Читать книгу Plant Combinations for an Abundant Garden - A. & G. Bridgewater - Страница 26

Lawns not only help to define and unify spaces, they also lead the eye from one area to another. If you want to increase the apparent size of your garden, run the lawns through and around the beds; if you want to chop the space into “rooms,” have individual areas of lawn. A lawn is a great, low-cost, easy-maintenance, hardwearing but soft, self-renewing, multi-purpose surface for all the family. Remember to choose a grass type to suit your particular needs.

Why are lawns so important?

LAWN DESIGN

A lawn can be used for physical activities such as playing games, as a design feature, such as in a formal garden where the lawn is seen as a visual pattern-making device that links beds and paths, or as a functional path-like form that leads from one area of the garden to another. From a practical mowing point of view, the ideal lawn has a smooth-curved outline, with the edge set slightly higher than the surrounds so that the lawnmower can be run over the edge.

PREPARING THE SITE

Till to a depth of 3–4 in (7–10 cm). Remove stones and perennial weeds, break up large clods, and pick up debris. On a day when the ground feels dry, rake over the plot. Work systematically and firm the soil with a rented roller designed for this purpose.

MAINTENANCE

At regular intervals throughout the growing season, you need to mow the lawn, water it in dry spells, trim the edges, aerate, rake up dead grass, and topdress to fill hollows and improve vigor. Feeding with fertilizer should only be done if and when the need arises.

LAWN EDGING OPTIONS

The lawn edging can be anything from a row of bricks hidden away just below the surface of the ground through to a trench full of pea gravel, a nicely cut edge where the lawn meets a flower bed, or a line of fancy tiles set on edge. There are many options.

Wooden boards fixed to stakes

Ready-made logroll

Round-nose tiles on edge

Soldier bricks set on end

Fancy rope-edge tiles

Bricks set at an angle

Sowing seed

• Buy a seed mixture that suits your needs.

• Pick a day when the soil is dry underfoot – either in the autumn or spring – and go over the whole site, gently raking the surface.

• Seeding in fall is the best option largely because grass can continue to grow at slightly lower temperatures than most weeds. So a lawn started in early fall gives the grass an edge over competing plants.

• Kill any existing lawn or weeds with a herbicide recommended by a local garden center or with black plastic sheeting.

• Watering grass seed and newly sprouted grass is critical to its survival and thriving growth.

• Try to stay off of newly sprouted grass and keep pets and children away.

Laying turf

• Use string and a couple of stakes to set a straight guideline along one edge of the site.

• Make sure that the weather is going to stay fine, check the size of the sod rolls with the supplier – mostly they measure about 1 ft (30 cm) wide and 3 ft (90 cm) long – and then order slightly more turf than you think you will need.

• Starting from the guideline, lay the first row of turf and gently ease and tamp them into place.

• When you come to the second row, cut the first piece into half and then continue butting the second row hard against the first – so that the end joints are staggered from row to row, like a brick pattern.

• Continue working across the site, standing on a plank on the turf that has just been put down, and always looking towards the next line of turf that needs to be put down.

• When the turf has been down for about a week, use a half-moon edging iron or an old bread knife to trim and shape curved edges.

• Watering newly lain sod is critical to its survival. The deeper roots that grass develops have been cut off, so the grass needs daily watering for several weeks depending on your soil and the weather.