LAWN RENOVATIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 318, 31 March 1928, Page 26

LAWN RENOVATIONS

POINTS WORTH NOTING IP inclined to be mossy: Dress with weathered soot until the grass has a definite blackish tinge. If the soot is applied just before a shower, it will not long remain unsightly, being washed out of sight in a few days. IC very mossy: Dress with the following: Sand 141 b.; sulphate or iron £lb. this amount being sufficient for one rod of lawn. A week later rake out the dead moss with a short-toothed rake, scarifying the surface thoroughly. If inclined to be wet or if the soil is sour: Dress with fresh-slaked lime at the rate of lib. per square yard. A week later plunge a garden fork into the turf to its full depth all over the lawn. This is an excellent aid to drainage. If rather poor: Dress lightly with sifted compost consisting of good mould, leaf soil and a little rotted manure and soot. A dressing of basic slag at the rate of Jib. to the square yard is also an excellent tonic. Bone meal (2oz. per square yard) and patent lawn manures again are helpful. If somewhat unlevel: Dress with sifted road sweepings, smoothing them down with a straight-edged board so that they fill up hollows. The grass will soon come through the layer, the lawn very quickly having a normal appearance. Periodical rolling through the autumn and winter is very necessary, although it may be added that the old idea that it was good to roll a lawn until it looked black and distressed is entirely exploded. Much, and heavy, rolling, especially in wet weather, turns the soil hard and sour, and the grass as a result becomes weakened and bad in colour. No gardener should ever roll just after hard rain, or expect the roller to do the work of a careful lawn maker. It is true the roller helps to keep a lawn level when once it has been made so, but the roller cannot do the work of levelling. AJI little elevations should be reduced by lifting the turf and taking away a little soil, while soil must be put under the grass to fill a hollow. The autumn is by far the best time for weeding a lawn, as all signs of the work will be gone long before it is used again. Unfortunately there is no magic process that will get rid of the weeds on a lawn at little trouble and expense; even a lawn sand does not kill the larger weeds, accounting only for daisies and other small fry. Persistent hand weeding is the only real remedy, the shallow rooting subjects being lifted by means of a worn tv' knife or, better still, one of the sp cial daisy grubbers sold for the purpose and those too deeply embedded to be removed being killed by dipping a pointed stick in a strong solution of weed killer, one to eight of water 4s of sufficient strength. Care should be taken to replace the little lumps of turf too often brought up with the weeds and to fill any small holes with tine soil having a few grass seeds mixed with it. ANSWERS TO PUZZLED GARDENERS W.C.W., Te Awamutu. —The bloom submitted is probably a seedling of excellent quality and one well worthy of cultivation. It belongs to the giant show class and is probably a cross between a pompom and a decorative. Trees, South Auckland. —The tree . sample submitted stands plenty of ] pruning. First allow the trunk to reach a height that will enable you to , stand underneath its branches, as I presume you are cultivating for shade. Then top all the branches, cutting hard back to a bu 1 on the outside so that the new growth will grow In a horizon- 1 tal shape. ] This can be yearly cut back to with- f in a foot of tha previous year’s growth in all directions.