queshaw wrote:
Hi,
Last fall I made seed balls and distributed them around in dead grass on the property I am renting, which is roughly 1.5 acres of tall grass. At this point, I hope to live here for many years. I don't know what type of grasses they are. In any case, none of the seed balls resulted in plants growing, as far as I can tell.
What can I broadcast or put in seedballs to gradually convert the grassland so that I can try to make something that will be like a food garden, and not be concentrated clumps of garden which the deer will devour immediately. Sorrel is mixed in with the grass, but what else can compete?
I also have some mulched beds, with nothing growing yet. But, 1.5 acres of mulched beds would take a very long time to make.
In my yard (and other places nearby), I have seen stinging nettle outcompete even the most aggressive grasses (e.g. reed canarygrass). Once you're ready to use the land, nettle is very easy to cut, leaving nearly barren ground, although I am sure it would regrow after mowing. I would guess that sheet mulch or perhaps repeated mowing would defeat it just fine. But it does spread by roots so I would do an experiment first to make sure you can convert from nettle to whatever your final goal is.