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dead grass under/around feeding station (1 Viewer)

A

andy70437

Well-known member
Hi,
I`m not a gardener so perhaps someone who is can give me some advice. I have a feeding station, A pole in the lawn with three various feeders holding, peanuts, niger seed, mixed seed and sunflower hearts.
Now after three/four months the lawn under the feeders is virtually dead. I have in the past moved the pole a few meters away and let the grass recover but you can still see where it was located.
Sooner or later when I have moved it all over, the whole lawn will look like a bad hair day !
Any advice please.
Andy
 
If you haven't anywhere else to put it, Andy, could you sacrifice those 2 areas of grass? If you dig them over and leave as soil, then every couple of weeks or so, if you move the feeder, all you've got to do is fork it over again, leaving a clean spot for next time- the worms will make short work of any 'dross'! I use a couple of summer flower beds like this during the winter, then have to move onto gravel paths throughout the summer. It means that the feeders have about a 6-7 week rotation.
 
andy70437 said:
Hi,
I`m not a gardener so perhaps someone who is can give me some advice. I have a feeding station, A pole in the lawn with three various feeders holding, peanuts, niger seed, mixed seed and sunflower hearts.
Now after three/four months the lawn under the feeders is virtually dead. I have in the past moved the pole a few meters away and let the grass recover but you can still see where it was located.
Sooner or later when I have moved it all over, the whole lawn will look like a bad hair day !
Any advice please.
Andy
Click to expand...


I think once the grass starts growing (should be starting to grow now) as spring advances the grass will quickly recover; it is extremely resilient. Come June, you probably won't remember you had this problem.
 
To be honest, I have the same problem...I figured it's from the birds feeding off the fallen seed on the ground, it can get really busy there at times. I've given up on trying to have grass under my feeders, even though it's all around the rest of the yard.

I've just chalked it up to a small sacrifice for the pleasure of having the birds visiting my garden.
 
I also have the same problem - no idea what actually kills the grass off - seed, droppings ???? However, the sparrows love it in the summer for dust bathing in.
Claire
 
I've had the same phenomenon. However when left alone and after a couple of weeks of damp spring weather the grass grows better there than anywhere else!
(but then I don't really look after the rest of the grass too well)

Roger
 
claire78 said:
I also have the same problem - no idea what actually kills the grass off - seed, droppings ???? However, the sparrows love it in the summer for dust bathing in.
Claire
Click to expand...
You're so right, and the sparrows just love it...which is another reason I leave it alone...
 
I've read that there is a chemical in sunflower husks that kills grass, so perhaps that's what is happening if there are whole sunflowers in the mixed seed.
 
Lol! We have the opposite problem. The grass under the pole feeder is very lush. We only provide sunflower hearts and peanuts nowadays. Mind you we used to have the same problem when we had niger and the full sunflower seed. For all it's small size niger husks seemed to be the main culprit. The sunflower husks were mostly just an eyesore. Despite no niger we still get 12-20 Goldfinch throughout the year.
 
I find it is best to keep your feeders off the lawn if possible, for umteen reasons ( 1 being the problem you are encountering at present)!
 
Landscaping to hide the dead grass?

Does anyone out there run one of those tiny 2 foot high small fences around the area of dead grass and plant low growing plants surrounding the little fence? I'm wondering if it would look better. It would made the birds more difficult to see from ground level.

I have the small fence sections, wonder if they sell spiky ones that annoy the pigeons.

Here's what it looks like now, but the hedge was just removed.

Anyone know about landscaping for birds in this area of the yard in SE Mass? This is the shady area of the house.

Thanks,
 

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