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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