Monday 11 April 2011

Help! I Need Fast Growing Grass Seed!

How Do I Grow Grass Quickly?

We moved here in November 2008 and knew we'd have our work cut out getting anything to grow in the garden. The house had been empty for some months, the surrounding grass left untended and nothing had been cultivated for years, by the looks of things.

That was then, this is now. Having been served notice, supposedly on accounts of our chickens causing a nuisance (still dumbfounded by this reason) we now have less than 2 months remaining to return the place to its former 'glory'. We did offer to leave the garden as it was, complete with shed, greenhouse and patio, but the landlord insists we remove everything, including the new multifuel stove we had installed late last year.

October 2008
 This is how the back corner of the 'garden' looked when we came here at first. At some time in the past, previous tenants had kept dogs, so the remains of the derelict kennels and runs were still in place.

Being of the 'make do and mend' brigade, we saw this as a bit of a bonus; we could renovate the kennel and runs to use them for poultry. Might take longer than just spending a fortune on brand new stuff, but it would suffice, for the time being. As 'Archie' would say, it's nothing a bit of baler string couldn't put right.

November 2008

The first photo shows how the back yard looked when we first came here. We got moved in at the start of November, so the grass and weeds had soon died back to manageable height, so we simply hacked down most of it for the time being. We were busy concentrating on other things, so left it for the winter.
May 2009

As soon as weather improved, we got around to renovating the old runs and replaced the overgrowth with woodchips. We never did dig up the grass, only turned the soil to stop it growing any further. It took us until May 2009 to make it look anywhere near presentable, but we think we did a good job.

We ended up having to take the converted kennel off the stilts and move it, to prevent the hens from sitting on top and trying to clear the fence into next door's garden. They never have. I'll actually be rather sad to wave goodbye to the makeshift duck house - it has served us well. Perhaps it will become home to a future tenant's ducks, who knows?

Now, having been served our notice and having already out-stayed our welcome, on accounts of not, yet, having anywhere else to move, we need to undo everything we have done. This needs to go back to grass as quickly as possible. Suggestions, please, on the quickest, easiest, cheapest way of doing this, as I can't afford to risk the landlord witholding our deposit on something as simple as the time it takes grass to grow. I've already reseeded the front lawn and the space where the raised vegetable beds used to be but it isn't growing very quickly. In fact, I can't see it growing at all, yet!

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6 comments:

  1. I'm nowhere near as desperate for time as you are, but I'd also be interested in the replies to this one as I have lots of bare patches on my lawn from having chook pens all over it during the winter!

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  2. My only suggestion would be to see if you can beg, or barter something, for some turf. If someone nearbye or a friend or relative is thinking of putting in a patio or laying gravel offer to remove the turf for them.

    I know of no seed that would look good enough for what sounds like a bit of a bu***r of a landlord like yours.

    Good luck.

    Sue xx

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  3. Hope you get some help for this ASAP. Good luck!
    Sft x

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  4. landlord sounds like an arse! Considering the mess it was in .. freecycling some turf???? off cuts anywhere??

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  5. I think it'll need to be turf Nyk. I saw that a roll of it is £3 in 'you can do it', but I know that won't help you as it's about 70 miles away!!

    There will be someone, somewhere who is digging up some turf, put the word around xx

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  6. The seed I've used on the gaps in the main lawn and where the square foot garden used to be says 7 - 14 days germination.

    However, now I've met the new tenant for here (my current next door neighbour, no less!) they've told me the plans for the pictured part of the garden and it does NOT involve turf. Glad I spoke to them today, as I had spent much of the past 2 days digging and sowing grass seed!

    Morgan, I'll let you know how quickly the new seed germinates - it's called, 'Johnsons Tuffgrass' and says 7-14 days. I'll buy some more tomorrow and can get that down on the main 'lawn' as soon as the hens are moved. Trouble with the main lawn is that it floods in heavy rain, so fingers crossed the weather behaves for a bit longer.

    I'll also post a 'wanted' add for some turf to fill in any holes - not sure why I didn't think if that!

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