Fill in the corners of the place. Round off the angularities. Throw a mass of herbage into the corner by the steps ([Fig. 93]): then you will not need to saw off the grass with a butcher knife. Plant a vine and some low plants along the foundations.
Fig. 93. The corner by the steps.
When these main or fundamental things are considered, then some of the incidental things may be considered. If you are fond of some particular plant, as the hydrangea, plant it in some prominent place in front of the shrub border. You may want a tree to shade a window or a porch: plant it. You may want a pile of odd stones and relics: put them in the back yard, or at the side, where you may enjoy them unmolested. You may have any kind of plant you want, only put it in the right place.
Have an eye to the views. Build your house with reference to them, if you can. Do not plant so as to hide the good ones. Plant heavily in the direction of offensive views. Plant so as to obscure the barnyard; or else move the barnyard back of the barn, or clean it up. Leave the front of the barn open: you want to see it from the house.
HOW TO DO THE WORK
The lawn, then, is the first consideration. It is the canvas on which we are to paint a picture of home and comfort. In many cases the yard is already level or well graded and has a good sod, and it is not necessary to plow and re-seed. It should be said that the sod on old lawns can be renewed without plowing it up. In the bare or thin places, scratch up the ground with an iron-toothed rake, apply a little fertilizer, and sow more seed. Weedy lawns are those in which the sod is poor. It may be necessary to pull out the weeds; but after they are out the land should be quickly covered with sod or they will come in again. Annual weeds, as pigweeds and ragweed, can usually be crowded out by merely securing a heavier sod. A little clover seed will often be a good addition, for it supplies nitrogen and has an excellent mechanical effect on the soil.
The ideal time to prepare the land is in the fall, before the heavy rains come. Then sow in the fall, and again in early spring on a late snow. However, the work may be done in the spring, but the danger is that it will be put off so long that the young grass will not become established before the dry, hot weather comes.
The best lawn grass for New York is June-grass, or blue-grass. Seedsmen know it as Poa pratensis. It weighs but 14 pounds to the bushel. Not less than three bushels should be sown to the acre. We want many very small stems of grass, not a few large ones; for we are making a lawn, not a meadow.
Do not sow grain with the grass seed. The June-grass grows slowly at first, however, and therefore it is a good plan to sow timothy with it, at the rate of two or three quarts to the acre. The timothy comes up quickly and makes a green; and the June-grass will crowd it out in a year or two. If the land is hard and inclined to be too dry, some kind of clover will greatly assist the June-grass. Red clover is too large and coarse for the lawn. Crimson clover is excellent, for it is an annual, and it does not become unsightly in the lawn. White clover is perhaps best, since it not only helps the grass but looks well in the sod. One or two pounds of seed is generally sufficient for an acre.