Grass help

[Duckiiess]

I have more clover than grass in my yard now.. the ducks like it, it grows back faster, but doesn't get as tall, and higher protein than grass. Seeded with a mix of red & white clover, but think most of it is white now.

 

[addctd2plnts]

As a horse owner, I would suggest making more than 2 "paddock" areas for the ducks. It takes grass about 2 weeks to recover IF you don't let it get too bad before switching. And at sometime in Spring and in Fall, you need to fertilize, and keep diucks off it for a week or two. But if you're planting grass seed, do NOT use a fertilizer with crabgrass preventer or weed preventer in it. If you move them more often, none of your areas will look as bad as this. We have 10 Indian Runners in a 12 x 20 movable pen. We move it about every 2-4 days. The section we leave still has 80% of the grass, and is regrown by the time we get back. We have 6 areas we move to. In Sept I will over seed all of them with Clover and Rye.

I don't know what ducks and geese think of it yet, but we planted a warm weather grass called Teff for our horses this year. Holy Smokes does it grow! In 2 weeks it was a good 4 inches high and THICK, although fine blades. That might be our fault because the seeds were so small we ended up seeding more than we wanted LOL It will only survive in warm weather and likes it hot. It dies in the winter, but is really worth planting to overseed if you are in a hot area and need quick coverage that can take heat. Eventually, the ducks and geese will be on those fields of ours and I'll find out what they think. I do know the nutrition profile is similar to alfalfa, which means it's very nutritious. Keep it cut about 3 inches.

If the water is just standing on your soil, or you are growing moss, you probably need Gypsum or Lime in the soil this Fall. Lime helps buffer the Ph of the soil. Gypsum helps aerate clay soils. Both help grass grow better and help the grass use the fertilizer.