Developing the grass in your yard for increasing free ranging nutrition

[Lacy Blues]

I think they are kind of pretty and they smell good when in bloom, the birds eat the olives/berries, etc. but when my mother sees them she says their name like a curse word and she uses it every single time we drive by a field overtaken with them...which is often. Autumn Olive has become the curse word for her generation of homesteaders. Used to be the nasty multiflora rose. Get one killed off and soon another pest springs up in its place.

I'll tell you a funny.....my sis had this HUGE honeysuckle clump take over a place in her lawn, so I asked her to bring me a slip of it to plant at my place. It was early spring before anything had bloomed and she brought it to me. I thought it looked a little funny but still planted it by my fence and was envisioning it growing, entwining the fence and me sitting out on the porch smelling that sweet aroma of a summer eve.

Mama came for a visit and I showed her the slip and the new green leaves just sprouting out on it and she said, "Why in the world did you plant one of those things????" Turned out it was not honeysuckle, but the dreaded autumn olive.

Oops.

The way I figure it, plants need water to grow and become invasive. We get 5" per year so I don't think anything that isn't super drought and alkali tolerant won't be invasive here.

 

[Beekissed]

The way I figure it, plants need water to grow and become invasive. We get 5" per year so I don't think anything that isn't super drought and alkali tolerant won't be invasive here.

Here's a really neat guide to invasive plant species in pastures in Nevada: http://www.cdsn.org/images/Invasive_Weed_Identification.pdf

 

[Lacy Blues]

Thank you Bee. 86 pages?!!! I'll save it for future use. Thanks again.

 

[Beekissed]

And with pics!!!! Not often you get an extension guide that has color pics too!

 

[gjensen]

My take on weeds in the garden is this: If you have bare ground, you will have to fight with weeds. I consider weeds to be free green manure crops. I intend to leave a few areas mulch free this spring to allow a good cover crop of weeds to start, then turn the chickens loose on them in their 3 x 6 tractor. Otherwise, my soil is always covered with mulch or crops.

Where I live there are three dominant grasses. Bahia, Bermuda, and Centipeed. None of these are ideal, and anything else requires more water than I will give it.

There problem is that they are coarse, fibrous, and low in protein. OK for ruminants, but are not as suitable for chickens. It is better than nothing, but . . .

I have found that a low in put way of improving the available forage and adding variety is resurfacing long buried weed seeds. It is like restoring a space. Over the coarse of the season, these narrow strips fill back in with the dominant grasses. These grasses will be better off than their neighbors.

I have sand as far as you can dig. Literally. And our summers are hot. I do well with over seeding for the cool seasons, but I work with what I have in the summer.

One grass that I like for birds is crabgrass ironicly. The birds like it, it is not as coarse, and it has better protein %. It takes more water though. It fades in the heat of the summer.

I try not to spend more on forage than I would have on chicken feed, so I work with what I have.

I think someone would be surprised how much the birds will use these tilled patches. It is a good way to "clean" ground to.

 

[centrarchid]

Where I live there are three dominant grasses. Bahia, Bermuda, and Centipeed. None of these are ideal, and anything else requires more water than I will give it.

There problem is that they are coarse, fibrous, and low in protein. OK for ruminants, but are not as suitable for chickens. It is better than nothing, but . . .

I have found that a low in put way of improving the available forage and adding variety is resurfacing long buried weed seeds. It is like restoring a space. Over the coarse of the season, these narrow strips fill back in with the dominant grasses. These grasses will be better off than their neighbors.

I have sand as far as you can dig. Literally. And our summers are hot. I do well with over seeding for the cool seasons, but I work with what I have in the summer.

One grass that I like for birds is crabgrass ironicly. The birds like it, it is not as coarse, and it has better protein %. It takes more water though. It fades in the heat of the summer.

I try not to spend more on forage than I would have on chicken feed, so I work with what I have.

I think someone would be surprised how much the birds will use these tilled patches. It is a good way to "clean" ground to.

Do you have nanny native warm season grasses? Also the less digestible might be made more digestible by close mowing of strips where new growth will be relatively tender and digestible.

 

[gjensen]

Do you have nanny native warm season grasses? Also the less digestible might be made more digestible by close mowing of strips where new growth will be relatively tender and digestible.

Mowing does help. The new growth is a lot better. Particularly with the Bahia. In fact, if Bahia is kept close and well watered it is not bad at all.

Another advantage to the Bahia is that it's seed heads put out a surplus of seeds that the birds eat. The locals hate in there lawns, but I appreciate it.

All of these are an improvement over native grasses concerning forage, where I am. If I moved 30 miles east or west of here, it would be different. This region that we call the sand hills, is just that. It is the old coast line. This is a thin scrubby portion of our State.

Outside of the area, and farther north and west, I admire the fescue and clover fields. I do not have that option.

I can and do versed with crimson clover, but you have to nearly every year. When it is dropping seeds we tend to be getting drier. With this sandy soil, the new seed tends to sprout but not make a replacement.

For me, weeds is an improvement. LOL.

 

[gjensen]

Thank you Bee. 86 pages?!!! I'll save it for future use. Thanks again.

Lacy, I doubt that it would be invasive there. I think that the plant requires to much moisture to invade there. Maybe I am wrong. I seam to remember such.

 

[Beekissed]

Mowing does help. The new growth is a lot better. Particularly with the Bahia. In fact, if Bahia is kept close and well watered it is not bad at all.

Another advantage to the Bahia is that it's seed heads put out a surplus of seeds that the birds eat. The locals hate in there lawns, but I appreciate it.

All of these are an improvement over native grasses concerning forage, where I am. If I moved 30 miles east or west of here, it would be different. This region that we call the sand hills, is just that. It is the old coast line. This is a thin scrubby portion of our State.

Outside of the area, and farther north and west, I admire the fescue and clover fields. I do not have that option.

I can and do versed with crimson clover, but you have to nearly every year. When it is dropping seeds we tend to be getting drier. With this sandy soil, the new seed tends to sprout but not make a replacement.

For me, weeds is an improvement. LOL.

I wonder if one could improve the soils and grasses by utilizing some combination of methods? It would take some time but if you planned on living there awhile, it might be worth it. Say, solarizing some grass in strips then placing a type of raised bed thing there and start piling in leaves, twigs, manure, logs, old bedding, etc. there over the years. Whatever you could throw in there that would break down, attract earthworms and bugs and slowly change the ecology of the soils under that area. Collect sawdust, bark, old hay, etc., and dump it in. Throw in some seeds of something that will sprout with very little soil and let it grow..then cover it over with more debris. Keep doing that as often as you can and pretty soon you'd have some rich soil going on in that bed and maybe could successfully plant grasses that need that richness to thrive.

Or one could do a much larger area by putting up electric fencing and putting some pigs on an area. After they have rooted and tilled it all up, move them to another section and start all over. On the previous section, start piling composting materials very thickly so as to suppress any growth for awhile....just anything that can build soil and break down into a richer topsoil. Sawdust, loads of barn bedding, bags of leaves collected from lawn services, shredded paper, cardboard, etc.

 

[gjensen]

I wonder if one could improve the soils and grasses by utilizing some combination of methods? It would take some time but if you planned on living there awhile, it might be worth it. Say, solarizing some grass in strips then placing a type of raised bed thing there and start piling in leaves, twigs, manure, logs, old bedding, etc. there over the years. Whatever you could throw in there that would break down, attract earthworms and bugs and slowly change the ecology of the soils under that area. Collect sawdust, bark, old hay, etc., and dump it in. Throw in some seeds of something that will sprout with very little soil and let it grow..then cover it over with more debris. Keep doing that as often as you can and pretty soon you'd have some rich soil going on in that bed and maybe could successfully plant grasses that need that richness to thrive.

Or one could do a much larger area by putting up electric fencing and putting some pigs on an area. After they have rooted and tilled it all up, move them to another section and start all over. On the previous section, start piling composting materials very thickly so as to suppress any growth for awhile....just anything that can build soil and break down into a richer topsoil. Sawdust, loads of barn bedding, bags of leaves collected from lawn services, shredded paper, cardboard, etc.

Yes mam, those things would help. There is still some limitations as far as switching grasses.

Fescue does not do well in our heat. We are very humid but the tendency is for the summers to get dry. The Bermuda High likes to make it up this way and camp out. On this sand ridge the pop ups tend to drift away. I could get some fescue going, but I will lose what I gain every summer.
Improving soil structure would help me most with crabgrass. I do not know if this has been mentioned or not, but crabgrass is really a good pasture grass. It is overlooked to. It is also more suitable for poultry than many grasses. It makes a orchard grass. Yes, you can even buy 50lb bags of crab grass seed.

I have been working on the soil since I have moved here. I have to go by my oil spot theory. Start in a spot and work out. Organic material is consumed as fast as it is put in these soil types. You have to stay ahead of it and keep adding. I have been able to get my gardens in decent shape, blueberry beds etc. The birds and deep bedding has done that for me. We get leaves from outside sources etc. I have some mulch beds just for the birds etc. The birds themselves have made a difference. The input is the poultry feed.
When I moved here, there was not much grass at all. Now it is green year round.

Still at the end of the day, it is most practical to work with what I have. It has improved so much already. Just tilling those patches adds a lot of variety no matter where you are. You will bring up wildflowers that you did not know you had on your property. It is always a mix of herbs, greens, grasses, wildflowers. All of those seeds are there, they just need the conditions to be right.
Poultry over time eat those seeds and sprouts. The diversity is challenged. By tilling strips you bring to the surface stuff that you never you knew you had and the birds are better for it. I am not suggesting converting over to it. Just strips to add diversity. The birds make use of it, and the dominant cover takes back over in aerated soil. It is a better environment for insects to.

Fortunately our conditions are favorable for cool season over seeding. They always have greens to forage.

Bee, I have gotten sick so my big ambitious plans are probably over. Right now, I need practical and economical. What I have is here. I just need to keep improving what I have.

Anyways. I like your thread, Wish that I had not overlooked it for so long.