YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 90, 14 March 1941, Page 44

YOUR GARDEN AND MINE

By

Ann Earncliff

Brown

(No. 61)

FEW weeks ago my lawn, or more my mown grass, .was just a stretch of brittle brown ends resembling the business end of a switch broom. Of course I bewailed the loss of cool green verdure, and prayed for rain. Now, having pushed a lawn mower over. radiantly green but rather too exuberantly revitalised lawn I’m just a little tired of nature’s response, and am almost in agreement with a friend who threatens to lay his city Ye acre in green concrete and paint a few flowers in suitable borders and beds. As he is an artist, naturally he has an advantage, but even he may be surprised at the initial cost of his labour saving green. Tennis enthusiasts. know how near perfection is the well laid concrete court, and those of us who have. felt asphalt or concrete, set in even the loveliest of lawns, to be a regrettable scar, are, losing all grounds for aesthetic objections. The new delightful green surface on cement courts has certainly taken away much of my personal preference for grass courtsbut alas! these are still very much luxury items.

However, I mow my grass in the cool _of evening, working till the light fails. Apart from the advantage of coolness, I find towards the last that I cover the ground surprisingly fast-that is, until daylight reveals the increasingly generous missed strips. I have strictly limited the area to be machine-mown these days. Beyond, the grass grows unchecked into its second and in places third haycrop. Until the scythe once more lays the’ grass in long swathes, I find myself enjoying wild flower posies gathered from this handkerchief meadow. I could add to this list, but of course I fear to shock you who have or aim to have a perfect lawn. Were I also seeking perfection, I would need to find some other locality, and begin bringing my lawn up in the way it should grow. The most obvious outcasts from this ideal lawn are dandelions, buttercups, daisies, white clover, moss, plaintain, and yarrow. All of these seed at midsummer, so of course I would treat them before they could drop their seed. If my lawn were small I’d weed surface rooting, yarrow and buttercup by hand, or use a tiny weeding fork. A special tool for progging dandelion roots right out would be needed. Working very carefully all over I’d then fill up the weed spaces with sand and lawn seed, and roll. Even so I would not be able to look on my ideal lawn, for,

as every lawn expert knows, weeds are great warriors against whoey ‘one wages endless war. If the lawn should be larger I could ‘use lawn ‘sand, or any. of the excellent ‘liquid’ weed killers now on the market. Or, I could perhaps afford an expert gardener. Meanwhile, I delight in your ideal lawns as I glimpse them in passing . but lie happily on my bit of mere grass. ir ""