Pass the Grass

Grass is on my mind.  It keeps me up at night.  It takes up a lot of my time during the day.  No, not "Colorado Grass".  Grass as in Frankie's grass in his yard, or the lack of grass in Frankie's yard.

The backyard grass that came with the house is woefully inadequate.  Regretfully, we moved in the house during the winter and didn't know until Spring that Frankie's yard never had much grass.  What it had isn't enough for a 95 pound sulcata.

Woefully lacking grass.  The rest of the yard has no grass. 

Hey, mom.  No Grass. Do something.

Frankie's been somewhat patient about the situation.  No, I take that back.  Frankie has not been patient about a lack of grass in the yard.  He mopes about with this sad I-can't-believe-you-abuse-me look on his face.

I am starving, mom! Wait, is this a giant carrot?

Since there is no grass then I must pick a bag of grass & weeds for him, twice a day, and we all know how well that is going.  If I don't go pick a bag of grass then I must take Frankie for a walk.

Frankie siting by the gate. Well, more like blocking the gate until I get the hint Frankie wants a walk

Used to be Frankie and I would go on walks but we don't walk any more.  The minute he is out the gate he heads to the neighbor's house where they have real grass. We don't walk, we graze.

Frankie having thoughts of moving in with the neighbors who actually have grass in their yard.

There's been some heated discussions as to why there is no grass in our yard and how we're gonna get some grass:  Bad soil, lack of care of previous owners, not enough sun, aliens.  We looked at the biggest sun blocker tree and had it removed.  No kidding.  Took down a perfectly healthy tree so we could grow grass in our yard. Well, okay, it was a Pine Tree and Frankie was eating too many pine needles anyway. It was a good thing to take down.

Timber!

I started planting more grass.  Bought Tortoise Grazing Seed from Carolina Pet Supply and planted it in three areas of the yard.  It came in great.  Then Frankie ate it.  The grass still exists but as it's kept trimmed to the ground by the hungry Frankie.  So I bought more seed.

Almost ready to be eaten. 

Small sections are planted and then covered with heavy duty screen.  Frankie can't eat the new grass until it grows above the screen. When the grass is ready I remove the screen.

Hey, this isn't fair.  And I ain't eatin' your hay either.

I got really ambitious and planted a really big section with grass seed.  I didn't have enough screens to cover it all so spread hay over it.  It's okay, Frankie won't eat hay even if he is starving.

Back corner is seeded and covered with hay.  Frankie ignores the hay.

Planting seed is a slow process but this way we get the right kind of grass to grow that is best for Frankie.  I choose seed based on Sulcata Station's list of good grasses for sulcatas.

Is the grass ready yet? Not yet?  Then go get me a bag of grass.  I'm hungry.

Right or wrong, slow or not, maybe there is a better way to get grass to grow in this large yard.  Considering the steep inclines, leaf-debris ground, varying soil types and lack of skill on my behalf, I am managing to get it done.

I keep reminding myself that once I get this grass seeded and grown the task will be complete and I will not have to do this again on such a large scale. 

We'll get here eventually.

 Looks like it's time to go pick a bag of grass & weeds for Frankie.  Hurry up and grow grass!

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References
http://www.sulcata-station.org/diet.html
http://www.carolinapetsupply.com
http://www.groworganic.com/seeds/grass-seed.html