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Harmonizes With Flower Beds: The grass has had no lime, fertilizer, weed control measures or treatment for pests or diseases. Neither has it been watered, but because it is located in a low-lying area this is not serious. Except hi the severest droughts the soil is reasonably moist beneath.
The interesting thing is that after a quarter of a century the outlines of the flower beds are clearly discernible. Within the beds the grasses are practically all.
Kentucky Blue and other desirable kinds, except for odd places where sod has been kicked up by ball players or others or has been disturbed by a badly handled mowing machine, or in other ways, and crab grass has invaded. This survival of desirable grasses would not be so surprising were it not for the fact that between the beds (and the between the beds area is far more extensive than that of the beds) there is practically nothing but crab grass; it is almost a pure stand.seriously injured.
The reason the turf in the beds is thick enough to repel crab grass through all these years is simple. The soil there was originally spaded and generously nourished.THE IDEAL lawn is both ornamental and practical, and there is a great deal of scope to create an individual and interesting design based on grass. Make sure the shape of the lawn harmonizes with flower beds, pools and other features, but you should avoid complex shapes that not only look fussy but are difficult to mow. Most lawns are a fairly standard shape: either rectangular or square. A gently curved lawn is a much better proposition as it gives the gardener greater freedom to design with. A lawn flowing through your garden in this way will link up all the separate parts to make a whole. Grass is the ideal surface for children since it is so soft, but children and adults with sporting tastes can inflict serious damage to lawns. A sandbox is a good idea. In a very small backyard, however, it may be better to discount grass altogether and opt for a mixture of blocks and borders. See Also Shallow Flower Bed:There need be no question in your mind about the market for good shallow flower bed photography. One of the big slide film distributors has found shallow flower bed fanciers the most consistent buy ers of all among slide collectors, even though the pictures offered are strictly of specimen shallow flower beds. These cannot possibly have the same appeal as pictures of shallow flower beds grown by the buyer in his own soil. The only shallow flower bed fancier who is not an eager prospect for pictures of his blooms is one who has never seen a color slide transparency of a beautiful shallow flower bed projected. A close-up of a lovely shallow flower bed on a screen is a sight to make anyone, shallow flower bed lover or not, gasp at its beauty.Floiver festivals are frequent in the shallow flower bed belt between Haarlem and Leiden. When the tulips are at their height in April, every Sunday is Tulip Sunday. A National shallow flower bed Show (mid-March to mid-May) is held on the Keukenhof Estate at Lisse. Later in the season (not the bulb-shallow flower bed season), two magnificent festivals occur. The Hague stages a brilliant shallow flower bed Festival (early in August), with election of the Flows Queen (parade) and with special prizes such as that for the best bicycle Decoration (open to children); and an Aalsmeer-to-Amsterdam shallow flower bed Parade (September) culminates in the Olympic Stadium, for the award of prizes. The floats are always marvelous. On The Other Hand See Turning Flower Beds:This enterprising Roof garden is perhaps best undertaken by an expert, since major alterations on the already established building are necessary if heavy objects such as raised turning flower beds beds or ponds are to be supported. The plot is a basic square incorporating two smaller squares placed at opposite corners. One of these squares contains a pond, in the center of which stands a white bird sculpture. An arbor covered with climbers, and a Table and chairs, occupy the other corner. There is a raised bed by the side of the pool, which repeats the style of the peripheral raised beds.It is an entire outdoor apartment, and your problem as a designer is to tie the various rooms together into one satisfying, congruous whole. True, the element of surprise may be introduced. Plan so that the entire area is not seen from any one place. Inviting paths may lead the visitor to unexpected views and places of special interest, but transitions must be easy and natural, not awkward and shocking. Above all, don't stick patches of turning flower beds beds about like postage stamps on a letter. The garden that consists of a few beds imposed on a lawn without relation to other features in the general picture is, I hope, as dead as a dodo. |
