Getting grass to grow with chickens.

I mentioned in a previous post that my back yard needed a lot of attention.  I have chickens and they seem to think that whatever I put on the ground is for them.  If given the chance they would eat every single seed of grass that hit the ground. 

I have to keep them fenced out somehow.  The cheapest solution I have found is 4x50' plastic netting at Lowes for $20.  To hold the netting in place I used 5 ft. garden stakes from Home Depot and wooded tomato stakes that I already had.

Not the best picture, but you can see how bare the yard is.

I had a big space to seed, so I used two rolls of the netting. 

The soil is bad in that area.  So I went back to Home Depot and picked up ten 40 lbs. bags of top soil along with two bags of composted cow manure.  I mixed the compost with the top soil in my wheel barrow and hauled to my back yard. 

It took multiple trips, and I still didn't have enough for the entire fenced area.  So I covered the spots that seemed to be the worst and raked it as best I could.

Then it was time for seed.  I was told that fescue is shade tolerant, so that's what I got.  The yard looks sunny in the pictures, but once the leaves come in on the trees the sun will rarely hit the ground.  I had some of my cover crop seed mix left over from the other day so I mixed it into the grass seed.  I know, I know, they go through all that effort to make sure no weed seeds get in that bag of seed, and I go and add them. 

 

I put down a layer of straw and drug out the sprinkler.  I have it on a timer.  It's set to water once in the morning and again in the afternoon.  With any luck I'll have a green yard in a few weeks.  Of course there's no telling how long it'll stay green once the chickens get at it.