PATCHY LAWNS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

PATCHY LAWNS.

HOW TO TOPDRESS. Autumn is a good time for levelling and topdressing lawns. A patchy lawn never looks well, and yet it is a lot of work to dig up and resow. In fact if the drainage is good and preparation was good in the first place, it is not advisable to dig it up for rosowing. A well-kept lawn 20 years old is much better than one two years old, if, of course, the older lawn has a good sward of grass and is not mostly weeds. A patchy lawn should huve all weeds dug out, it is useless to leave them and think you can smother them by topdressing. Digging out or killing by the use of sulphuric acid to the centre of the plant are the means of riddance. After the weeds arc out break the surface of the bare patches by pricking with the garden fork. This should give you at ieast about an inch of loose, fine soil for sowing the seed. An application of manure should be given, and for the general lawn nothing equals basic slag;

a little sulphate of ammonia can be given, but this is best applied later on when the grass is up. Sow the seed not to thick, but not too thinly. Seed is cheap, and it pays to sow fairly thick so as to get a good, thick covering quickly. Cover the seed with some fine soil. If it is possible to use sterilised soil all the better, because it means less weeds, but if not, choose a fine, sandy soil, in fact a mixture of half soil and half sand is a good covering medium. Rake well and protect from birds. When grass is up, do not start putting the mowing machine over it too soon, let it grow and make a plant. When the grass is about Gin high it can have the tops cut off with the scythe or shears, but to get >'. good sward the machine should not be used till the spring. Rolling when the ground is not too wet is advisable.