Keeping the lawn

Keeping the lawn by Leonard Barron is a practical gardening manual written in the early 20th century. It explains how to create and care for a home lawn, focusing on essential routines such as mowing, rolling, watering, fertilizing, and weed control.

The book frames the lawn as the foundation of the home garden and gives clear, methodical guidance on upkeep: maintain a steady mowing schedule at a consistent height with sharp blades and straight passes; roll early in the season; and use light top-dressings to level and nourish the turf. It emphasizes soaking, not sprinkling, when watering, and details feeding with well-rotted manure or clean chemical fertilizers (notably nitrate of soda and ammonium sulphate), plus wood ashes and lime to support the blue-green color of bluegrass on alkaline soils. Weed, disease, and pest advice is pragmatic—hand-remove dandelions, rake out crabgrass, use sulphate of iron on broadleaf weeds and chickweed, improve drainage to curb moss, dust brown patch with dry Bordeaux, and treat grubs, then promptly reseed bare spots. The closing section shows how to make a lawn properly: build deep, well-drained, fertile soil; prepare a fine seedbed; and sow high-grade seed by weight—favoring Kentucky blue-grass complemented by quick-cover species like red-top, rye, and bents—with sample mixtures and rates to produce dense, even turf.