Oh those silly chickens...

I spent months trying to get grass to grow in my back yard.  Some of the areas hadn't had grass since we moved in.  I got it to grow, and it looked great.  

This spot was void of grass since we moved in nearly two years ago.

Now the spot in the picture above looks like the picture below.  The chickens picked it clean!

Here's another area that was bare when we moved in.  They're still working on making that way again.

Oh look, some of the culprits.

They might look innocent, but they really are destructive birds.

I try to focus on the positive.  They aren't eating my lawn, they're helping to cut down on what I spend on chicken feed!

Back yard grass follow up

I finally got grass to grow in my back yard.  And now the chickens are already starting to tear it up.

I have an entire back yard for them to wander around and they have to go for the area that hasn't had grass since I moved in (until just recently anyway).  There is a lot of clover in that area.  I'm guessing that's what they are after.  I'd prefer that they just eat the tops, and not scratch it up.  Oh well, I eat their eggs so I guess they figure that they can eat my yard.

Final Grass Update

I have grass in my yard!

This is what it looked like a few months ago.

Now it looks like this! 

I figured that it had been long enough.  It was time to take down the netting.  We've been keeping the chickens fenced in by the coop.  So I'm not worried about them tearing up this nice new lawn.

I threw down a lot of clover along with fescue, and a little bit of winter rye, and alfalfa.  

  

I did run the mower over it.  I bagged the clippings and dumped them in front of the chicken coop.  The chickens went nuts.  They all gathered around for a buffet.  I guess they've been missing the greens.

I still have plenty of patches of yard that need grass. I don't know if I'll do anything about it or not.  The leaves have come in and my back yard is shaded most of the day now.  I might have to wait until next spring.  Oh well, it's not as bad as it was.

Spring is here.

I was away last weekend.  When I came home I was pleased to see that everything was green!  Spring is here!  I couldn't be happier.  I'm so tired of night temperatures in the low 30's.  When I left there were no leaves on the trees.  When I came back, the trees were full of them.  So I have to share pictures.

Bush Cherry
(I don't remember if it's Hansen or Nanking)

The containers have herbs.  The green leaves are blueberries.

Strawberries.

I have grass.  I didn't before.

I had bare spots all over the yard.  The grass has really grown and it doesn't look too bad now.

The cilantro under my mailbox.  It was only 4-6 inches high when we left.

This is an aronia that I put in a month ago.  I wasn't sure that it was going to make it, but it looks like it's doing fine.

 

Yet another grass update.

I went out the other day and it was almost like someone flipped a switch.  The grass in my fenced off area is really taking off.

I'm going to let it go for at least another week, probably two.  I just don't want to take any chances with the chickens tearing it up. 

The plan was to move the fence to other areas of the yard to get grass to grow elsewhere.  I'm guessing that the leaves will be in by then and I'll have too much shade.  I'll just have to wait and see.

Growing Grass Update

My back yard is lacking in grass.  I put down seed about a month ago.

This is what it looked like then.

This is what it looks like now.

It's more green, but not as great as I had hoped.  I'm no expert, but to me it looks like the little bit of clover and winter rye I had in there are what have come in well.  The fescue is taking its sweet time. 

The fencing has worked well for the most part.  It's kept all but one of the chickens out.  

I was really hoping that this area would be done by now so I could move the fence to another bare spot in the yard.  I guess I just have to wait...

Cover crops in the yard -- Update.

I was outside the other day and I thought I'd carefully pull back the straw and see how my cover crop project was doing.

Well lo and behold the stuff was growing.  And not just a little bit.  I kept removing the straw and found more and more green.  The stuff took off over the entire area.

Here's a closer picture.  I'm no expert at identifying plants.  To me, it all looks like clover. 

I'm going to wait until the stuff is really established and tall before taking down the netting.  I can only imagine what those chickens would do to it at this point.

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.

Cover crops in the yard

My back yard has gotten to be quite a mess.  We've had a lot of rain this winter which has turned about half of the yard into mud.  The dog and the chickens haven't helped.  We've always had a few bare spots where grass wouldn't grow, but they've gotten much bigger.

The grass is sparse.

So, what should be done about it?  I figure since I have chickens that I might as well grow something for them. 

I went to my favorite gardening store and they happened to have some cover crops in stock.  I picked some crimson clover, alfalfa, and winter rye. 

I mixed them all together with what was left of my barley.

I knew that as soon as this stuff hit the ground the chickens would eat it.  So I took the fence down from around my kale and cabbage and set it up over a bare patch of ground.  I added some glow in the dark rope so it'd be seen at night.

Of course the chickens tried their best to get the seed near the edge.

I covered the seed with straw.

I'd guess that the chickens spent an hour or more going around the fence trying to get whatever they could.  I think they'll enjoy it more once it grows. 

Now all I can do is wait and hope that it grows.