Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-20

Now begins the evening Of the garden.
About this time every year occurs
that most delightful time, when the
noon of the garden is past and the
harsh sunlight is over.
The sun still shines in the heavens
but its rays are filtered through mil
lions Of miles of space, and come to us
seemingly from the horizon.
The morning of the garden came in
Spring.
High noon has just ended, that period
normally extending from July Is to
August Is, in our personal calculations.
1t is evening in the garden now, but
it will be many hours" yet before dark
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Surely there are few times in the
home garden more beautiful than the
present,
Even Spring, with its flowers, its new
freshness of grass. shrubs and trees, its
vivid feel of rejuvenation, scarcely COM
pares with the present time.
Or, at least, we have forgotten how
lovely Spring was, and viii not know
again until next year.
Spring is a charmer whose blandish-
mentS fade when she Is gone.
1t is ''out Of sight, out of mind"
ever, brings GOODNESS, and green grass,
and roses.
Grass blades start to grow again,
and if seed is put In now. or perhaps
two weeks from now, there will be thou
sands of new plants in the world which
were only seed before.
Even now tender shoots are springing
chow impossible it is to get away from
that world between the coarser blades
There is new grass everywhere. forming
an undercarpet Of lighter green, which,
catching the CLINT OF the sun, forms
those spots Of contrast with the older
grass which are always the delight of
lovers of good grass.
Lawns hook better now than they did
during the early days of the month.
Perhaps this is due TO the fact that the
wise householder has refrained for some
time from removing the clippings.
Cut grass becomes a mania with
many. They resent so much as a blade
being left after moving. No doubt
they err, particularly at this time. For
various obscure reasons clippings help
lawns now. 1t was all very well to
catch them In hoppers early in the year
or to remove them with rakes, to be
carted away afteTward.
Now they do best on, and with the
decline in the suns heat ordinarily do
not wither and become yellow, as pre-
ivously. Perhaps the mulch which they
form helps the growth Of new grass.
This is matter something like that
Of growing ones own seed. We were
pleased to see The Stars garden CORE
spondent last Sunday advise home
owners against the old-time practice of
collecting seed from their own plants
Such seed often is not as good as fresh
seed bought from professional growers,
probably mostly owing to the fact that
the men who make seed a business
must grow better seed, packed with vim
and vigor, and to accomplish this they
use more fertilizer than home growers.
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At this point we would say warning
against setting a lawn mower to cut
too close. This is common practice,
but one against which there are several
good reasons.
In the first place, few lawns are good
enough to be shaved, as it were. It
might be practicable to shave a perfect
sward, but every gardener knows that
such are few and far between.
In the second place, too close moving
tends to cut into the very soil itself,
digging up roots and leaving bare earth
showing.
Third, the grass always looks better