Guinea Pigs Destroying Grass!
somapop
Posts: 71
Hi folks.
My daughter has 'raised' a pair of Guinea Pigs: we picked them up from a local selling site, half expecting them to live 60 months to a year...3 years on and they're loving life!
I'll give her credit as she cleans their hutch first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. The hutch is kept in the shed (kept warm in the winter) but for much of the year, they're placed in a run in our back garden.
Unfortunately, this has created patches of dead grass over time - I built them a little house for their run so there's a combination of that, their food and hay and toilet habits all contributing to this problem!
I've now decided to keep the run rooted to one spot (they were moved daily so they could have fresh grass...not my idea) and think of a solution for that area. In the meantime I'm wondering what's the best method for filling these patches back in? The garden is only around four years old (we had a team into lay the turf) and although we have children playing on the grass (and now a dog!) so won't really be 'ornamental'. I'd still like it to be neat and lush as best as possible. I cut it every week or two and after this recent heat and now rain, the 'good bits' are really thriving. I don't, however, have any idea of what the best course of action would be to fix these patches - I've seen all the adverts for grass regeneration/patch magic but having never used them, I'm unsure how to proceed. I though of staking off the area (to keep the kids, dogs and birds away) and reseeding the sections as I don't really want to turn this into a major re-turf/rotivate job at least not for a good few years (the kids still use it etc).
Any tips/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks.
Posts
Guinea pigs are great. I had one who lived to 8! Tuppence the Intrepid! Her siser was 5 when she popped her clogs.
Your daughter is doing a great job.
As for the grass? Rough it up and reseed as you go. It's not going to be pretty but your piggies will be happy.
Like a manual (hand based) rotivate then reseed and water etc?
Not too fussed about the aesthetics at this stage. I'm in the process of redesigning the garden over time anyhow and part of it will be paved (just a trail from the patio to the shed...that run is totally ruined due to the back and forth walking!).
Longer term I'd probably just returf anyway (at least the garden is flat now!).
Any recommended seed varieties and grass feed?
Many thanks!
PS - I think her guinea pigs must be coming up to 6 now...they're treated like Queens by here, but although I'm not a particularly big animal lover (her mum is) I've even grown fond of them!
Last edited: 29 June 2017 13:25:03
I would think so. I'll bump this up for someone who has a "proper" lawn to comment.
When the cows made a mess of my garden a couple of years ago I just filled the holes and scattered a grass mix on it. There are different grades from bowling green to family friendly ( which I think is high in Rye) but I'm no expert.
Thanks plant pauper.
Just a general, fairly well revered brand would be absolutely ok. I take is something like Patch Magic might not be the best solution?