The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: Laura_Long on July 10, 2017, 03:12:35 pm
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Hi All,
I am pretty new to this, we bought a 3 acre field a little while ago which is laid to Rye grass. We would like to plant a native hedge around the top acre (field is gently sloping rectangle) and then plant a wildflower meadow and some trees in the top acre. What is the best way to get rid of the rye grass?
Sorry if I am asking stupid questions but I have googled and not really got anywhere.
Thanks :tree:
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I don't know if it's the best way, but it's a way. Which is to impoverish the soil and the grass, and then introduce the wildflower seeds. Impoverish the soil by taking a hay or silage crop at least once a year, not grazing and not fertilising. Weaken the grass by introducing yellow rattle; it's parasitic on grass. Once you've got yellow rattle established, other wild flowers should be able to get a hold too.
You'll probably need to keep taking a hay or silage crop each year, after the flowers have seeded. Leave the hay to wilt for at least 24 hours before removing. It's probably best to work the cut grass at least once before baling, so that as many of the seeds as possible come out of the crop back onto the ground.
Some people can graze an established meadow, but it takes careful management. You don't want to be feeding concentrates to any stock on there or they'll have excessive nutrients in their poo. And grazing periods will need to be quite short. Either a month to six weeks in spring, before the flowering plants begin to grow, or graze for a while instead of making hay (after the seeds have set) or for a few weeks immediately after making hay.
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Hi Sally,
Thanks for your help. We have cut it for haylage in the middle of June, I think we will leave it grow now and cut it again in September, so I guess that will help. I will look into yellow rattle too.
I am not grazing it or fertilizing it, I want to keep the land organically but may graze the bottom two acres to bring in a little money and keep the grass down.
Laura.
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The quickest and most effective way is to spray it with Glyphos and reseed ;)
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can recommend yellow rattle ..... devastated our grass field!
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From what i've read about creating wildflower meadows [member=35918]Me[/member] is right - glyphosate is the way to go.
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You can flail and overseed it takes a bit longer to spread out but its easy to do. then flail once a year after seeding to spread seed.
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You need to do more than remove the ryegrass.
In order to establish a wildflower meadow you need poor ground, and one of the most naturally fertile habitats is the soil under where grass has grown for years. So merely to kill the ryegrass will not make your ground any less fertile.
Stangely enough this question was asked on Gardeners' Question time a few days ago. Their answer was to spread a load of lime, put some soil on top, then plant your wild flower seeds. Seems a strange way of impoverishing the land. :thinking: . But I do know that an excess of lime locks up phosphate and trace elements, so presumably that has the desired effect.
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Around here that would encourage grass ..... Very acidic so adding lime is great for grass
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The quickest and most effective way is to spray it with Glyphos and reseed ;)
But Laura has said she wants to keep her land organic. Glyphosate is not the wonderful, no residue, happy-clappy weed killer we are taught to believe.
We are shortly going to convert an area of our land for wildflowers, once we get the tups off next year. We want though to grow plants which would normally grow on this area, rather than the ubiquitous oxeye daisies, cornflower and poppies. Half of our area is dry and well drained, lightish but fertile soil, the other half is clay, boggy and poorly drained.
Without being able to see into the future, a few years back we oversowed with clover, which has thrived and is busy increasing the fertility. Hmm. We never use chemicals on our land, so it looks as if we'll need to work with the clover. Existing wild flowers include buttercups, daisies, self heal, ladies bedstraw, various tiny things and a few orchids.
It's going to take a few years to establish the grassland with appropriate wild flowers, but we'll have fun experimenting as we go along :thumbsup:
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Disc harrow it all up (which should kill off whatever is growing there), wait for the grass/weeds to re-grow, and repeat. Then you should have a nice seed bed in which to plant. Consider what time of year you do this though - you want the grass/weeds to germinate so that you can disc them in, so early spring might be best.
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Scraping the ryegrass off and just reseeding won't do it - not properly at any rate.
The key thing is that wildflowers need low nutrient soil, otherwise they are outcompeted by any grass. Most wild flower mixes have some grass species in, albeit the small fine species.
Your ryegrass will be growing in nutrient-rich soil, so you need to remove that nutrition.
I would play the long game as outlined by Sallyintnorth - remember you can always sell your hay for some income as long as it is free of ragwort, dock, etc.
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Do you have horses? I'd overwinter them in that part of the field and let them trash it, in the spring oversew with a meadow mix and you'd be amazed what will come up after that..
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Good idea, if the horses' poo is picked up and removed.
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Thanks all. Definitely not using any chemicals. Hate the stuff! I think I will take the turf off then plant it with rapeseed (apparently good at getting rid of nutrients) then plant it with wildflower the year after. I like the idea of Getting horses to trash it. Sounds easier than anything else.
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Have a look at this:
http://www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk/assets/pdfs/Creating_bare_ground_for_meadow_restoration_-_examples.pdf (http://www.magnificentmeadows.org.uk/assets/pdfs/Creating_bare_ground_for_meadow_restoration_-_examples.pdf)
and the Plantlife website.
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If you're not veggie / vegan, you could get also some fat lambs off the good grass. Yes they will poop some of the fertility back, but they will use a lot of the land's "energy" for their own growth.