The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Art Of Landscape Architecture
Next comes the establishment of the proper mechanical condition and the fertility of the soil, possibly the most important of all in the attainment of final success. It is not necessary in a book of this character to indicate in detail peculiarities of soil, but only to point out that grass spaces need for their most perfect development nitrogenous fertilizers from natural sources, organic products like humus, stable or cow or sheep manure, as distinguished from superphosphates of lime, potash, and bone meal: these latter fertilizers are best suited to orchards, and for vegetables that grow quickly in one season.
There is a valuable quality peculiar to stable manure of the right kind in its full strength that exactly suits the lawn, but the difficulty is to get such manure. It is either burned (firc-fanged) from neglect to turn it over and stir it up at the proper time, or it is mixed with poisonous disinfectants or sawdust or a superabundant amount of straw. So much for manure secured in the city. In the country no one wants to sell manure, especially the farmer who has use for all he can make. Consequently it is a good idea to make a storage place for all kinds of organic matter as well as ordinary manure and treat it with water and stir it and turn it over and drain it into a vat and thus develop and preserve its strength for future use. If stable manure is not available a good substitute for it is decomposed muck dried and pulverized and aerated.
As nature is apt to accomplish such work better and cheaper than man, it is a good idea to use a top dressing of muck soil taken from fields that have been used for trucking vegetables. This material when dried should contain about 80 per cent, humus with at least 31/2 per cent, ammonia. The ash or remainder should be mainly silica and lime and a minimum of .35 per cent.phosphoric acid and .40 per cent, potash. This, of course, may vary somewhat and still make a good top dressing.
Sandy ground as well as worn out ground is also greatly benefited by the application of a clay loam taken from good grass land or where crops have already thriven. The clay content of such loam should vary from 25 to 50 per cent., of the whole. This treatment may be said to be indispensable, in a way more so than manuring, to get the best results. Moreover, it should always be kept in mind that the problem is continually varying according to the nature of the special spot of land under consideration.
The use of clay, sand, lime, and stable manure or humus may seem to involve considerable expense. But their value for the establishment of a good lawn is great.
