Amateur Gardencraft: A Book for the Home-Maker and Garden Lover

by Eben E. Rexford

Sowing lawn-grass seed evenly is an undertaking that most amateurs fail in. The seed is light as chaff, and every puff of wind, no matter how light, will carry it far and wide. Choose a still day, if possible, for sowing, and cross-sow. That is—sow from north to south, and then from east to west. In this way you will probably be able to get the seed quite evenly distributed. Hold the hand close to the ground, filled with seed, and then, as you make a circular motion from right to left, and back again, let the seed slip from between your fingers as evenly as possible. A little experimenting along this line will enable you to do quite satisfactory work. You may use up a good deal of seed in experimenting, but that will not matter. One common mistake in lawn-making is to use too little seed. A thinly-seeded lawn will not give you a good sward the first season, but a thickly-seeded one will. In fact, it will have that velvety look which is one of the chief charms of any lawn, after its first mowing. I would advise you to tell the dealer of whom you purchase seed the size of your lot, and let him decide on the quantity of seed required to make a good job of it.

In buying seed get only the very best on the market. But only of reliable dealers. By "reliable dealers" I mean such firms as have established a reputation for honesty and fair dealing all along the line. Such dealers have to live up to their reputations, and they will not work off upon you an inferior article as the dealer who has, as yet, no reputation to live up to may, and often does, charging you for it a price equal to, or beyond, that which the honest dealer would ask for his superior grade of seed. In order to have a fine sward it is absolutely necessary that you must have good seed. Cheap seed—and that means poor seed, always—does not contain the varieties of grasses necessary to the making of a rich, deep, velvety sward, and it almost always does contain the seeds of noxious weeds which will make your lawn a failure. Therefore patronize the dealers in whose honesty you have ample reason to have entire confidence, and buy the very best seed they have in stock.

After sowing, roll the surface of the lawn to imbed the seed in the soil, and make the ground firm enough about it to retain sufficient moisture to insure germination. In three or four days the tiny blades ought to begin to show. In a week the surface will seem covered with a green mist, and in a fortnight's time you will be able to see, with a little exercise of the imagination, the kind of lawn you are going to have. If the season is a dry one it may be well to sprinkle the soil every day, after sundown. Use water liberally, and keep on doing so until rain comes or the plants have taken hold of the moister soil below with their delicate feeding-roots.

I would not advise mowing until the grass is at least three inches high. Then clip lightly with a sharp-bladed mower. Just cut away the top of the grass. To mow close, while the grass is getting a start, is the worst thing you can do. When it begins to thicken up by stooling out, then, and not till then, will you be warranted in setting the mower so that it will cut closely. But never shear the sward, as some do. You will never have a turf like velvet if you do that. Let there be an inch and a half or two inches of the grass-blade left.

The importance of having good tools to work with, in taking care of the lawn, ought not to be overlooked. A mower whose blades are dull will tear the grass off, and make it look ragged, as if gnawed away by animals feeding on it, while the mower whose blades are of the proper sharpness will cut it as evenly and as neatly as if a razor had been applied to it. You cannot appreciate the difference until you have seen a specimen of each, and compared them.

Some persons advocate raking the lawn after each mowing. Others advise leaving the clippings to act as a sort of mulch. If the clippings are allowed to remain, they wilt, and this will detract from the appearance of the sward for a short time, but by the next day they will not be noticeable. Raking as soon as mowed makes the lawn more immediately presentable. I have never been able to see any great deal of difference in the two methods, except as to appearance, therefore I would advise the lawn-owner to try both methods and adopt the one that pleases him most. If a rake is used, let it be one with blunt teeth that will not tear the sward. There is such a rake on the market, its teeth being made of bent wire. On no account use a sharp-toothed iron rake. That is sure to injure the sward.

Be regular in your attention to the lawn. Do not let the grass get so tall that the mower will not do a good job in cutting it. This necessitates mowing at regular intervals. If you mow only once a week, I would advise the use of the rake, as long grass-clippings are always unsightly because they remain on top of the sward, while short clippings from frequent mowing sink into it, and are soon out of sight.

In case the lawn is neglected for a week or more, once going over it with the mower will not make it very presentable. Mow, and then rake, and then go over it again, cutting across the first swaths. The second cutting will result in an even surface, but it will not be as satisfactory as that secured by regular mowings, at intervals of two or three days.

It is a most excellent plan to scatter bonemeal over the surface of the lawn in midsummer, and again in fall. Use the fine meal, as the coarse article is not readily assimilated by the soil. There is little danger of using enough to injure the sward. Injury generally results from not using any.

Many lawn-owners, with a mistaken idea of neatness, rake up the leaves that scatter themselves over the sward in fall, thus removing the protection that Nature has provided for the grass. Do not do this. Allow them to remain all winter. They will be entirely hidden by the snow, if any falls, and if there is none they are not unsightly, when you cease to think of them as litter. You will appreciate the difference between a fall-raked lawn and one on which leaves have been allowed to remain over winter, when spring comes. The lawn without protection will have a brown, scorched look, while the other will begin to show varying tints of green as soon as the snow melts. Grass is hardy, and requires no protection to prevent winter-killing, but a covering, though slight, saves enough of its vitality to make it well worth while to provide it.