If there are puddles or pools on your lawn for a long time after rain, you may need to lay drain tile or get a good layer of gravel under the topsoil.
If your problem is due to a hard-baked soil and the grass is thin and anaemic, spading up or ploughing followed by soil preparation and re-seeding, is probably the best procedure.
If limited areas (such as paths or low spots or areas under trees) get too packed, they can be loosened and cultivated, or opened up by aerating to a depth of 6 or 8 inches. You can do this with an ordinary spading fork, driven deep and worked back and forth to enlarge the openings.
Brush sharp sand or compost into the holes to attain better movement of air and moisture through the soil.
Many poor lawns are due to poor soil conditions and can be improved by a better feeding program. Use 4 pounds of plant food for each 100 square feet of lawn. If the grass is too thin, try plant food along with new seed.
If your old lawn is bumpy, level it down, raking top-dressing into the hollows, or peel back the sod, filling in the hollow with good soil and replacing the sod.
A mossy lawn is usually due to poor drainage, not to acidity in the soil, as is widely believed. A mossy lawn may need a change in grading for improved drainage, or raking and liberal fertilization.
Fighting Insects, Diseases, Weeds
Weeds in an old lawn, or in a new lawn, can best be combated with chemical weed-killers such as 2.4-D compounds. Using a granulated chemical with a spreader is sometimes preferable to a liquid spray.
Spray must be used on a day when there is little or no wind as drifting spray kills and harms vegetables, flowers and shrubs. Feed your lawn after spraying against weeds, so that the grass can thicken up and fill in the bare spots more quickly.
However, one must keep in mind that the best way to prevent weeds in the first place is to have a healthy lawn, with good soil providing sufficient nutrient for the grass you plant.
Weeds come in after, when the lawn is badly thinned for one reason or another. For example, a lawn may be thinned by diseases which are overlooked in our haste to lay the blame on weeds.
It is true for diseases that commonly attack turf, too, that preventive steps are the best, and that a healthy turf will be better able to ward off the disorders that occur.
As previously stated, a mixture of seeds is more resistant to disease. Excess moisture in the soil seems to be a cause of many diseases. Another cause is poor circulation of air for the grass roots, due to near-by trees, shrubs, and buildings. You can do a little about this by pruning.
Close mowing causes some diseases since it weakens the grass and causes more succulent growth, which, in turn, brings about fungal attacks. If the mowing height is not below 1 1/2 inches, even though the lower leaves may be attacked, the newer leaves may not be.
Watering late in the evening is a poor practice because if the grass remains wet at night, disease is invited. And if you use fertilizer to stimulate turf grasses, do so in the early spring and fall when the grass is healthy, not during the summer when the leaf is succulent and tender and easily attacked by disease.
Does your house sign or number need restoration. Are the letters and numbers faded and scruffy? Was it a good quality house sign in its heyday? If so consider re-furbishing your house sign with genuine gold leaf. Gold leaf has some real advantages over metallic paint which is the alternative. Many of these paints will fade in sunlight, some of them quite quickly, the Unless you can obtain a professional sign writers paint, bright gold paint will change to a colour more like old dull copper.
Any DIY artist out there will enjoy the challenge of uprating an old house sign, it is an ideal small project to try out the art of gilding.
First you will need a few things.: 1. A small 1/4 inch paint brush, 2. A larger 1 inch soft paint brush for brushing away dust . 3. Sharp flat knife, an old dining knife sharpened on a grind stone will do. 4. Book of 22ct gold leaf on a transfer back. 5. Sharp Scissors. 6. Gilders yellow 30 minute size.
As house sign project is intended as a small primer try out so spend as little money as possible, make do with what you already have, you can always buy the proper tools if you enjoy this effort.
Gold is sold in books, with usually 25 pages of gold leaf. It is either sold as loose leaf or with transfer backing. Loose leaf is harder to handle and you will waste a lot of gold. So buy a book of transfer gold leaf and a small bottle of gilders size from a proper gilding supplier (find one on the web) you may be suprised at the reasonable cost. Do not bother with the pretend gold leaf from model shops, it does not handle like real gold and may not have the resistance to weathering that genuine gold leaf has.
About the Gilders size: Gilders size is the adhesive for sticking the gold. Size is sold with several time factors, the 30 minutes in this case applies to the time between painting on the size and applying the Gold leaf. Although sold as 30 minute size the actual time to workability will vary with the ambient temperature. The size is ready the moment it is tacky to touch, you have a short window of time to apply the Gold so be patient and do a few letters at a time.
Try a few practice runs to get a bit of experience, see if you can find an old piece of carved wood or stone, perhaps a discarded photo frame or one of those small ornate plastic flower pots, remember you just need to practice handling and setting to gold leaf into awkward shapes.
Handling the Gold: The transfer gold leaf is gold leaf on a paper backing. Do not attempt to handle with your fingers, instead handle with the blade of an old blunt dinner knife. Cut with the sharp scissors into rectangles about 50% larger than each letter or number.
Method: 1: Clean the old sign lettering as thoroughly as possible back to the original material. If the house sign body needs to be painted do it before gilding, keep the letters and the areas for gilding free of paint if you can. Let the painted house sign dry, the gilding should be the final job.
2. Start with just one letter or number of your house sign, you can do more as your confidence grows. Paint the size onto the surface where you will apply the gold. Try not to over-paint onto the face of the house sign, use a clean cloth to wipe away any excess.
3: Keep an eye on the size, as soon as its touch dry you are ready to apply the gold. press the gold leaf, face down onto the size, rub firmly with your finger or use a smooth tool, the handle of a paintbrush will do, then peel away the backing paper leaving the new gold in place.
There will inevitably be some over-spill but leave it! Wait until the work has dried overnight then clean of with a razor blade or fine wet and dry paper depending on the background finish of the house sign.
I hope you enjoy this attempt at gilding and if it should inspire you to take up gilding as a hobby please let me know!
Both Hege Crowton & Steve Walker are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Hege Crowton has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Coffee Advantages and Travel Insurance. Hege Crowton is an established expert copywriter.She is known for doing in-depth research before writing her articles.. Hege Crowton's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.
Steve Walker has sinced written about articles on various topics from Humour, Crafts and Home Improvement. Steve Walker has been a craftsman in stone and marble for 40 years. In his long career has practised as a stone mason, letter cutter, restoration carver, marble mason, and fireplace designer/manufacturer.He now specialises in engraved stone, granite. Steve Walker's top article generates over 3600 views. to your Favourites.