Winter rye seed + straw + deer netting = success!!

[gophert]

My chickens had torn up my raggedy old St. Augustine lawn pretty well, till a large area was mostly dirt/sand. I live in FL, where people use winter rye to overseed and make a nice pretty green lawn in winter, so we though we'd give it a try. To stop the chickens from eating all the seed, we put down (untreated) seed first, then covered with straw, then the thin black plastic deer netting they sell cheap at Lowe's. We pinned the netting down with those garden staple things and watered daily. The grass is up, growing well, and looking great. The chickens love it, of course, but they absolutely do not scratch because the netting defeats them, so they basically just graze delicately on the tops of the grass. One important thing to note is that I only have 3 hens, but they are out about 8 h/day and they really are not wrecking it at all. Even better, they don't dig up my remaining St Augustine grass because they spend so much time nibbling the ryegrass. The area we have done this to is perhaps the size of a medium-sized living room, on a yard of about 1/3 of an acre. It's not 100% BEAUTIFUL, esp. before the grass comes up, but it sures looks better than it did, and I think we may eventually be able to remove the straw.

Worth a try!

Here is my RIR, Joy Ruby, enjoying the grass:

 

[CMV]

Very nice. Looks good and I'll bet the birds love it.

Good luck.

 

[seminolewind]

I think it's a darn good idea. I am very interested in growing some winter rye (on sand)