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How to
Grow a Lawn on a Hill
From the book
Gardening for Pleasure, 1888
It is exceedingly difficult to get a growth of grass from seed on
a sloping bank at an angle of even fifteen degrees, because a
heavy shower of rain on the sloping bank would wash off the fresh
soil before the grass seed has formed enough roots to hold the
young grass in place. To remedy this, the following plan will be
found most effective. To an area fifteen by twenty-three hundred
square feet-or in this proportion, be the area large or small,
take two quarts of lawn grass seed and mix it with four bushels of
rather stiff soil, to which add two bushels of cow manure*; mix
the whole with water to the consistency of thin mortar. This
mixture is to be spread on the sloping bank, first having
scratched the surface of the bank with a rake. It should be spread
as thinly as will make a smooth and even surface; in short, just
as plaster is spread on a wall. The grass seed will start rapidly,
and quickly make a sod of the richest green, its smooth, hard
surface preventing its being furrowed out by the rains. It will be
necessary, until the grass has fully covered the surface, to keep
the plastered bank covered with hay or straw to prevent the
covering from drying or cracking.
*This is a rough,
barn manure with hay as a prime ingredient. If you don't keep a
cow, a mixture of grass clippings, peat moss and commercial
fertilizer should work as well.
Dandelions
From Vick's
Monthly Magazine, 1886
Fix a long handle to a sharp chisel and thrust it into the soil by
the side of a Dandelion plant, and cut it off below the surface.
In most cases they will not start again. Some weeds are very
tenacious of life, and a common one of this kind is the Burdock.
Having its head cut off does not seem to prevent its starting
again. We have found a good way to manage this plant by cutting it
off just below the surface of the ground, removing the top part,
and then pouring a few drops of kerosene oil on the cut surface of
the root; it appears to penetrate and destroy it wholly.
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