Post construction lawn alternatives

[kancel]

Hello,

My husband and I found a nice piece of property with a house in the middle of being built that we are buying. Part of the finish work of the grounds includes hydroseeding with some sort of lawn blend that is good for our region (Wa state).

Right now there are piles of dirt everywhere - with many more to come when they go to put in septic and lay utilities. And of course the trucks themselves tear up the land. I know the ground will require stabilization of some sort right away - it's pretty muddy in spots already from all the upset.

My dilemma is that the area they are intending to hydroseed is the same area that is perfect for our orchard, our gardens, our chicken tractors (probably next year not this year.) It is about an acre of space. But we can't afford (in terms of time or money) to put everything in this year what with the buying and the moving! We were hoping to get maybe a thousand square feet of garden- a far cry from an acre. But I don't want to be cutting sod later on as we expand.


So I was wondering if there were any low growing cover crops that might make a better alternative to grass. Ideally it would be something we could mow with a regular lawn mower and keep low like you would grass. But it would be something easy to till in sections of when when we were ready to expand. Also it would be something safe to have animals, especially chickens, on- if I understand correctly you have to be careful with clovers.

Any tips and suggestions welcome.

Thank you,
Katrina

[AlchemyAcres]

Hi Katrina,

We can probably better answer your question if we know, generally, where you live...the state and area of the state...no need to be specific.

When you mention the need to be careful with clovers are you referring to the danger of clovers causing bloat in ruminants or something else?


~Martin

[kancel]

Oh- I live in western Washington- rainy rainy but mostly mild temperatures.

I took a beginner (urban oriented) chicken class from one of the local feed suppliers last year and the presenter mentioned that clover could be poisonous to chickens. Since then i have seen several references to clover being perfectly acceptable to them and only one or two references to clovers being poisonous. I actually had no idea about ruminants bloating on it. Our intended order of animal acquisition is chickens asap, then pigs next year or year after and small cattle down the road a few years. We teeter back on forth on whether goats or sheep have any place in out future but if they do they would probably go in around the same time as pigs.

[backlash]

If it were me I would go ahead and hydro-seed it.
When you get ready to plant then just till it up and plant what you want.
I had a yard in Black Diamond, Washington that was well established with very poor quality grass.
Hired a guy with a tractor and tiller and he tilled it up so I could replant grass.
Was easy and not very expensive.
You might be able to save some money by not having it seeded if that's what you really want.
But be prepared for mud and weeds until you have something planted.
By the way welcome to the board.
Always good to see another member from Washington.
I"m now on the dry and conservative side of the state.

[AzLoneRider]

If it were me I would go ahead and let them seed it and let the grass grow. I would get the chickens first, move the tractors to where you want the garden. Chickens will do a great job clearing/killing the grass. Once the grass is gone move the tractors, till up or turn over the ground and wait for six months or so to let the chicken dropping compost and bingo you have a good area to garden....

[cubcadet]

Hi kancel, what was there to begin with? Was it grazing land, orchard or brambles, roses, etc.? You may be better off getting it tilled or York raked, and spend the money on trying to get most of the root mass out of the upper soil level now, before you seed. If you plan to mow regularly, then you can encourage the turfgrass to tiller and choke out the wildflower and crabgrass/ goose grass/ etc.. It worked in my case. I bush hogged my disused orchard and relied on the existing grasses that were already there to tiller and gradually, by mowing semi-regularly, the hardhack and brambles were kept down. The roots are still there. The top growth is being kept short due to the mowing action. When I broke ground last spring to open up the ground, my only headache was all the Pennsylvania Bluestone I kept unearthing. No rootmass to deal with, though. I`d say, get it seeded, but use grass seed suited to grazing, like Timothy. . Better to deal with tough sod than losing topsoil from erosion.
I never heard of chickens dying from clover poisoning. Know plenty of folks that have chickens in a clover frost seeded land