My husband and I have been working diligently on our pastures for a number of years now. I have some areas that have spotty growth with soil showing. I don't like bare soil, and the birds seem to love to eat the seed I broadcast, so I'm experimenting with Fukuoka-style seed pellets as described in The One-Straw Revolution.
The basic recipe is to mix clay and seed. I added some compost.
The idea is to coat the seed with the clay. I had to play with the clay and water amounts.
Then I spread it out in the sun to dry.
When they're done they look like this.
Then I took a bucketful out and hunted for bare soil.
The clay coating hides the seed pretty well!
I used a lot of different seeds and learned that this seems to work best with smaller seed, like grasses, clovers, and herbs. The larger seeds like corn, sunflower, squash, and field peas didn't coat as well. The wheat and oat seed were hit and miss.
So now I wait. I'm very hopeful I'll get good growth and fill in some of my pasture bare spots!
Unfortunately, I didn't think to make a photo record of how it grew. I wish I had. The seed was mostly summer annuals, so they've completed their life cycle now. But I can say I got better germination than simply broadcasting, and it did a great job of filling in bare patches. I will definitely do it again. I'll also incorporate more perennial seed in the mix.
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