Polythene sheeting a good idea?

This year I'm thinking of covering my lawn with clear polythene sheeting after I have over seeded and put fertiliser down. This is primarily to stop the birds from eating the seeds but I've read it's also good to trap moisture and keep it warmer thus helping the seeds germinate.

Do you think this is unnecessary or overkill? Regardless, any further advice would be much appreciated.



As you can see from the photos, some areas are bare which happens every year for some reason. I think it's to do with the tree next to it, too much shade and gets boggy during the winter. Other areas seem thick and difficult to imagine the making seeds making their way to the soil. I have already given the lawn a good raking.

Thanks very much.

 

I'd be careful, you could cook the lawn at this time of the year, heat will build up under the polythene on sunny days.
One of my neighbours had new windows fitted and they laid out the new window frames, covered on polythene on the grass for a few days.

Lots of dead areas for the rest of the year after that.

 

A trick you may consider. When seeding grass, mix the seed with damp compost and sand. Leave in the shed in a bucket for 2-3 days. this enables the seed to start germination and like barley when malted, changes the starch to sugars which alters the taste, hopefully your birds will reject it and leave it to grow.

 

Good idea, I'll try that with my patching up work this weekend!

Previously I have had good results with covering the seeded patch with horticultural fleece. It stops most of the birds and doesn't block moisture either way.

A slightly less scientific approach I use is to hang those fat feeding balls in the bird feeder whilst the seed is germinating. I'm convinced that the birds focus their attention on hanging balls of fat rather than grazing for scattered seeds. So far the results are mixed but birds like my experiments a lot.

 

Thanks for all your advice.

I actually saw this video which I found very interesting regarding do birds actually eat grass seeds? This is the main reason for thinking about using some sheeting or netting so if they don't really eat the seeds anyway then I won't bother.

Can anyone confirm that they do eat grass seeds bearing in mind the season and whether there is plenty of other food sources? I have a bird feeder station and regularly throw sunflower hearts across my lawn for the pigeons since they can't access the bird feeder station.

There is conflicting advice: some say you should remove bird feeders and stop feeding them while others say you should do the opposite so that they don't become desperate and go for less appetising food such as grass seed. It's all very frustrating!

 

Looking at your photos is the grass white in appearance?

the best way is to dress those areas. You can cover seeds with soil to help or you can mix in the seed and the dress the areas. Birds may take some seeds but it should be fine.

my concern is the whitish look of the areas.

 

Thanks for your advice. The whitish areas are or were these clumpy oversized looking grass blades which I blasted with lawn weed killer. They were annoying as they looked totally different from normal grass and seemed to be taking over!

 

I watched that video and I found it very interesting. Last night I went out to top up my bird feeders. They had cleared everything. Fat balls, suet tray, fat block, birdseed feeder and mealworms. All were gone.
Instead of topping them up I filled a dish with grass seed and left it until today. Nothing had been near it. Now we regularly have about a dozen birds at a time scrabbling to get food. Starlings, Jackdaws, Magpies, Blackbirds, Pigeons, Sparrows and the odd Blue Tit and a solitary Robin. None had touched the grass seed.
I tipped it on the back grass and filled up all the feeders and no sooner was I out the gate than the entourage were back squabbling and shoving for a space in the trough.
Looks like birds don't like grass seed!

 

Interesting experiment @Jocko !

Birds might like the fresh soil that is bound to attract worms and whatnots. In the process the seed may get whacked about a bit. Robins and Blackbirds are the main culprits here.

Birds are odd creatures, especially sparrow chicks that can take fancy at something most peculiar and play with it for hours. My cucamelons are a proper hit with them, nothing else in the raised bed is touched but cucamelon fruit get carefully nibbed off.

This year Finches took a liking to Daff buds, nibbling them with gusto but only those that are in the ground. Potted Daffs were not touched.

 

Thank you so much for that test, seems to confirm what was happening in the video....and makes me feel better after overseeding my lawn!

Selleri is right, they are odd with their feeding habits. I'm currently using sunflower hearts and fat balls. All birds eat the sunflower hearts apart from starlings and the crow family.

When it comes to the fat balls it's mostly starlings but they're not eaten quickly and most times they're more interested in burying their beaks in the lawn instead.