A WEED-FREE LAWN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22102, 4 November 1933, Page 7

A WEED-FREE LAWN

The novice; faced with a weedy lawn, need not despair. The results that can be obtained by a little painstaking labour during the summer mouths, coupled with correct general treatment of the turf, are surprising. Many weeds cannot survive regular close clipping, nor compete with the finer grasses in soil that has been brought into a highly fertile condition by aeration and correct manuring; while others are readily eradicated with daisy fork and knife. Just a few are incorrigible, and deffiand drastic treatment, but it must be a very bad piece of grass indeed that is entirely beyond repair. , ' First, the beginner must learn to distinguish between annual and perennial weeds. The former live for one season only, and perpetuate themselves by seed. If they can be prevented from flowering they will soon die out altogether. Irequently constant clipping is sufficient. Perennial weeds are more troublesome, as they continue to live year after year, even though no seed is produced. ' Annual weeds that are likely to appear freely in newly-flown grass are chickweed, groundsel, scentless mayweed, spurry, goosefoot, shepherd’s purse, and sow thistle. With the exception of the last two, all will disappear after one season if the grass is kept closely cut nnd w encouraged to grow freely. Shepherd s purse and sow thistle are able to adapt themselves to some extent to mowing, and so must be cut out below the surface with a knife before they have a chance to flower. Two classes of perennial weeds are particularly troublesome, namely, those that creep and those that make long, straight roots, known by the gardener as “ tap roots.” To the former group belong daisies, mouse-eared chickweed, clover, creeping buttercup, self-heal, and yarrow of milfoil. Every piece must be destroyed or growth will recommence, and the weedy patch will soon be as bad as ever. With the exception of daisies, a steel-toothed rake is of great service in ridding established turf of these intruders. A vigorous raking occasionally, before mowing and rolling, will pull out many of the creeping roots. This should be followed up by a dusting of lawn sand or finelypowdered sulphate of ammonia knd sulphate of iron. Unless the weeds are very firmly established, those that remain after such treatment may be removed with the aid of a daisy fork—a small two or threepronged fork, which is used to lift weeds, roots and all, without disturbing the surrounding turf overmuch. Occasionally patches of creeping weeds may be found so dense that treatment is useless. In such cases the simplest course is to cut out the weed-ridden portioh to a depth of two inches with the aid of a sharp lawn edging tool and a spade and replace with clean turf. Spring and autumn are the best seasons for doing such work, but rather than let such harmful weeds spread any further returfing should be carried out at any time during the growing season. A little care in the way of watering will be necessary if the weather is hot, but, granted this, turves cut two inches thick will soon re-estab-lish themselves. As already stated, raking is of no service with daisies. These are so prolific that single leaves, if broken off, are capable of emitting roots and forming a new plant. It will be apparent that vigorous treatment with a rake would merely result in many such pieces being districted & over the lawn, together with a certain amount of finely-powdered soil,, which would form an ideal rooting medium. The daisy fork and either lawn sand or the mixture of sulphate of ammonia and sulphate of iron already referred to, are the two remedies. The mixture is prepared with three parts of sulphate of ammonia, one part of sulphate of iron, and twenty parts of fine silver sand, all by weight, thoroughly incorporated, and evenly scattered over the surface at the rate of three ounces per square yard in dry weather. The most economical method, both with this and the various commercial brands of lawn sand, is to use them only upon weedy patches. It is a mistake to broadcast them all over the lawn. An old tin with numerous holes pierced in the lid may be used as a canister for distribution. A couple of garden linos should be stretched across the lawn to mark off a strip one yard in width. When this has been dealt with, one of the lines is shifted to indicate the next yard. In this way the whole lawn will be covered systematically, and the task of applying the correct dose and no more—an important matter — greatly facilitated. Only a small quantity of lawn sand should be placed in the canister at a time. Enough to cover two square yards is a convenient amount. With the aid of the lines it is easy to estimiate an area of one square yard (a yard each way), and scatter the necessary three ounces evenly over this. It must not be forgotten that an area half a yard each way is not half a square yard, but a quarter of a square yard, and so requires only three-quarters of an ounce of lawn sand. An overdose at one time may do cohsiderable damage, but further applications can be given, if necessary, at intervals of three weeks. . Two species of grass are common pests on lawns. One is known as cocksfoot, nnd the other as Yorkshire fog. The former makes coarse clumps that impede the progress of the lawn mower, and gradually spread over the smaller grasses and choke them. Yorkshire fog is softer in growth, but even more spreading and destructive. Both must be removed bodily, as already advised in the case of bad patches of creeping weeds. The commonest tap-rooted perennial weeds are dandelions and hawkweed. There are two effective methods of eradication. One is to drive a spade deep down into the soil on both sides of the weed and about three inches removed from it. Press the handles of the spades away from one another, and so heave up the soil in which the tap root is buried. If the plant is firmly grasped by the crown, it may be drawn out entire. The difficulty with this type of weed is that any portion of root left in the soil will grow again. The second line of attack consists in piercing the tap root with an iron skewer dipped in sulphuric acid. Care must be taken not to allow the acid to drop on surrounding grass, and it is necessary that the spike should pierce the root as deeply as possible. The acid burns the tissue, and causes the death of the whole plant. Though plantains do not come under the heading of cither creeping or taprooted weeds, they are very troublesome and persistent. Fortunately, they are particularly susceptible to lawn sand, and can usually be exterminated in a few seasons by applications of this, followed up by regular use of the daisy fork.

Finally, ns regards feeding. It is important to realise that grass that is well nourished is its own best defender, for it tends to choke out all new intruders before they have a chance of establishing themselves. So a regular programme of soil culture and enrichment should be looked upon as a principal item in the

programme against weeds. Complete feeding ig what is required—that is to say, one item of plant food should not be given to the exclusion of all others. — Plantsman, in Amateur Gardening.