Not strictly a lawn but presume principle the same.

You'm done good

Need any succulents for thait girt pile o stones?

 

Dry stone walls aside......sit back and watch the grass grow. Do you have Yellowhammers up there? They will come and eat some of the seed. Don't worry though; most will escape them.

 

We occasionally have the odd visitor but not many unfortunately. I'd be happy for them to scoff a few seeds if they appear. I'm very fond of the many feathered friends we have here and happy for them to feast on what I have to offer.

 

Well, the grass seed has taken reasonably well. It took a while to germinate as it was very dry and there was no way I could water the field really. Ok it isn't centre court at Wimbledon standard but the area is now green and no longer an eyesore so quite pleased. I am hoping to borrow a couple of sheep next year to eat the grass down as I won't be able to put our horse on this section of field until the grass gets quite bit more mature. If the weather is good next year I'll maybe get the horse on it in the late summer but don't think it will be ready for hooves and large teeth before then. There are bits which I have either missed sowing seed on or the seed blew away/didn't germinate. I have some seed left so will use that to patch any bad areas next spring.
1st photo is before the seed germinated. It was taken in the 1st week of September I think.
The 2nd photo was taken today.

 

Thanks @Marley Farley. All the hard work is a sort of distant memory accent on the sort of but now with the area looking reasonable it was worth it. If anybody puts up a post about not being able to cope with clearing up builders rubble from a new build's garden I'll be posting some of these before and after photos as what was involved here was 10 times worse and around a 1/4 of an acre of it plus it's on a slope making barrowing rubbish hellish. Admittedly I had the spare time but along with that came old age, if I'd been 20 years younger it wouldn't have quite so dreadful.
I'm just hoping the grass will cope reasonably if we have another incredible summer as the soil is not good and dries out fast. Time will tell. Whatever happens I won't need to stone pick ever again

 

Looking good and Rome wasn't build in a day

just make sure the sheep aren't on it for to long in the wet

 

Thanks @Jiffy. Hmm this is a good point re timing of having a couple of sheep on the field and the weather. I have a sort of feeling the local farmers will be quite happy for a bit of free grazing but likely to deliver said sheep for as long as they want rather than with me politely asking them to remove them when I think it a good idea. Do you think I would be better to just cut the area with the lawn tractor? It's got a reasonably big deck and I get the cutting blades either sharpened or replaced each season so quite sharp. I could either cut the grass with the collection box on or just leave the cuttings in situ. Any advice gratefully received as dealing with newly seeded grass is not something I have really dealt with much in the past.

 

I always left cuttings in place in clients' gardens with dry soil. They get taken down by worms and help to provide a bit of humus. Modern ride-ons cut the grass pretty finely.
It looks really good, silu Do you fancy coming over and rehabilitating my bonfire area?

 

Sheep will do it good, but if they are left on it to long they it will turn to mud, a light grazing is all you need, if you can move them to another paddock for a time then move them back when grass is longer will help, your'll in control so when you want them to be moved then farmer will have to move them, you make the rules and they stick to them, if not, don't do it from the start, rules from the start are.............. and make sure they stick to them as you know some people will take the pee

Sheep will be better than a mower as it's on a slope you may spin on wet grass and if soil is still soft you may see wheel marks


If you do get sheep, make sure the farmer does the movent records for the sheep, as BSE is found in Scotland the powers that be may be looking at records (BSE is not with sheep, but they will be on high aleat at the moment) better to be safe than sorry

 

That will be a resounding NO @noisette47 .
Many thanks @Jiffy for your good advice. I have the feeling that the farmers are more likely to take the proverbial to be honest come to think of it. It takes them ages to get the digit out if a fence is broken/wires needing tightened and sheep/lambs are wandering about all over the place including in my garden. Asking then to put sheep on and off again when I so wish, hmm hey me doots on this.
Perhaps the sheep idea is not the best and I'll use the mower with the collecting bucket off and see how it goes. I'll cut across the slope to hopefully avoid slippage and only cut the grass when the ground is dry.....in theory, I can dream As it is the fencing would have to be augmented for sheep as it's only 3 wire and high off the ground (done that way on purpose to lessen the chance of horse getting stuck when rolling. Horses have a very annoying habit of rolling right by fences and getting their legs tangled up).
Yes read about the BSE outbreak up near Aberdeen, 1st in Scotland in over a decade, worrying. Feel for the farmer but wonder how the hell it has occurred when he says he has had the same herd for years. it is just a totally isolated case and the cow in question was highly susceptible to the disease. Not as bad as Foot and Mouth which was totally ghastly but still very serious should there be a big outbreak again.

 

They was another BSE case in Wales 2015, there's much animal food imported,
When BSE was at it's high i worked in animal feed mill and there was a lorry that delivered a load (can't remenber what) and it had ofel in the load and part of the load was also delivered to a farm, when we seen the ofel and reported it things went mad, the driver didn't clean out the trailor before he loaded it so we had to do all the cleaning up and on the farm

 

Yes unfortunately there is an awful lot of things which go on "behind closed doors" in the farming industry just like pretty much all other industries. Who'd have thought VW would have been up to their necks fiddling their emissions statistics!
For some years I worked closely with the r and d of salmon fish farming. Knowing what is involved and what the fish are fed on complete with dye to make the flesh artificially pink, suffice to say I don't eat farmed salmon and haven't done for at least 25 years.