Farmall Cub

I have a ditch area I am filling in and am looking for the fastest growing product to seed it with. Even a medium rain will wash it again unless I get some roots established. On the upper part of the ditch, I got lucky and hit a spell of no rain and I was able to use Oats and grass seed mixed to get it growing. I was told the oats would come before the grass.
Is there any commonly available seed that grows quicker and wil be overtaken by grass?

Hi Tech

I belive they used perenial rye grass on the sides of the land fill after covering it. I do not know if the sead was treated with anything but it seemed to come up in three days.

Billy

Think outside the box. If you want fast germination it's bound to be some kind of weed!

Annual rye put on heavy. Quick germination and growth, but will only last one season, so it must be blended or overseeded with perennial grasses such as bluegrass, fescue or perennial rye.

George Willer wrote:Think outside the box. If you want fast germination it's bound to be some kind of weed!

That really wouldn't be so bad vs. having it wash out again!
I'll get some rye and try that. Thanks all.

technova,
a good mixture to use for your ditches would be a mix of 70% annual rye grass, 20% creeping red fescue and 10% kentucky bluegrass. also using that cheap green plastic netting over straw will help keep your grass in place.
john

Dear technova,
By now you've probably got seed in the ground, but establishing grass is usually a long-term project so I'll offer this advice anyway.

I am a big fan of Johnny's Selected Seeds (mail order outfit up in Maine; you can find their web site easily). Their site or catalogue has an informative section on cover crops, which is what you're looking for, and is really worth checking out for reference. I have heavy clay soil + rocks rocks boulder rocks... typical New England and I am always trying to get grass growing somewhere on our property.

If you want to get something green and fast, most people recommend annual ryegrass, and yes, you can mix that with perennial rye and fescue which will come back next year.
For a quick cover that enriches & amends the soil (which is what I need) Johnny's recommends (and I agree) that one of the best cover crops is buckwheat. I have a miserable clay+rock bank that I have never been able to cover until this year--I used a mix of buckwheat, red clover (really pretty & I think will reseed itself), field peas (excellent for nitrogen fixing) and rye--both annual & perennial. The hitch is that in the early spring I'll have to till them under and plant perennial grasses (like the kinds John suggests). Depending on what kind of soil you used to fill that ditch, you may or may not want to take the "green manure" approach that I'm following this year. White clover is also a good, eager cover crop--unless you don't like clover in a lawn.
Good luck, Jocelyn

kudzu

I am no genius with seed and such... but I did learn a few things the last couple years..

1. Fresh seed is an open invitation for every hungry bird on the Continent to invade your seeded area.
2. First time you seed for bird food. Second time you seed half for bird food, half for maybe some germination.
3. Third time, you might get some patches of grass.

and on and on and on...

But.. I discovered something..

I rarely rear bag or hopper my grass when I am mowing.. I prefer to allow the clippings to decay in place which provides good soil amendments and natural nitrogen for the lawn. I never have a problem with thatch. I guess that is because I don't plant those specialty grasses like Kentucky Blue etc., for a lawn so perfect you are afraid to walk on it. I prefer the more wild and wooly style of lawn complete with weeds and all..

But, when I have a fair amount of reseeding that needs to be done after I have played with the big toys landscaping my property which is an ongoing affair.. I tend to collect the clippings. I usually empty them into my dump trailer that gets towed behind my Craftsman and now my JD... let them heat up a bit. Then I broadcast my seed and immediately cover with grass clippings... about 1/4" thick. I now have really nice well established grass.. and only took 1 full season to establish... cheaper on seed costs, no need to add fertilizer and the clippings protect the seed from hungry birds.. well the vast majority of them at least.

I also use the Timothy, Rye, Clover and Buckwheat mix. It becomes self seeding, has a good root system, supports my Cubs.. and doesn't thatch. What more could one ask for..

Rudi (hi Rudi) suggests leaving the grass clippings as mulch, which is a great idea. I'd add that if you want to do that & avoid a thatch buildup (which will leave you either with bare spots or a carpet of moss, depending on your climate & amt of shade), cut the lawn on a regular basis--don't let the grass grow to 8" and then use your mulching mower, in other words, like my husband did. He also kept assuring me that he could just run that mulching mower over a carpet of enormous wet oak leaves and the lawn would come back next year just fine. WRONG. Now, I love him but he really is no gardener and I now have a lawn that is mostly moss and weeds , so I'm fighting back patch by patch.

I have never had a problem with birds eating the seeds--but then I always throw out way more seed than recommended, so maybe there's enough for them AND for the lawn.

The biggest challenge in seeding a lawn, as anyone knows who's ever planted grass seed, is keeping the seed "moist" until the baby grass gets established, or else your baby seedlings will dry and burn up and you end up with the same bare patch. Don't you know anyone who has rushed home from work at lunchtime to water that danged precious grass? I do! That's where some kind of mulch/cover comes in, to shade your bed from ol' evil sun and keep the soil from drying out.

SUGGESTION, rather than use decomposing grass clippings (sorry Rudi), which I would think would burn your seedlings cover your newly seeded places with a thin (loose, so some light can get through) cover of straw or spoiled hay. Now, I come from a long line of cheapskate ("frugal") Yankees so I resist buying straw for this purpose. But I have unlimited access to free spoiled hay at the barn where I board my horse--it's not grossly spoiled, but once a bale starts to turn hot or get a little bit of mold, you CANNOT feed it to horses . (Moldy feed can kill a horse; fortunately most horses won't eat bad hay.) You can probably also get spoiled hay in your area by just asking anyone who has horses, unless they too use it in the garden as mulch. Landscapers often use burlap, but I am way too cheap... I mean frugal... to spend money on burlap for this purpose.

Ah, I do love ruminating on garden issues

Jocelyn, with heart & soul in the soil

Put your grass seed in the freezer for a few days. Then take it out the sowe. It thinks it winter time thin it takes off.
Jeff

Jeff sounds like a good But my freezer not big enough for a 50# bag of seed.


April 23 my yard looked like this after I finished seeding. I used tall fescu and it did take over a week to germinate.




April 23 2006 just got done planting the grass in the yard It was all dirt. Today June 30th I am trying to figure out how to mow it. As I do not have tires on the cub becuse the rims are being powder coated. It was mowed last thursday. The couple of bare spots was me getting wild with the roundup and 2 4 D.

Cowboy:
NICE GREAT Yard You need to mow by hand to get exercise Does the heart & family great
Jeff

technova wrote:I have a ditch area I am filling in and am looking for the fastest growing product to seed it with. Even a medium rain will wash it again unless I get some roots established. On the upper part of the ditch, I got lucky and hit a spell of no rain and I was able to use Oats and grass seed mixed to get it growing. I was told the oats would come before the grass.
Is there any commonly available seed that grows quicker and wil be overtaken by grass?

Hi the best way i have found here in Va is 30% perenial rye 40% fescue
30% blue grass thow a little wheat in to. Then straw it just so the ground is covered if you got a plant bed cover handy cover with it the wheat and rye will come up first 5 to 12 days the rest 14 to 30 days the wheat will dye off and the blue grass and fescue will take over
you can reuse the plant bed cover if you get a remake one
David

For those who have a problem with water (too little not too much) consider Buffalo grass. A warm season grass that only gets about 4' tall. low maintence, rarely needs mowing (unfortunately less seat time in the cub, fewer times to tell other that work needs to be done with the cub). Seed is expensive. Plugs are very expensive. I buy seed and grow my own plugs. I use same containers I used to start my peppers, cukes, tomatoes etc. Buffalo grass is a warm season grass and in NE does is planted after mid June. Needs watering untill established. Loves clay but hates sandy soils.

Richard