Today I went to the large garden that is my main place of work. Mercifully little storm damage, just debris and a few branches down. There had, however, been sheep, a lot of sheep. A gate had been left open by walkers and the flock got into the garden and seem to have been there for some time, though thankfully they'd been rounded up and put back in the field by the time I got there. The lawns, acres of them, are entirely pocked by hooves sinking into the sodden ground and the grass is plastered in shit. It's everywhere. They got into the beds and chewed at the plants and some places look like a sheep has slept there. It's difficult to know where to begin.
What to do about the lawns? The garden is on clay and I'd be loathe to use a roller when the ground is so wet or it will damage the soil structure. Will the lawns recover okay on their own?
Anyone got experience of this? What did you do?
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never had sheep but had cows once. i filled the holes in with soil then a bit of grass seed but it was summer time
i would not fret about the shit too mutch it will break down and fertilise the lawn and in about 6 weeks will have dissapeard
you might have to wait till it dries up and do a dit of top dressing
We had cows in a large garden we look after... (twice!!) The owner successfully claimed on his insurance. The main casualty were the 2 massive 28m herbacious borders - I think his claim was successful in getting a settlement that allowed for the complete replacement of all the plants!!!
I think you will discover that the lawns will recover... maybe as David says with a little help when the weather warms a bit. My client paid (out of the insurance) for the lawns (over 2 acres) to be professionally treated (scarified, slit and sanded/top dressed) - that made more mess than the cows, but within a month or two the lawns looked stunning. We now need the cows to come back... as the moss is regaining control :(
We had cows in the garden overnight last year and they made quite the tour of it. I was surprised to see that the sheep had done more damage than the cows, but it may simply be that there were more of them and that the ground was dry when the cows came in. Mainly I was left thinking things like 'Oh well, I was meaning to sort out that clematis anyway'.
I would rake up (or scatter) the worst of the shit on the lawns. I agree, definitely don't touch it with a roller until it's just moist- I would then use a roller to squash down any high spots, but fill the remaining divots with lawn dressing rather than try to squash it all flat. You could combine that with a spring hollow-tining if they're up for it. Fluff up the flattened plants- the chewed ones will mostly grow back. Basically don't be in a hurry, most of it will sort itself by spring, and you could do more harm than good by trying to do too much on wet clay.
Here we get cows on the local football pitch in Summer but it's constantly in restoration with reseeding and regular upkeep .
Sheep also find their way onto some of the bigger domestic grassed areas which are waterlogged this time of year but they are not ornamental lawns and any ruts just seem to go away once it dries out .
Deer come and munch almost anything and all that can be done is try to revive or replace the plants .
On the scale of acres I would not know what type of machinery to use but on a large lawn would assess the damage in spring , re level if required ,top dress .
I use dethatching tines on really wide bad areas the Stihl type which fit the mm56 multi system for instance a tree falling on a lawn last year left lots of ruts I went over the area with dethatching tines to get it level and re dressed , I got some good premium screened topsoil and seed of choice .
You could just re level with top soil and add seed but shallow damaged areas generally come back once things warm up .
Thanks for the replies! I was there all day today and have decided to take the advice offered. We'll let the shit dry out and then brush the small bits into the lawn and flick the chunky pieces onto the beds. We'll leave the rolling and see how things look in a few weeks. The forecast is for cold and dry so that should help.
I'm hoping the sheep won't develop a taste for travel, but a padlock on the gate should put a stop to that. We checked the gate there's nothing wrong with it, so it's clearly walkers leaving it open. You'd think they'd know better but IQs have clearly fallen around here.
forgot to say if you put some of the shit in a net bag tie a rope on the top and and throw it in a 50 gallon water barrel it will make good plant food and you can ceep topping the barrel up all summer(good for tomatoes)
I can smell it from here! Did that with nettles once and smell was intense, but good for the plants.
Sounds like free food and aeration to me!
Had a loose horse once while I was there that had got out the paddock and into the garden. Managed to get hold of its harness thing and get it back to the paddock. It's hooves had poached up the lawn quite a bit. From what I remember I just filled the hollows with top soil and the grass grew back through.
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