It's March and this means that lawns in the Midwest are in need prompt attention. No other element in the development of the home grounds adds so much to their beauty and attractiveness as a good lawn. It is the lawn which carpets the open spaces and gives a proper setting for the house and garden. A good turf prevents erosion in rainy weather and keeps down dust in times of drought. Surely the well-kept lawn is a source of pride and joy to the owner. A lawn means grass. So far there is no substitute. It may vary from poor to excellent and still be a lawn. Most folks have learned that nature will provide a green cover for the lawn area and are content with that arrangement. About all this kind of lawn needs is an occasional good, close mowing. Some folks are not so easily pleased. They consider the lawn as a thing of beauty, a green, uniform, well-kept carpet, which plays an important part in the landscape picture. Such a lawn is not possible unless certain definite rules are followed. Thus far, Kentucky bluegrass is our best lawn grass, because of its fine texture, good color, freedom from disease and insects, manner of growth and extreme hardiness. A good bluegrass turf cannot be established in one season, but two or three years are required even under proper management. Early fall is usually a better time to sow bluegrass seed, but with most lawns brown at that season or taken over by crabgrass, people easily put off the job until spring. If the lawn is above the average now and has a fairly good stand of bluegrass, sow only lawn bluegrass seed; but if the lawn is just average, use a mixture of five parts bluegrass, three parts redtop and two parts domestic rye grass. For spring seeding, five pounds of white clover may be added to 95 pounds of grass mixture if you want to cut expenses on lawn seed fertilizer. White clover, redtop and rye grass germinate quickly and will soon cover the bare spots and serve as a nurse crop for the slower germinating bluegrass. The present high price of bluegrass should be an incentive for folks to use less seeds than the customary two or four pounds per 1000 square feet and to do the job more thoroughly and more effectively. Four pounds of good bluegrass seed would have around 8,000,000 seeds. At the rate of four pounds per 1000 square feet, we would be seeding around 8000 seeds per square foot or 55 seeds per square inch. If all these seeds germinated and grew, certainly the stand would be so thick that weak, spindly plants would result.
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