Authors: Margery Fish
Another garden we knew was ruined for Walter because the paths were too narrow and completely out of proportion to everything else. He liked breadth and generosity and a feeling of spaciousness in the garden as well as the house, and the elimination of all unnecessary detail.
One of the things we tried to do was to make the garden as much part of the house as possible. It was easier for us than some people because we made the garden round the house, and the construction of the house helped. The big door in the hall, where we always sat, opens directly into the garden. The hall is paved with flagstones and we paved the garden outside, which is on the same level. It was difficult to tell where one ended and the other began, in point of fact a great deal of the garden usually came into the house with me, and attention was continually being drawn to the shoe scraper and door-mat! In the summer the garden door is open all the time and we are always in and out. The front garden we paved too, and as the only way to reach it is through the house or round the road there were more reprimands when I carried baskets of plants or weeds through the house. In the winter there is always a wood fire smouldering on the open hearth in the hall, and it makes a wonderful funeral pyre for dangerous weeds, and a convenient source of supply when potash or charcoal are required for garden operations.
And so our lawn was taken right up to the high wall. I was grudgingly allowed a narrow bed in which to plant a few perennials and the climbers that were to clothe the wall, but I was warned that it was not to encroach too much on the precious green grass.
We were lucky in having one tree in the garden, a variegated sycamore. That was the tree we saw through the open door the day we decided to buy the house, and today it is the only thing that remains in the garden from those days. It is in the lawn, rather near the house, and the aspect would be very bleak without it. It is one of the tragedies of a new garden that all the trees must necessarily be very small, and I think we were extremely lucky to find one ready grown for us.
It took us several weeks to make our lawn. Making a lawn isn’t just a matter of raking the surface and sowing grass seed. Certainly it wasn’t for us. First of all the ground was by no means level and had to be levelled by driving in pegs at intervals. A long strip of wood with a spirit level strapped to it is placed on top of the pegs to get the right level.
We made all the mistakes imaginable because we were in such a hurry to get the job done. Our worst mistake was not to put in drainage. In light sandy or gravel soils this is not necessary but heavy clay like ours needs draining. A simple way of doing it is to dig a diagonal trench across the lawn, with a slight drop of an inch in a yard, to a corner where a pit is made filled with clinker (our brickbats could have been used). Agricultural pipes are put in the trench, covered with clinker, then gravel and lastly with earth. Tributary drains run into the main drain on each side, filled with clinker, gravel and earth. I have often considered draining our lawn but there never seems to be an opportunity for such a big operation, and we continue to have soggy patches where moss grows luxuriantly.
Another mistake we made was not to remove all the top soil before we started levelling. Walter thought it was sufficient to put some good sifted soil on top of the levelled ground, but I am sure one reason why we have such a poor lawn is because a lot of the infertile subsoil came to the top during the levelling process, and the precious bacteria and humus-laden top soil got buried under neath. I admit we grow excellent daisies and plaintain in our lawn but I am sure there is not sufficient depth of good soil under it to produce grass of velvety texture that is the hall-mark of a good lawn.
Sowing should be done in April or September. We chose September, and late September at that, but we should have done better to allow the soil to settle until the spring. We had to wait several days before the weather was right. It is no good sowing grass seed in a high wind, nor after heavy rain. The ideal moment is when the ground is not too dry and when a soft gentle rain is going to start after the sowing is done!
The levelled top soil should really be allowed to settle before it is raked to a fine tilth. Next the surface has to be firmed. We used a light roller, and this is quite satisfactory if the soil is not wet enough to stick to it. I have heard of people putting a sack of sand on a flat board and dragging that over the surface, and I believe in the old days gardeners had large flat wooden boards which they fastened to their feet with leather straps, rather like snow shoes.
It is most important to sow the seed evenly, and for this a double sowing is best. The lawn is divided by lines into sections a yard square. An ounce of grass seed is allowed for each square yard, and the first sowing is done walking up and down the lawn. Then the process is repeated walking across the lawn. We found the easiest way to get the right amount of seed was to measure it and for this we found a wineglass that just held an ounce.
After the seed is sown it must be raked well so that it is covered with earth, and then the surface has to be firmed again. After that we require gentle rain but, if it is not forthcoming, artificial watering must take its place, using a spray or a fine rose. The idea is to have the seed as closely embraced by damp earth as possible so that when germination takes place there are no air pockets to discourage the tiny thrusting roots. Birds sometimes enjoy a meal of grass seed, so it is really safest to cotton the ground after sowing.
Once a lawn is made it really should not require a lot of attention if it is cut regularly. To keep it in good condition a light dressing of granulated peat mixed with a little bonemeal and dried blood should be given in the winter. If there are weeds a selective weed-killer is used at the end of March, and in April a dressing of lawn sand will encourage new growth. Moss can be removed by raking and if rolling is done a spiked roller should be used to aerate the soil. Rolling with an ordinary roller does more harm than good, particularly with very heavy soils. The use of a lawn mower regularly gives it all the rolling it needs.
The question of dealing with the edge of a lawn is always a problem. If a paved path borders it there is no trouble, provided the path is slightly lower than the lawn so that the mower will not touch it when cutting the edge of the grass. But if a gravel path is next to the lawn there is always difficulty. The earth from the lawn inevitably falls on the gravel path, however carefully it is trimmed, and inevitably there is a crop of weeds at the edge of the path.
In the grand old gardens, which were made when cost did not matter, very often a neat stone coping was let into the ground, with a little gully between it and the lawn so that the mower could be used right up to the edge of the lawn. The gardens at Montacute House have neat rounded curbs of the local hamstone between all the lawns and paths. Very neat edgings can be made of concrete— not so awful as they sound because the concrete can be tinted to match the prevailing colour of the local stone, and then if they are still too new and glaring application of manure water will give them a weathered look.
We used stones between our lawn and the drive, but not even formal stones. Having enormous piles of rough hamstone from the various walls we had taken down, we thought it would be a good idea to build a low wall between the lawn and what was to be the drive. Our stones were all shapes and sizes but we chose the biggest and flattest and arranged them on top of each other, with earth between, to make a wall about eighteen inches high.
This was my first attempt at dry-stone-walling and I found it so fascinating that I repeated it in other parts of the garden. Between the stones and in every available crevice I tucked alpine plants. To begin with I hadn’t very much beside white arabis and stonecrops, with some rock campanula, but now the little wall is much more interesting, with great mounds of lemon alyssum and rock roses, lavenders and helichrysums, erigerons and cheiranthus, and occasional groups of dwarf iris and
Campanula carpatica
on lower levels. Walter was very pleased with our first wall and egged me on to make others, but he was less enthusiastic as time went on as he thought I was spending too much time ‘poking belly-crawlers into rat-holes’ instead of doing jobs he thought more important.
I made quite a deep gully between the lawn and the little wall, to give room for the mower, and that I endeavour to keep weeded, the grass cut regularly and the edges nicely trimmed.
I cannot stress too much the importance of well-cut grass, good paths and well-trimmed hedges. With wifely stubbornness I am afraid I used to argue the point in my husband’s lifetime, resenting his oft repeated assertion that my part of the garden—the flowers— didn’t really matter. I know now that he was right when he said that the four essentials of a good garden are perfect lawns, paths, hedges and walls. No matter how beautiful they are, if the surroundings are unkempt, the flowers would give no pleasure, whereas one could have a perfectly good and satisfying garden without any flowers at all. I used to argue this point most heatedly but I have come to agree with him wholeheartedly. We all know how restful and beautiful a purely formal garden of grass and shaped trees can be. Italian gardens are lovely, and some of the formal gardens surrounding our stately homes would be spoilt by the introduction of flower-beds. And we all know the feeling of dissatisfaction of seeing a garden full of the most wonderful plants, everything rare and exotic, but quite ruined by weeds, unkempt lawns and untidy paths. Walter would no more have left his grass uncut or the edges un-trimmed than he would have neglected to shave. Do not think that he did not like flowers. He did very much, if they were properly grown and the setting was good. But he always looked at a garden as a whole, and the perfection of one plant did not compensate for neglect elsewhere.
When it came to the job of making paths I discovered that this was a subject on which Walter had very strong views, and I had many lectures on how to achieve perfection. He felt that there was nothing to beat a good gravel path, and a good gravel path was so hard that nothing would spoil the surface and weeds would find no foothold.
Turning the barton into a well-made drive, big enough to take a dozen cars, was a big operation. We were lucky in being spared the problem of drainage. There is a big slope from the malthouse to the gate-as friends have discovered when they have not braked their cars properly!
The first thing we had to do was to level the surface, and then dig out the foundation. A good foundation is the secret of a good drive, we had it and there has never been any trouble since. I often wish we had taken as much trouble with our lawn as we did with the drive.
We had to dig out to a depth of nine and a half inches. Some of the stuff we removed could be used again, but it had to be sieved and the soil carted off to another part of the garden. The first layer was five inches of broken bricks and rubble—of which we had any amount. The garden boy rolled, Walter rammed and I sprinkled with the watering can. We rolled and rammed, rammed and rolled until the surface was as firm and level as a billiard table. The greatest care had to be taken at the edges of the drive, for that is where there is least traffic, and if there is any excuse at all the weeds grow there first.
The next layer was of finer stuff, ashes and clinker, to a depth of three inches. Again we rolled and watered over and over again until it was smooth and firm. There is no short cut to these operations but the heavier the roller used the quicker will perfection be reached.
Not less than an inch and a half of gravel had to be used for the top layer, and the laying of this was the longest operation of all, but the time and trouble we took paid us amply in the end.
First of all Walter had heaps of gravel dumped at regular intervals on the drive and then team work began. Walter spread the gravel, I watered it well and then the garden boy rolled. Each foot of drive was rolled and rolled and rolled, with a sprinkling of water between each rolling. Walter’s theory was that the more you rolled the harder the surface, and the harder the surface the fewer the weeds. We took particular trouble again at the edges, for it is here that gravel is often loose and you really can’t blame weeds for growing there.
It is quite important to see that the colour of the gravel goes well with your house and surroundings. Some gravel is really violent in colour and shrieks at everything in sight. But with a little trouble it is quite easy to find gravel or chippings that will harmonize with the garden scheme. When we first contemplated our drive we called on the local builder and asked if it would be possible to get fine ham-stone chippings to harmonize with our hamstone house. That was not practicable but we were put on the track of some gravel that went with our house beautifully.
Every time we had heavy rain the drive and paths had to be rolled. It is very difficult to make the average garden help see the necessity for this, particularly in our rural corner where gardening from the village point of view is mostly vegetable growing, and paths and lawns quite a new idea. We had one boy who really enjoyed rolling the drive. He said it was a job after his own heart as he didn’t have to think, and being very strong it was no effort to him to pull the heavy roller. He rolled very slowly too, which is the secret of good rolling. We lost him, alas, early in the war and never again did we have a good drive. Rolling was a job everyone shunned, and if it was done at all the roller was dragged round at a great rate, infinite care being taken to keep it away from the edges.