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Post by maggie on Jul 23, 2014 12:34:16 GMT -5
This summer I am starting to work a bit on the yard. I live on a farm, but we don't farm, so all the grass is hugely overgrown. When I was a kid, we would let the cows in the yard for a couple weeks each summer and they would eat down all the grass, so we never actually had to mow. Since we don't have animals, our grass is extremely overgrown. Anyway, as I said, I'm starting to work on the yard a bit and have mowed down and weed whacked a few areas. We have a playground area where we pretty much just dumped about two feet of sand (hauled from a sandpit on our property, so not clean playsand)and put whatever equipment on top. As with the rest of the yard, the grass overgrows terribly (we're talking three or more feet tall). My husband will spray round up a couple times a year, but I'd prefer not to let it get to that point. He did it a couple weeks ago, so the tall stuff in the playground and near the house has been killed, but we are still left with three feet tall dead stalks of grass in the playground.
My question is this -- how do we keep the sandy playground area cleared of grass? I'm open to suggestions of both how to clear the dead stuff that's there now and how to keep it cleared. It's possible that if he has some time off this summer, he will just borrow a bobcat and scrape it down and haul in new sand, but that's iffy. If the grass were cleared, would I be able to maintain it by raking it up once a week or so (or better, getting the kids to do it)? Would that pull up any new grass, or would it just comb the grass?
I'm seriously also considering getting a couple cows each summer just for the mowing, but then there are issues with fencing and keeping them watered, and that would not happen this summer anyway.
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Post by imamess on Jul 23, 2014 21:47:35 GMT -5
If you can scrape the sand/weeds/grass/dirt off and lay down a weed barrier or maybe some plastic sheeting, then put the sand down that will work. If it rains, you might be able to pull the dead weeds and grass a little easier. Raking won't help, it will just comb the grass.
Spraying cheap vinegar will also kill the grass, but is not toxic to people.
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Post by dayeanu on Jul 23, 2014 22:29:56 GMT -5
Maggie once you get the grass sort of under control, geese would keep it mowed for you. I used to always have a dozen or so of the big white Emden geese, and they kept the area mowed beautifully. Grass is the diet of choice for geese. I love the Emden geese, because they are pretty gentle. They also will keep small critters like possums and snakes run off. However, roaming dogs can kill them, so they do need some fence protection. And a shelter to close up in at night. But easier than keeping cows.
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Post by maggie on Aug 2, 2014 0:49:12 GMT -5
Thanks for the ideas.
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Post by puzzleqt on Aug 2, 2014 14:24:34 GMT -5
vinegar dish detergent and salt mixture. kills plants, not toxic like round up
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