better fits it for its purpose.

Never buy grass seed by the bushel. Buy it by weight, or stipulate that there shall be so many pounds to the bushel. It will cost you a high price, but it will be far cheaper in the end than to buy something inexpensive that has more than a third of sweepings and useless bulk. You certainly lose nothing by buying the very best seed that your dealer can offer you.

Do not be ashamed to ask for samples before buying, and also get samples from a number of places and compare the different seeds. Spread them out in your hand and see if they are clean and without chaff. A seed with a large proportion of dust and chaff is not worth buying. It should be your consideration to see whether you are getting what you pay for. If you show evidences of knowing the proper seeds you will receive a most respectful hearing from the tradesman. Do not balk at the price of re-cleaned seed. It means that you are going to get something for your money. It is worth much more than the seed sold in bulk that is not re-cleaned.

SOWING THE SEED

The nearest thing, by way of comparison, to a lawn is a bed of plants that you set out in your garden every spring. When you think it is planting time you go to this bed with spade or fork and turn the earth up from the deep bottom, putting in plenty of well-rotted manure, thus ministering to the soil according to its needs. Then you set out the plants, and if weeds grow up you dig them out, after which you water the spot intelligently. For this labor your reward comes to you in the shape of an abundance of bloom and foliage.

Just as truly is a lawn a bed of plants needing an equal amount of treatment. Grass is nothing but a collection of thousands of little plants crowded together, which must have nourishment, and from which the weeds must be taken. Likewise the soil must be given water as it is needed and the earth must be made mellow for the roots, to a good depth. It makes no difference how much you pay for your grass seed, how good or bad it is, or what kind of fertilizers you use, if the bed is not properly prepared in the first place. Without this fundamental preparation, grass plants will not grow, or if they do, will not thrive.

It is quite a trick to sow grass seed evenly so that it will germinate without giving the plot a spotty effect. It should be spread at the rate of about three bushels to the acre, and this sowing can be successfully done only on a quiet day. Even a very light wind is liable to pile up your seed on your neighbor's lot or on your own in places not wanted. Keep the seed in a pail while sowing, and, after taking a handful, bend close to the soil and let the seed feed through the fingers as the arm swings back and forth in a semicircle. This is very much easier to say than to do, but a little experience will make one quite proficient. To help still more, sow the seed two ways, one at right angles to the other. After sowing, rake lightly and then finish the work by putting a heavy roller over it.

While thick sowing has the advantage of discouraging a growth of weeds, there is a limit that cannot be safely passed. Seed too thickly sown will mat and damp out, leaving great patches on the lawn. Do not exceed the quantity suggested above.

Spring sowing should be done just as soon as the frost is out of the ground. This early sowing gives the young grass a chance to establish itself before the severe summer heat comes on. Careful watering is necessary, with a fine spray, and if regularly done will induce rapid germination. In watering do not wash out the seed by too heavy a stream.

SODDING

Like seeding, sodding should be done in the early spring or fall to get the best results. Oftentimes it is necessary to do the work in midsummer and this, while not advisable, can be successfully accomplished if the sods are laid soon after they are cut and then copiously watered every day until all danger of drying out has passed.

In butting the sods together, use a wooden mallet, and pound the sod into close contact with the loam beneath, flattening all joints so that the growth will be uniform.

On large seeded areas outline these with a border of sods, which gives a well-defined edge and trim appearance to the work. If you should know of a place where there is a particularly fine growth of grass, it would be a paying proposition to buy sufficient sods from it to answer your needs. Sods, cut and delivered, will cost about eight cents per square foot. This price may be shaded somewhat if the sods are bought in bulk and the cutting and carting is done by yourself. Under any circumstances the work will be expensive.

On banks and terraces it is preferable to use sods rather than seeding. The sods can be held in place with wooden pegs driven through them seven or eight inches into the bank. Over this work scatter some seed and give a light dressing of loam; then pound the whole to an even surface.

When the bank is too steep to hold the sods pegged in this way, they should be piled upon each other horizontally, so that the ends will form the surface of the bank. This effects the double purpose of creating a permanent sward and also a depth of ten inches of loam upon which it can feed.

GOOD LOAM AND FERTILIZERS

Loam is scarce; that is, good loam is scarce. To help make up the deficiency, every one should form a compost heap, and into it pile leaves, lawn rakings, pieces of sod, and all such matter, all of which will be reduced in time by decomposition to the much-desired humus. A small quantity of this humus, mixed with fairly good loam, will make good loam of it all, and suitable for sustaining plant life.

In the fall, when the leaves are falling from the trees, it is a good idea to gather up from the gutters the accumulated leaves and put them in the compost heap. There may be a little expense and trouble to it, but there is no question as to the fact that you will be fully repaid when you find the necessity for some real loam.

Near cities loam of very inferior quality will cost at least $2 per cubic yard, and if one has a quantity of leaf-mould, made as suggested, and will mix it with this loam, a very desirable quality can be produced. The leaf-mould is the life of the soil and absolutely essential to satisfactory results.

SPRING TOP-DRESSING

A lawn that has been properly made will not suffer if it is not given a yearly dressing, for it will have sufficient food supply in the ground to keep it going for years.

Strange as it may seem, many good lawns have been ruined by being given a heavy application of manure year after year. When a top-dressing is necessary on soil that is good, Canada hardwood ashes and bone meal will supply all the nourishment that is necessary. Spread the ashes thickly on the lawn until they show white on the grass, and do the work preferably before a rain, so that the nourishment may be washed into the soil.

The Canada hardwood ashes, as usually found in the market, contain from one to five per cent. of potash, but to get the results you are looking for, the ashes should contain from seven to nine per cent. of potash. In purchasing this fertilizer in large quantities demand a guaranteed analysis, otherwise you are liable to get something little better than what you take out of your stove, and wholly useless for lawn purposes. There are good ashes on the market and they can be had if one goes after them vigorously enough and gives some indication of a knowledge of what good ashes are.

When it is not possible to get what you are looking for, I would recommend mixing muriate of potash with finely sifted loam, and spreading it broadcast over the grass. This treatment is always efficacious, as you are absolutely sure of getting what is necessary for the land.