Crisp blue skies and coloring sumac spell many things—the heady aroma of an evening campfire, football around the corner, and glorious, less encumbered weekends to putter outdoors. For the Midwest, gardening is mostly under a continental climate of hot, dry summers, and this is, above all else, during the lawning season. From August in the … Read more
August is the most crucial month for the home lawn. You may look out on your lawn and say: “It sure is! It looks terrible.” If you want your lawn to look its best next August, it is time to do something about it. Let’s take a look at your midsummer lawn and see what … Read more
August is a good time to start a new lawn, improve a poor one, or encourage a good one, and transplant or plant evergreens and certain important perennials. In many respects, this is the best time of year to start a new lawn. The soil is warm, the weather is settled, and perhaps most important, … Read more
Reliable manufacturers build their machines to give you at least 10 years of normal use. Yet, so many times, power equipment gets less attention between usings than an ordinary paintbrush. For instance, normal weekly care of a mower, takes far less time than it does to cut your lawn—and can save big repair bills—while season’s … Read more
Gardening is fun and should be kept that way. Gone are the days when chores like preparing the soil, mowing the lawn, trimming the hedge, cutting off the whiskers around the edges of lawns, trees, and fences, cutting brush, or moving heavy loads have to be hard work. Now you can breeze through mowing several … Read more
Interest in power lawn mowers continues to increase each year. As people take more pride in good lawns, they seek quicker and easier ways of mowing. To meet this need, manufacturers have perfected power lawn mowers to the point where there is a reliable machine to fit the lawn and pocketbook of most people. Two … Read more
It seems rather strange that practical tools for aerating the lawn were only made available to homemakers after this. There is nothing new about the principle involved. Soil tends to become compacted for various reasons. This reduces the amount of air in the ground. It also limits water penetration, resulting in the grass becoming shallow-rooted … Read more
Despite the widely-held and much-enjoyed belief to the contrary, the secret of luxuriant grass is not necessarily lots of water, certainly NOT quantities of water sprinkled with short-lived abandon whenever the mood hits the hose-happy gardener. Indeed, the best watering practice for your particular lawn may well be not to water. To exercise noble restraint, … Read more
Is your lawn thin, weedy, or moss-infested? Do you find it impossible to grow grass under shade trees? Have you tried sowing this seed or that with no results other than a bright green cover for a few months, which is then gradually taken over by weeds? Don’t be discouraged if you have had one … Read more
For some obscure reason, the average homeowner bogs down almost completely when faced with the necessity of choosing grass for a new lawn. Instead, he may talk authoritatively and at length on the merits of 100 different rose varieties. He can exhaustively discuss the disease or insect tolerances and fertility requirements of various annuals in … Read more