Speaking of slow days, picture

Stuck in the office when I want to be out working on my flying field. Spent the weekend on a tractor and here is the result. Not quite ready to plant yet but it's getting there..

Looks nice. What kind of grass seed are you going to sow? Just curious. BTW, How far is it from the center of the circle to the faucet?

Thanks, it's a labor of love.

It's 90 feet from the center to the outside of the circle and the faucet is about 5 foot outside the cultivated area. I wanted an 85 foot circle just to be on the safe side and it ended up 90.

Planning on planting Bermuda grass, from all the research I found this seems to be the best for low maintenance, high traffic, low cut grass in this area. This is what you see on most golf course fairways.

I bought equal quantities of hulled and un-hulled to mix together for planting. Some say the hulled will germinate faster but most things I heard just confused me as to the difference so I thought heck I will plant both and see what happens.

Anyone know any tricks to keeping the birds away from the grass seed?

>
>Anyone know any tricks to keeping the birds away from the
>grass seed?

yep.....hand launch and keep flying over the seeds till it grows.

>
>Anyone know any tricks to keeping the birds away from the
>grass seed?

Bob,
You might want to try scarecrows and a few phoney owls on some supports (ie saw horses) scattered around the seeded area.
Roger

or,
we could train Gigi to be a bird dog.

Fantastic, your own provate flying field!!

The tap should come in handy at end of flying session. Brush down with degreaser and hose off.

I have heard of people laying down hession after seeding grass. The hession helps keep moisture in and stops seed and dirt blowing away. Birds can't scratch it up and the grass just sprouts up through the weave. I havn't tried it myself and seems a tad expensive for a large area.

Get a bigger cat!

Bob,
My experience with grass seed lies with the pasture varieties, since I have to share my flying field with the horses. I've disked and replanted my pastures no less than 3 times (twice in Missouri, once in Fl.) . I planted a Fescue/clover mix in MO., here in Florida I went with a warm weather Bahia. I used the same methods on all pastures and had good results. After the area was leveled, I spread my seed. Don't cheat on the recommended rate. If I remember correctly, the Bahai went down at 50# per acre. That's the pasture rate. The lawn rate is nearly double the pasture rate for most seed varieties. I imagine you'll want the lawn rate since it take 3-5 years for the pasture to completely fill in. Anyway, after sowing the seed, I dragged the entire pasture with a 6' wide piece of chainlink fence weighted down with a couple of concrete blocks. This will get much of the seed covered up, (but not too deep). A mild fertilizer (6-6-6) came next, followed by a thin layer of straw. The straw traps in moisture and keeps the birds from getting too much of the seed. If you catch a break and get some rain, you could see grass in as little as a week. Here's my flying field/pasture after 4 years:
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Have fun, it's great to have a flying field out your back door

Ahhh Jim,
Now I know why you have not come over to the coast, recently, to fly.
I'm jealous.
Roger

Hi Roger,

Been meaning to give you a call to see what's going on over there. The wife's been very sick the past year and we just didn't get out very much. Now that she's turned the corner, you should see more of me. With any luck I'll have the second Stiletto done in a few weeks. Then again...maybe not.

>Anyone know any tricks to keeping the birds away from the
>grass seed?

You can try hanging old CDs up on poles where they can swing and flash in the breeze. Other than that- try Mr. Shotgun- works every time.

Jake

I see my neighbors using last winters hay to cover up grass seed. It can be had cheap from local farmers, and works pretty good from what I've seen. just rake it up after the grass gets going. I like the "shotgun" idea alot better tho. Tweet-Tweet-Bang! hehe

I'm with Jake on this one. SLP (Sudden Lead Poisoning) is plenty effective when it comes to birds and annoying critters.

While I hate to admit it, this area has quite a few crows, rats of the bird world. To keep them away from house and vegetable garden I pop three or four in the spring, hanging one upside down in the garden area.

Maybe it is the planform of the extended wings, the lifeless form of a buddy, or something unknown, but we can see crows headed in our direction veer off well before getting to the lot. And of course they never come down to snag seeds or to pull freshly-sprounted peas and beans from the ground.

They do get a little frayed after a time. Which is why the excess are put in a freezer, pulled out and hung up when appropriate.