Putting Down Grass Seed

[Adey65]

I had my chickens last May. I have five altogether, and although I knew they'd destroy the grass back then, I didn't realise just how quickly it would all disappear. To eliminate the risk of my garden becoming a complete quagmire, I put down some plastic mesh (image attached), which worked quite well.

As it's now approaching springtime, I'd like to take this mesh up, rake out the soil underneath and put some grass seed down, then put the mesh back down to protect it. The seeds would be lightly covered with peat moss, so the chickens wouldn't be able to see them.

What I'd like to know is, would the chickens still get at the seeds? I'm not covering all the garden because I want them to be able to scratch naturally and to be honest, I'm not overly concerned about how the garden looks. It's more about my chucks having access to grass. Once the grass has been established, they won't rip it up because of the mesh being there.

 

[GravityWaves]

The problem is, will your grass ever get established with a light covering of peat moss? How big is the area that your chickens have to "naturally" scratch in? It should take at least a couple weeks to get any grass established without any chickens scratching at it.

 

[Adey65]

My garden is roughly 100m2, and the area that will have grass is sort of in the middle of that and measures around 18m2, so they have plenty of scratching area.

I've planted grass seeds on many occasions in the past using peat moss. It's basically used to keep moisture in but has the added benefit in this instance of also hiding the seed. It's just a grazing area I want for them.

In hindsight, I should have covered an area of grass with the mesh as soon as I bought them home. I love these girls so much. I just want it perfect for them.

 

[3KillerBs]

Welcome to BYC.

I'm afraid that any attempt to plant grass in an area that chickens frequent is doomed to failure. They not only eat the grass and the seed (which often comes coated in fertilizer and/or anti-fungal chemicals which aren't good for them), but dig and scratch so that the ground gets completely torn up.

Look up "grazing frames". I don't use them myself, but some people have good results with them.

 

[jher77]

I have to fence off my chickens to reseed my clover.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Yeah, look up grazing frames. If they ate it bare when the turf was already established they'll just eat the sprouts as they germinate.

 

[samanthaoverton]

Hey, I have a similar set up to you. I have two fenced areas (good size)with a fence in between them and an opening for the chickens to come and go between my garden and a grassy area. I have a mobile type coop in my garden area. I seal off the area with the grass when I go to reseed for them. Your set up sounds like what I do to keep them out of veggies in summer. If you want to keep them outta the grass do what I do to keep them from eating my veggies. Use either mesh fencing or orange caution construction plastic fence. (20 or so a roll). Get plastic pickets and zip tie the caution fencing to it. Then you want to get these little u shaped garden pickets and secure the fencing to the ground so they don't crawl under. They sell the plastic pickets at a lot of co ops. And the caution fence is on the Walmart website.

 

[samanthaoverton]

So those are messy. They're not in the garden because I won't be planting for a while. They were up to keep my puppy from wandering while out. But you get the idea.

 

[Adey65]

That's what I did in the end.