Kill off grass or push it out?

Hi Guys,

I have a problem. I have moved into a house on my father-in-laws farm and luckily it comes with a garden of about an acre...NOT so luckily it was meadow previous to it being a garden and as a result the grass was basically animal feed, meaning it grows to 1ft+ every 4-6 days. Having a full-time (50hours+) job means spending a couple of hours every weekend just maintaining it isn't really an option anymore.

My question is, can i sow some other type of grass seed that is slower growing and will push to animal feed grass out, or would I have to spray it off?? Its a big undertaking to kill it off, so I guess im looking for some kind of miracle answer!!

Thanks in advance!!

Paul.

 

No expert so please excuse obvious suggestions...

Keep it as a meadow with paths mown through it?

Pay someone to mow it for you?

Go grand..plan landscaping for entire area (and get someone to do it for you)

Get one of those cool lawnmower buggies and make it fun.

Allow someone who really wants an allotment to use the land. They cultivate it, you get to not look at a meadow.

The grass is going to grow no matter what you do with it. Any solution is going to take time and money, I think just depends which you want to spend more of?

 

Thanks for the reply Reetgood...Ive already got one of those ride-ones (A Husqvarna hobby) but it still takes forever!

I quite like the idea of the meadow look...Could you recommend some meadowy things to grow please? Im a total beginner when it comes to anything horticultural but im wanting to learn haha...

 

Oh I'm very much a beginner too... I was thinking you can get wildflower plugs, basically returning to native meadow species. However, I'm not sure what you'd need to do given how vigorous the grass you have in there already is.

I'm sure other members might have some suggestions. I suppose the other interesting thing would be what you could do re year round meadow appeal: wildflowers being very bonny in spring / summer, less so in winter..

 

That was going to be my next question...what to do with it in winter haha. I have looked up how to grow a wildflower meadow and it seems everyone recommends spraying of the grass and turning it over, or taking off the top layer anyway...either way, really labour intensive given the size of my garden.

Living in the middle of nowhere though, a wildflower meadow would simply be a continuation of the meadows that surround my house...if only the wildflowers were as invasive as the weeds!! ha

 

Yes I realised that meadows aren't the easy option either. Woops! And you would still need to mow at points.

Wildflowers are just weeds you like, I think!

Hoping someone else has suggestions...

 

Well I have done a bit of reading and it seems that cutting the ryegrass extremely short and then sowing yellow rattle into it in the autumn could work, and then I can run through some cornflower meadow annuals through that...bit of meandering pathway throughout the garden and I "could" be onto a winner. Will have to hack it back heavily come end of summer but that's a lot better than spending several hours every weekend on the garden...

...hopefully somebody will tell me I am mental before I have embarked down this path! Ha

 

I've found that mowing meadow grass solved that. You need to cut it reasonably short, with sharp blades, and you absolutely must not miss a cut (which may mean cutting it twice a week in main Spring growing season), but after a season it will be tamed and after two it will have fine grasses.

It will probably help if you overseed it with finer grasses, but if you don't keep it short they won't be able to compete with the meadow grasses.

Killing it off and starting again is [relatively speaking] a HUGE undertaking (although if you have agricultural equipment at your disposal it is probably relatively straightforward)

If it is taking too long get a faster mower. People buy ride-ons assuming they are fast, but often they are only 24" and go at walking pace ... you need a 70" cut to get up to 2 or 4 acres an hour, and then the job is only going to take you 30 minutes, or less, for an acre (assuming there aren't lots of fiddly bits). Or get a set of gang mowers and a quad bike perhaps. Either way, check the "acres per hour" cutting speed specification of the mower

 

thanks for the advice kristen...

I have decided to "attempt" a cornflower meadow with meandering paths through it. part from the 2 main cuts a year, I will then only have to cut the paths through which isn't as time-demanding. A bit of decking outside the conservatory will cut down the amount of grass further still. Yellow rattle is ordered and so is the cornflower seed mix. Another part of the garden is to be turned over to an allotment and smallholding anyway...pics to follow as it develops...

 

I have some "rough grass" with mown paths through them, saves a lot of work! I cut my rough grass about twice a month (but that's with a socking big tractor mower, so doesn't take long).

I wish you luck with the wild flowers ... every time I've read about it there does seem to be quite a knack to getting the balance right - compensating for what it struggling to self seed, and so on, so I've never decided to try it. Done right it does look very nice.

 

I think you're a bit confused here. 'Cornfield' annuals grow in disturbed ground, like cornfields where the seed can germinate on bare ploughed soil. They're very poor competitors against established perennial vegetation and will be swamped by the grass in this situation.

Meadow flowers are generally perennials, and will compete best against the grass where the soil is low in nutrients. If fertiliser has been applied in the past, as is probably the case here, grass growth will be vigorous and the flowers will be pushed out (hence the massive decline in native grassland wildflowers as a consequence of fertiliser use on farmland).

Over time, you can deplete soil nutrient levels by removing the cut grass each time you mow. This will reduce the vigour of the grass and favour the wildflowers. Ideally you then compost the cut grass and use it on your allotment / flower garden, thereby effecting the gradual transfer of nutrients from the 'meadow' to your vegetables.

Yellow Rattle will in theory reduce the vigour of the grass by parasitising it, but in practice the grass in your situation may well just swamp it. It grows naturally in low-nutrient, low vigour grasslands such as sand dunes and old hay meadows, where grass growth is already weak, and I think it will struggle in a field of fast-growing ryegrass.

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If you do want to establish some kind of meadow, the most important thing is to reduce the nutrient levels by repeated cutting & removing (for ever). You could also try establishing some perennial wildflowers from either plugs or seed - if the latter, then you'd want to create some bare patches first for sowing to reduce grass competition during/after germination. You could spray small areas with glyphosate, or else mow the grass really short and then scalp it in places with a spade. It's better to intensively prepare some small areas and sow there (likewise with plugs), rather than just scattering seed thinly over the whole area.

I'd first try some of the more vigorous meadow flowers, such as Oxeye Daisy, Common Knapweed, Bird's-foot Trefoil and Common/Bush/Tufted Vetches, which should have a decent chance of competing with the grass.

 

How about some fruit trees?

 

I do sympathise, Paul, as this is exactly the situation we were faced with when we took on our 'garden'. I was a professional gardener in the UK, and followed the accepted line of 'keep mowing it and it will become lawn'. Well that's a load of tosh Nothing kills or weakens cow-grass except a damn' good dose of glyphosate, four weeks of patience and some thorough cultivation.
Presumably your FIL has access to reasonably-priced weedkiller and appropriate machinery? Do you get on well with him? Even if you subsequently go the 'wildflower meadow' route, I'd tackle the strong grass, if I were you, and re-sow with a proper meadow mix. Good luck!

 

you could always get some goats or sheep to keep the grass down....or a load of guinea pigs! lol

 

Too much fencing required, honeybunny