Evening star., 1925-04-13
Lawns and Watering.

A lawn is to a garden what a set
ting is to scene, or to be more
poetical, an accompaniment to a song,
enhancing il and bringing out its
melody. Therefore the amateur gard
ener should leave space for his lawn
in his earliest plans and get it well
under way by the time the floral pro-
cession starts.
Just here it might be well to offer
a suggestion about making a plan
for the garden, which is really as
essential as when building a house.
Every one loves to draw house plans,
and an equal amount of pleasure may
be had out of garden plans.
Take one-half inch ruled paper
each square standing for 10 feet, and
then draw your plan to scale. If the
house be already there, allow for that
space, then plan or change the roads
or paths.
These last should not be less than
four or five feet wide, and not too
many of them. cutting up the lawns
and flower beds; stepping stones may
replace paths with good effect.
After the plan of the garden is
made and the walks laid out, space
should be allowed for the lawn. The
ground must be graded and leveled,
then spaded, fertilized. raked and
lightly mulched with old manure or
straw to keep the watering from
packing the ground.
While sweet white clover makes a
satisfactory lawn, it requires more
water than grass, and on consulting
Mr.. Burgank, we find that he consid-
ers pure Kentucky blue grass better
than any lawn mixture, and that he
again urges care in buying seeds
from reputable seedsmen.
He has experimental with a number
of substitutes for grass, which he has
sought to adapt for lands of little
rain. Among these is the Chilean
lippia, which, while responding TO hy-
bridization, and producing several
good varieties, is too tender for
northern climates: also the mesem-
bryanthemum, a seacoast plant so eff
feCtively used in the grounds of the
Panama Pacific exposition; the vinca
major, a slender, running vine with
evergreen foliage, and the trailing
hypericum, also native of the
mountains of Chilli. Mr.. Burbank said
in this connection:
Several species of trailing hyperi-
cum have been received from Russia,
Siberia and the central or northern
Europe. and after experiment these
have shown a variation in rapid
growth, compactness and promise of
developing into a lawn plant suitable
LOT all ClllHdleS.
But until these new plants have
been perfected the established lawn
grass, such as Kentucky blue grass,
must still be relied on or in some
cases the coarser growing perennial
rye grass"
Watering a lawn is apparently a
simple process, but there is science
in it for all that. Irrigation itself
moves to a place in the front ranks
in the West where Summer rains are
absent and the water supply too often
a serious question.
But even on the Atlantic coast, where
rain is both frequent and free, there
are seasons where artificial water
ing is necessary, and lawns in particu-
lar must be looked after; moreover the
grass roots SO invade the entire sur
face that the supply Of water, however
generous, is soon used up.
Here is clearly a case for the best
methods of irrigation, and as Mr.. Bur-
banks says:
Gardens and lawns are not properly
watered by small sprinklers, as they do
not water evenly. The water is dis
tributed in such way that some parts