EXECUTION OF SOME OF THE LANDSCAPE FEATURES
The general lay-out of a small home property having now been
considered, we may discuss the practical operations of executing the
plan. It is not intended in this chapter to discuss the general
question of how to handle the soil: that discussion comes in Chapter
IV; nor in detail how to handle plants: that occurs in Chapters V to X;
but the subjects of grading, laying out of walks and drives, executing
the border plantings, and the making of lawns, may be briefly
considered.
Of course the instructions given in a book, however complete, are very
inadequate and unsatisfactory as compared with the advice of a good
experienced person. It is not always possible to find such a person,
however; and it is no little satisfaction to the homemaker if he can
feel that he can handle the work himself, even at the expense of some
mistakes.
_The grading_.
The first consideration is to grade the land. Grading is very
expensive, especially if performed at a season when the soil is heavy
with water. Every effort should be made, therefore, to reduce the
grading to a minimum and still secure a pleasing contour. A good time
to grade, if one has the time, is in the fall before the heavy rains
come, and then allow the surface to settle until spring, when the
finish may be made. All filling will settle in time unless thoroughly
tamped as it proceeds.
The smaller the area the more pains must be taken with the grading; but
in any plat that is one hundred feet or more square, very considerable
undulations may be left in the surface with excellent effect. In lawns
of this size, or even half this size, it is rarely advisable to have
them perfectly flat and level. They should slope gradually away from
the house; and when the lawn is seventy-five feet or more in width, it
may be slightly crowning with good effect. A lawn should never be
hollow,—that is, lower in the center than at the borders,—and broad
lawns that are perfectly flat and level often appear to be hollow. A
slope of one foot in twenty or thirty is none too much for a pleasant
grade in lawns of some extent.
In small places, the grading may be done by the eye, unless there are
very particular conditions to meet. In large or difficult areas, it is
well to have the place contoured by instruments. This is particularly
desirable if the grading is to be done on contract. A basal or datum
line is established, above or below which all surfaces are to be shaped
at measured distances. Even in small yards, such a datum line is
desirable for the best kind of work.
_The terrace_.
[Illustration: Fig. 59. A terrace in the distance; in the foreground an
ideal “running out” of the bank.]
In places in which the natural slope is very perceptible, there is a
tendency to terrace the lawn for the purpose of making the various
parts or sections of it more or less level and plane. In nearly all
cases, however, a terrace in a main lawn is objectionable. It cuts the
lawn into two or more portions, and thereby makes it look smaller and
spoils the effect of the picture. A terrace always obtrudes a hard and
rigid line, and fastens the attention upon itself rather than upon the
landscape. Terraces are also expensive to make and to keep in order;
and a shabby terrace is always distracting.
When formal effects are desired, their success depends, however, very
largely on the rigidity of the lines and the care with which they are
maintained. If a terrace is necessary, it should be in the form of a
retaining wall next the street, or else it should lie next the
building, giving as broad and continuous a lawn as possible. It should
be remembered, however, that a terrace next a building should not be a
part of the landscape, but a part of the architecture; that is, it
should serve as a base to the building. It will at once be seen,
therefore, that terraces are most in place against those buildings that
have strong horizontal lines, and they are little suitable against
buildings with very broken lines and mixed or gothic features. In order
to join the terrace to the building, it is usually advisable to place
some architectural feature upon its crown, as a balustrade, and to
ascend it by means of architectural steps. The terrace elevation,
therefore, becomes a part of the base of the building, and the top of
it is an esplanade.
[Illustration: Fig. 60. Treatment of a sloping lawn.]
A simple and gradually sloping bank can nearly always be made to take
the place of a terrace. For example, let the operator make a terrace,
with sharp angles above and below, in the fall of the year; in the
spring, he will find (if he has not sodded it heavily) that nature has
taken the matter in hand and the upper angle of the terrace has been
washed away and deposited in the lower angle, and the result is the
beginning of a good series of curves. Figure 59 shows an ideal slope,
with its double curve, comprising a convex curve on the top of the
bank, and a concave curve at the lower part. This is a slope that would
ordinarily be terraced, but in its present condition it is a part of
the landscape picture. It may be mown as readily as any other part of
the lawn, and it takes care of itself.
[Illustration: Fig. 61. Treatment of a very steep bank.]
The diagrams in Fig. 60 indicate poor and good treatment of a lawn. The
terraces are not needed in this case; or if they are, they should never
be made as at 1. The same dip could be taken up in a single curved
bank, as at 3, but the better way, in general, is to give the treatment
shown in 2. Figure 61 shows how a very high terrace, 4, can be
supplaced by a sloping bank 5. Figure 62 shows a terrace that falls
away too suddenly from the house.
_The bounding lines_.
In grading to the borders of the place, it is not always necessary, nor
even desirable, that a continuous contour should be maintained,
especially if the border is higher or lower than the lawn. A somewhat
irregular line of grade will appear to be most natural, and lend itself
best to effective planting. This is specially true in the grade to
watercourses, which, as a rule, should be more or less devious or
winding; and the adjacent land should, therefore, present various
heights and contours. It is not always necessary, however, to make
distinct banks along water-courses, particularly if the place is small
and the natural lay of the land is more or less plane or flat. A very
slight depression, as shown in Fig. 63, may answer all the purposes of
a water grade in such places.
[Illustration: Fig. 62. A terrace or slope that falls too suddenly away
from a building. There should be a level place or esplanade next the
building, if possible.]
[Illustration: 63. Shaping the land down to a water-course.]
If it is desirable that the lawn be as large and spacious as possible,
then the boundary of it should be removed. Take away the fences,
curbing, and other right lines. In rural places, a sunken fence may
sometimes be placed athwart the lawn at its farther edge for the
purpose of keeping cattle off the place, and thereby bring in the
adjacent landscape. Figure 64 suggests how this may be done. The
depression near the foot of the lawn, which is really a ditch and
scarcely visible from the upper part of the place because of the slight
elevation on its inner rim, answers all the purposes of a fence.
[Illustration: Fig. 64. A sunken fence athwart a foreground.]
[Illustration: Fig. 65. Protecting a tree in filled land.]
Nearly all trees are injured if the dirt is filled about the base to
the depth of a foot or more. The natural base of the plant should be
exposed so far as possible, not only for protection of the tree, but
because the base of a tree trunk is one of its most distinctive
features. Oaks, maples, and in fact most trees will lose their bark
near the crown if the dirt is piled against them; and this is
especially true if the water tends to settle about the trunks. Figure
65 shows how this difficulty may be obviated. A well is stoned up,
allowing a space of a foot or two on all sides, and tile drains are
laid about the base of the well, as shown in the diagram at the right.
A grating to cover a well is also shown. It is often possible to make a
sloping bank just above the tree, and to allow the ground to fall away
from the roots on the lower side, so that there is no well or hole; but
this is practicable only when the land below, the tree is considerably
lower than that above it.
If much of the surface is to be removed, the good top earth should be
saved, and placed back on the area, in which to sow the grass seed and
to make the plantings. This top soil may be piled at one side out of
the way while the grading is proceeding.
_Walks and drives_.
So far as the picture in the landscape is concerned, walks and drives
are blemishes. Since they are necessary, however, they must form a part
of the landscape design. They should be as few as possible, not only
because they interfere with the artistic composition, but also because
they are expensive to make and to maintain.
Most places have too many, rather than too few, walks and drives. Small
city areas rarely need a driveway entrance, not even to the back door.
The back yard in Fig. 39 illustrates this point. The distance from the
house to the street on the back is about ninety feet, yet there is no
driveway in the place. The coal and provisions are carried in; and,
although the deliverymen may complain at first, they very soon accept
the inevitable. It is not worth the while to maintain a drive in such a
place for the convenience of truckmen and grocers. Neither is it often
necessary to have a drive in the front yard if the house is within
seventy-five or one hundred feet of the street. When a drive is
necessary, it should enter, if possible, at the side of the residence,
and not make a circle in the front lawn. This remark may not apply to
areas of a half acre or more.
[Illustration: Fig. 66. Forms of front walks.]
The drives and walks should be direct. They should go where they appear
to go, and should be practically the shortest distances between the
points to be reached. Figure 66 illustrates some of the problems
connected with walks to the front door. A common type of walk is _a_,
and it is a nuisance. The time that one loses in going around the
cameo-set in the center would be sufficient, if conserved, to lengthen
a man’s life by several months or a year. Such a device has no merit in
art or convenience. Walk _b_ is better, but still is not ideal,
inasmuch as it makes too much of a right-angled curve, and the
pedestrian desires to cut across the corner. Such a walk, also, usually
extends too far beyond the corner of the house to make it appear to be
direct. It has the merit, however, of leaving the center of the lawn
practically untouched. The curve in walk _d_ is ordinarily unnecessary
unless the ground is rolling. In small places, like this, it is better
to have a straight walk directly from the sidewalk to the house. In
fact, this is true in nearly all cases in which the lawn is not more
than forty to seventy-five feet deep. Plan _c_ is also inexcusable. A
straight walk would answer every purpose better. Any walk that passes
the house, and returns to it, _e_, is inexcusable unless it is
necessary to make a very steep ascent. If most of the traveling is in
one direction from the house, a walk like _f_ may be the most direct
and efficient. It is known as a direct curve, and is a compound of a
concave and a convex curve.
It is essential that any service walk or drive, however long, should be
continuous in direction and design from end to end. Figure 67
illustrates a long drive that contradicts this principle.
[Illustration: Fig. 67. A patched-up drive, showing meaningless
crooks.]
It is a series of meaningless curves. The reason for these curves is
the fact that the drive was extended from time to time as new houses
were added to the villa. The reader will easily perceive how all the
kinks might be taken out of this drive and one direct and bold curve be
substituted.
The question of drainage, curbing, and gutters.
Thorough drainage, natural or artificial, is essential to hard and
permanent walks and drives. This point is too often neglected. On the
draining and grading of residence streets a well-known landscape
gardener, O.C. Simonds, writes as follows in “Park and Cemetery”:
[Illustration: Fig. 68. Treatment of walk and drive in a suburban
region. There are no curbs.]
“The surface drainage is something that interests us whenever it rains
or when the snow melts. It has been customary to locate catch-basins
for receiving the surface water at street intersections. This
arrangement causes most of the surface water from both streets to run
past the crossings, making it necessary to depress the pavement, so
that one must step down and up in going from one side of a street to
the other, or else a passageway for the water must be made through the
crossing. It may be said that a step down to the pavement and up again
to the sidewalk at the street intersections is of no consequence, but
it is really more elegant and satisfactory to have the walk practically
continuous (Fig. 68). With the catch-basin at the corner, the stoppage
of the inlet, or a great fall of rain, sometimes covers the crossing
with water, so one must either wade or go out of his way. With
catch-basins placed in the center of the blocks, or, if the blocks are
long, at some distance from the crossing, the intersections can be kept
relatively high and dry. Roadways are generally made crowning in the
center so that water runs to the sides, but frequently the fall
lengthwise of the roadway is less than it should be. City engineers are
usually inclined to make the grade along the length of a street as
nearly level as possible. Authorities who have given the subject of
roads considerable study recommend a fall lengthwise of not less than
one foot in one hundred and twenty-five, nor more than six feet in one
hundred. Such grades are not always feasible, but a certain amount of
variation in level can usually be made in a residence street which will
make it much more pleasing in appearance, and have certain practical
advantages in keeping the street dry. The water is usually confined to
the edge of the pavement by curbing, which may rise anywhere from four
to fourteen inches above the surface. This causes all the water falling
on the roadway to seek the catch-basin and be wasted, excepting for its
use in flushing the sewer. If the curbing, which is really unnecessary
in most cases, were omitted, much of the surface water would soak into
the ground between the sidewalk and the pavement, doing much good to
trees, shrubs, and grass. The roots of the trees naturally extend as
far, or farther, than their branches, and for their good the ground
under the pavement and sidewalk should be supplied with a certain
amount of moisture.
VI. A tree that gives character to a place. VI. A tree that gives
character to a place.
“The arrangement made for the removal of surface water from the street
must also take care of the surplus water from adjacent lots, so there
is a practical advantage in having the level of the street lower than
that of the ground adjoining. The appearance of houses and home grounds
is also much better when they are higher than the street, and for this
reason it is usually desirable to keep the latter as low as possible
and give the underground pipes sufficient covering to protect them from
frost. Where the ground is high and the sewers very deep, the grades
should, of course, be determined with reference to surface conditions
only. It sometimes happens that this general arrangement of the grades
of home grounds, which is desirable on most accounts, causes water from
melting snow to flow over the sidewalk in the winter time, where it may
freeze and be dangerous to pedestrians. A slight depression of the lot
away from the sidewalk and then an ascent toward the house would
usually remedy this difficulty, and also make the house appear higher.
Sometimes, however, a pipe should be placed underneath the sidewalk to
allow water to reach the street from inside of the lot line. The aim in
surface drainage should always be to keep the traveled portions of the
street in the most perfect condition for use. The quick removal of
surplus water from sidewalks, crossings, and roadways will help insure
this result.”
[Illustration: Fig. 69. A common form of edge for walk or drive.]
[Illustration: Fig. 70. A better form.]
These remarks concerning the curbings and hard edges of city streets
may also be applied to walks and drives in small grounds. Figure 69,
for example, shows the common method of treating the edge of a walk, by
making a sharp and sheer elevation. This edge needs constant trimming,
else it becomes unshapely; and this trimming tends to widen the walk.
For general purposes, a border, like that shown in Fig. 70, is better.
The sod rolls over until it meets the walk, and the lawn-mower is able
to keep it in condition. If it becomes more or less rough and
irregular, it is pounded down.
[Illustration: Fig. 71. Sod cutter.]
If it is thought necessary to trim the edges of walks and drives, then
one of the various kinds of sod-cutters that are sold by dealers may be
used for the purpose, or an old hoe may have its shank straightened and
the corners of the blade rounded off, as shown in Fig. 71, and this
will answer all purposes of the common sod-cutter; or, a sharp,
straight-edged spade may sometimes be used. The loose overhanging grass
on these edges is ordinarily cut by large shears made for the purpose.
Walks and drives should be laid in such direction that they will tend
to drain themselves; but if it is necessary to have gutters, these
should be deep and sharp at the bottom, for the water then draws
together and tends to keep the gutter clean. A shallow and rounded
brick or cobble gutter does not clean itself; it is very likely to fill
with weeds, and vehicles often drive in it. The best gutters and curbs
are now made of cement. Figure 72 shows a catch basin at the left of a
walk or drive, and the tile laid underneath for the purpose of carrying
away the surface water.
The materials.
[Illustration: Fig. 72. Draining the gutter and the drive.]
The best materials for the main walks are cement and stone flagging. In
many soils, however, there is enough binding material in the land to
make a good walk without the addition of any other material. Gravel,
cinders, ashes, and the like, are nearly always inadvisable, for they
are liable to be loose in dry weather and sticky in wet weather. In the
laying of cement it is important that the walk be well drained by a
layer of a foot or two of broken stone or brickbats, unless the walk is
on loose and leachy land or in a frostless country.
In back yards it is often best not to have any well-defined walk. A
ramble across the sod may be as good. For a back walk, over which
delivery men are to travel, one of the very best means is to sink a
foot-wide plank into the earth on a level with the surface of the sod;
and it is not necessary that the walk be perfectly straight. These
walks do not interfere with the work of the lawn-mower, and they take
care of themselves. When the plank rots, at the expiration of five to
ten years, the plank is taken up and another one dropped in its place.
This ordinarily makes the best kind of a walk alongside a rear border.
(Plate XI.) In gardens, nothing is better for a walk than tanbark.
[Illustration: Fig. 73. Planting alongside a walk.]
The sides of walks and drives may often be planted with shrubbery. It
is not necessary that they always have prim and definite borders.
Figure 73 illustrates a bank of foliage which breaks up the hard line
of a walk, and serves also as a border for the growing of flowers and
interesting specimens. This walk is also characterized by the absence
of high and hard borders. Figure 68 illustrates this fact, and also
shows how the parking between the walk and the street may be
effectively planted.
_Making the borders_.
The borders and groups of planting are laid out on the paper plan.
There are several ways of transferring them to the ground. Sometimes
they are not made until after the lawn is established, when the
inexperienced operator may more readily lay them out. Usually, however,
the planting and lawn-making proceed more or less simultaneously. After
the shaping of the ground has been completed, the areas are marked off
by stakes, by a limp rope laid on the surface, or by a mark made with a
rake handle. The margin once determined, the lawn may be seeded and
rolled (Fig. 40), and the planting allowed to proceed as it may; or the
planting may all be done inside the borders, and the seeding then be
applied to the lawn. If the main dimensions of the borders and beds are
carefully measured and marked by stakes, it is an easy matter to
complete the outline by making a mark with a stick or rakestale.
[Illustration: Fig. 74. A bowered pathway.] [Illustration: Fig. 75.
Objects for pity.]
The planting may be done in spring or fall,—in fall preferably if the
stock is ready (and of hardy species) and the land in perfect condition
of drainage; usually, however, things are not ready early enough in the
fall for any extended planting, and the work is commonly done as soon
as the ground settles in spring (see Chapter V). Head the bushes back.
Dig up the entire area. Spade up the ground, set the bushes thick, hoe
them at intervals, and then let them go. If you do not like the bare
earth between them, sow in the seeds of hardy annual flowers, like
phlox, petunia, alyssum, and pinks. Never set the bushes in holes dug
in the old sod (Fig. 75). The person who plants his shrubs in holes in
the sward does not seriously mean to make any foliage mass, and it is
likely that he does not know what relation the border mass has to
artistic planting. The illustration, Fig. 76, shows the office that a
shrubbery may perform in relation to a building; this particular
building was erected in an open field.
[Illustration: 76. A border group, limiting the space next the
residence and separating it from the fields and the clothes-yards.]
I have said to plant the bushes thick. This is for quick effect. It is
an easy matter to thin the plantation if it becomes too thick. All
common bushes may usually be planted as close as two to three feet
apart each way, especially if one gets many of them from the fields, so
that he does not have to buy them. If there are not sufficient of the
permanent bushes for thick planting, the spaces may be tilled
temporarily by cheaper or commoner bushes: but do not forget to remove
the fillers as rapidly as the others need the room.
_Making the lawn_.
The first thing to be done in the making of a lawn is to establish the
proper grade. This should be worked out with the greatest care, from
the fact that when a lawn is once made, its level and contour should
never be changed.
Preparing the ground.
The next important step is to prepare the ground deeply and thoroughly.
The permanence of the sod will depend very largely on the fertility and
preparation of the soil in the beginning. The soil should be deep and
porous, so that the roots will strike far into it, and be enabled
thereby to withstand droughts and cold winters. The best means of
deepening the soil, as explained in Chapter IV, is by tile-draining;
but it can also be accomplished to some extent by the use of the
subsoil plow and by trenching. Since the lawn cannot be refitted,
however, the subsoil is likely to fall back into a hard-pan in a few
years if it has been subsoiled or trenched, whereas a good tile-drain
affords a permanent amelioration of the under soil. Soils that are
naturally loose and porous may not need this extra attention. In fact,
lands that are very loose and sandy may require to be packed or
cemented rather than loosened. One of the best means of doing this is
to fill them with humus, so that the water will not leach through them
rapidly. Nearly all lands that are designed for lawns are greatly
benefited by heavy dressings of manure thoroughly worked into them in
the beginning, although it is possible to get the ground too rich on
the surface at first; it is not necessary that all the added plant-food
be immediately available.
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.
The mowing.
The mowing of the lawn should begin as soon as the grass is tall enough
in the spring and continue at the necessary intervals throughout the
summer. The most frequent mowings are needed early in the season, when
the grass is growing rapidly. If it is mown frequently—say once or
twice a week—in the periods of most vigorous growth, it will not be
necessary to rake off the mowings. In fact, it is preferable to leave
the grass on the lawn, to be driven into the surface by the rains and
to afford a mulch. It is only when the lawn has been neglected and the
grass has got so high that it becomes unsightly on the lawn, or when
the growth is unusually luxurious, that it is necessary to take it off.
In dry weather care should be taken not to mow the lawn any more than
absolutely necessary. The grass should be rather long when it goes into
the winter. In the last two months of open weather the grass makes
small growth, and it tends to lop down and to cover the surface
densely, which it should be allowed to do.
Fall treatment.
As a rule, it is not necessary to rake all the leaves off lawns in the
fall. They afford an excellent mulch, and in the autumn months the
leaves on the lawn are among the most attractive features of the
landscape. The leaves generally blow off after a time, and if the place
has been constructed with an open center and heavily planted sides, the
leaves will be caught in these masses of trees and shrubs and there
afford an excellent mulch. The ideal landscape planting, therefore,
takes care of itself to a very large extent. It is bad economy to burn
the leaves, especially if one has herbaceous borders, roses, and other
plants that need a mulch. When the leaves are taken off the borders in
the spring, they should be piled with the manure or other refuse and
there allowed to pass into compost (pages 110, 111).
If the land has been well prepared in the beginning, and its life is
not sapped by large trees, it is ordinarily unnecessary to cover the
lawn with manure in the fall. The common practice of covering grass
with raw manure should be discouraged because the material is unsightly
and unsavory, and the same results can be got with the use of
commercial fertilizers combined with dressings of very fine and
well-rotted compost or manure, and by not raking the lawn too clean of
the mowings of the grass.
Spring treatment.
Every spring the lawn should be firmed by means of a roller, or, if the
area is small, by means of a pounder, or the back of a spade in the
hands of a vigorous man. The lawn-mower itself tends to pack the
surface. If there are little irregularities in the surface, caused by
depressions of an inch or so, and the highest places are not above the
contour-line of the lawn, the surface may be brought to level by
spreading fine, mellow soil over it, thereby filling up the
depressions. The grass will quickly grow through this soil. Little
hummocks may be cut off, some of the earth removed, and the sod
replaced.
Watering lawns.
The common watering of lawns by means of lawn sprinklers usually does
more harm than good. This results from the fact that the watering is
generally done in clear weather, and the water is thrown through the
air in very fine spray, so that a considerable part of it is lost in
vapor. The ground is also hot, and the water does not pass deep into
the soil. If the lawn is watered at all, it should be soaked; turn on
the hose at nightfall and let it run until the land is wet as deep as
it is dry, then move the hose to another place. A thorough soaking like
this, a few times in a dry summer, will do more good than sprinkling
every day. If the land is deeply prepared in the first place, so that
the roots strike far into the soil, there is rarely need of watering
unless the place is arid, the season unusually dry, or the moisture
sucked out by trees. The surface sprinkling engenders a tendency of
roots to start near the surface, and therefore the more the lawn is
lightly watered, the greater is the necessity for watering it.
Sodding the lawn.
[Illustration: Fig. 77. Cutting sod for a lawn.]
Persons who desire to secure a lawn very quickly may sod the area
rather than seed it, although the most permanent results are usually
secured by seeding. Sodding, however, is expensive, and is to be used
only about the borders of the place, near buildings, or in areas in
which the owner can afford to expend considerable money. The best sod
is that which is secured from an old pasture, and for two or three
reasons. In the first place, it is the right kind of grass, the
June-grass (in the North) being the species that oftenest runs into
pastures and crowds out other plants. Again, it has been so closely
eaten down, especially if it has been pastured by sheep, that it has
made a very dense and well-filled sod, which can be rolled up in thin
layers. In the third place, the soil in old pastures is likely to be
rich from the droppings of animals.
[Illustration: Fig. 78. Economical sodding, the spaces being seeded.]
In taking sod, it is important that it be cut very thin. An inch and a
half thick is usually ample. It is ordinarily rolled up in strips a
foot wide and of any length that will allow the rolls to be handled by
one or two men. A foot-wide board is laid upon the turf, and the sod
cut along either edge of it. One person then stands upon the strip of
sod and rolls it towards himself, while another cuts it loose with a
spade, as shown in Fig. 77. When the sod is laid, it is unrolled on the
land and then firmly beaten down. Land that is to be sodded should be
soft on top, so that the sod can be well pounded into it. If the sod is
not well pounded down, it will settle unevenly and present a bad
surface, and will also dry out and perhaps not live through a dry
spell. It is almost impossible to pound down sod too firm. If the land
is freshly plowed, it is important that the borders that are sodded be
an inch or two lower than the adjacent land, because the land will
settle in the course of a few weeks. In a dry time, the sod may be
covered from a half inch to an inch with fine, mellow soil as a mulch.
The grass should grow through this soil without difficulty. Upon
terraces and steep banks, the sod may be held in place by driving
wooden pegs through it.
A combination of sodding and seeding.
An “economical sodding” is described in “American Garden” (Fig. 78):
“To obtain sufficient sod of suitable quality for covering
terrace-slopes or small blocks that for any reason cannot well be
seeded is often a difficult matter. In the accompanying illustration we
show how a surface of sod may be used to good advantage over a larger
area than its real measurement represents. This is done by laying the
sods, cut in strips from six to ten inches wide, in lines and
cross-lines, and after filling the spaces with good soil, sowing these
spaces with grass-seed. Should the catch of seed for any reason be
poor, the sod of the strips will tend to spread over the spaces between
them, and failure to obtain a good sward within a reasonable time is
almost out of the question. Also, if one needs sod and has no place
from which to cut it except the lawn, by taking up blocks of sod,
leaving strips and cross-strips, and treating the surface as described,
the bare places are soon covered with green.”
Sowing with sod.
Lawns may be sown with pieces of sods rather than with seeds. Sods may
be cut up into bits an inch or two square, and these may be scattered
broadcast over the area and rolled into the land. While it is
preferable that the pieces should lie right side up, this is not
necessary if they are cut thin, and sown when the weather is cool and
moist. Sowing pieces of sod is good practice when it is difficult to
secure a catch from seed.
If one were to maintain a permanent sod garden, at one side, for the
selecting and growing of the very best sod (as he would grow a stock
seed of corn or beans), this method should be the most rational of all
procedures, at least until the time that we produce strains of lawn
grass that come true from seeds.
Other ground covers.
Under trees, and in other shady places, it may be necessary to cover
the ground with something else than grass. Good plants for such uses
are periwinkle (_Vinca minor_, an evergreen trailer, often called
“running myrtle”), moneywort (_Lysimachia nummularia_),
lily-of-the-valley, and various kinds of sedge or carex. In some dark
or shady places, and under some kinds of trees, it is practically
impossible to secure a good lawn, and one may be obliged to resort to
decumbent bushes or other forms of planting.