Evening star., 1938-09-17

ing Of the necessary humus.
~ So much Of our soil here,
and especially around the new home,
is absolutely without humus Of any
sort to hold the moisture for the
grass roots. During the spring and
fall when there is plenty Of rainfall
bluegrass does very well without hu-
mus. During the hot summers, how
ever. there Is nothing in the soil to
retain moisture and bluegrass dies
down. Therefore, it Is suggested that
in reworking any lawn, some form Of
humus, such as compost, leafmold,
peatmoss, or even well rotted manure
be incorporated in liberal quantities
Manure Is not particularly desirable
for lawns, as 1t contains q good many
weed seeds, and, Of course, We do not
want lawn full Of weeds.
September Is an excellent time of
the year to look over the garden and
lawn and plan for any changes which
need to be made. The value of max
ing plans in September is that work
can be done more leisurely and care
fully than later on. Also during early
September the lawn and garden are
probably at their poorest stage Of the
year. Having developed a plan, there
is ample opportunity and time for or
dering the new shrubs and plants and
to prepare for them Also it is well to
note those things which have made
the poorest showing and plan for re-
working the soil, supplying the neces-
sary fertilizer or to transplant to
more favorable situation.
While We ordinarily think Of daffo-
dis as needing we'll drained situa-
ton there are some types which can
stand much more moisture than 9TH
ers. The dwarf. very early blooming
varieties Of NarcissH minimus and
N. cyclamineus, such as February Gold
and March Sunshine, like a rather
moist situation. In fact, they fail
rather quickly in a dry spot In the
rock garden.
Now is the time to divide and reset
day lilies and Japanese iris. Day lilies
may be easily divided by digging the
clump, shaking the dirt from the roots
and placing it on the side where the
crowns may be pried apart. Each
crown Is made up Of tight bundle of
leaves and q group of roots. These
individual crowns readily break apart
with little pressure from the fingers,
This applies to most varieties except
those such as Margaret Perry and
Queen Of May. which spread by un-
derground suckers. They will have to
be cut apart.
In dividing the Japanese iris, they
should be lifted and cut apart either
with the spading fork or a strong
butcher knife, as the mass Of roots and
foliage makes 1t difncult to separate
the rhizomes. Oftentimes the Japa-
nese Iris are divided by taking q sharp
spade and making q vertical cut
through the clump. It might be well
to point out. however, that large
clumps Of both the day lilies and
Japanese iris are quite effective and
the only point in dividing them is to
increase the number Of clumps.
1t Is highly desirable to stake newly
planted trees and tall shrubs. The
fall is an ideal time for transplanting
many shrubs and trees, since the
period in which this can be safely
done is rather short in the spring.
During the early fall the soil Is dry
enough to be worked and there Is
sufficient moisture 80 that fall plant
ing is generally recommended. How
ever, since many Of the trees and
shrubs do not have suf1cient time to
become thoroughly rooted before cold
weather stops their growth, they
should be carefully staked so that
the winter winds will not break the
new roots loose. Deciduous shrubs
and trees moved in September and
early October should have their trunks
to reduce evaporation.
Three dwarf ANIMALS which were
tried out this year proved very in
teresting and desirable. Low-growing,
free blooming, and standing the sum-