Tips for Establishing Herbal Leys in Existing Pasture

Spring is here and it’s time to get busy, I have been asked for tips on getting a Herbal Ley established in existing pasture, a good question at this time of year.

I am just starting to organize my herbal leys for both of my pastures, just waiting for the rain to ease off!! So how do you get the pasture ready for sowing and how do you protect the seeds from free range chickens and birds?

Well, let me tell you how I am going to do my herbal leys…

Tips for Establishing Herbal Leys in Existing Pasture

1) Preparing The Ground

This is another aspect which needs a bit of thought, some ‘experts’ insist you rotary hoe the area before sowing your seed. I am not in favour of this idea, it is too disturbing for the soil structure. Indeed, you need some ‘bare’ areas for the seed to be able to germinate, but a whopping 10 meter square area??

What I have decided to do is:

• Steal my neighbour’s lawn mower and mow the area, so the area in which I am to scatter the seed is very very short, sort of like a cricket pitch, I am a ‘Pom’ so I am good at this!!
• If you have an area that is full of unwanted weeds, you may wish to remove these from the area first, weeds have a strong roots system and will choke out the young seedlings and compete for the nutrients and win, resulting in a waste of money and seed.
• Bear, in mind that ‘just’ a smattering of weeds are good, it’s when they take over the problems start. Have you noticed how weeds have really long roots?? This aspect can be used to good effect, especially on poor soil, these long roots bring up minerals that are trapped deep down in the soil, because there is not enough humus for them to be shallower.
• So long tap roots of weeds, can be used to the advantage of new seedlings by bringing up, much needed minerals for use by the shallower roots of the new seedlings.
• I remove unwanted weeds by going out a couple of days after rain and using a fork to just loosen the top of the soil and then using my hands to remove the weeds and roots. These can either be composted or I would burn them, if they are really invasive weeds, like Kikuyu grass or Ink weed.
• Take care not to disturb the soil too much, digging or disturbing the top 15 cm of soil kills the micro-flora and breaks the structure of the soil down. It takes over seven days for the soil to re-settle and build up the structure so that air can circulate from the tunnels dug by worms and micro-organisms can get re-established and go about their work of breaking up organic matter so the seedlings you are hoping to germinate will be able to feed
• Then I will rake the area over, so I just disturb the very top of the soil. I don’t intend making a huge mess, but, just getting enough loose soil to be able to scatter the seed and rake a thin layer back over the seed.
• This should be enough, to make contact between the seed and the soil, so it anchors the seed in place. You could let the chickens do this by scattering their food in the area, they make fast work of turning over the top of the soil by scratching for their food.
• Then I am going to get my fork and jab it into the ground, doing like a square hole, grid pattern.I would use a hand mower like machine with nails attached to the round ‘cutters’ bit, but I don’t have one of those, so a fork will have to do!! Once again, try not to make a mess, nice holes all over the area should do the trick.

2) Securing The Area

I have thought long and hard about how to prepare the ground, I have naughty chickens who just know where seed has been sown, even if I manage to scatter the seeds while they are tucked up in their bed!
So, a secure area is needed:

• Mark out the area, a rule of thumb, a 300 gram pack of seed mixed with some sand, should do a 10 meter by 10 meter area.
• My partners, idea for securing the area is this: sink ‘pegs’ into the ground, I will use bamboo stakes, about 1 foot in length and sink them in until a couple of inches are above ground. Be generous with the stakes, do the four corners and several in between.
• The idea, is to cover the seed area with old chicken coop doors, these have a wooden frame with the smaller holed chicken wire attached, these doors will be laid across the posts, so they are just off the ground, to allow the seeds enough room to grow but not allow the birds, or chickens room to get underneath.
• I have found, just covering the area with chicken wire, is not really good enough, as the chickens can walk over the wire and their beaks can still steal the seeds off the ground. But, if logical thinking is correct, a stronger structure just off the ground, will enable the chickens and birds to walk over the area but be high enough to stop their beaks stealing the seeds!! BRILLIANT if it works!!:)

3) Scattering the Seed

Easiest way, is to literally, grab a hand full of the seed and sand mix and throw in an arc like manner. Rather like feeding the ducks at the pond!!

I am going to make my seed and sand mix about half and half, this is the same amount of dry sand to seed. You could use sandy soil, or river sand, beach sand well washed to remove the salt. Look around your property, I am sure you could find something!!

The seed should ‘scatter’ its self as it flies through the air. The reason to mix the seed with sand , is to enable the seed to reach a wider area, if you just scatter the seed by itself, it is likely to grow in clumps, leaving bare areas, not the result what you want.

4) Looking After Your Seed

The secret of looking after an area of seed like this, is to protect it from birds, hopefully the door structure will do this.

And ensuring the area remains just dark, damp at all times. don’t flood the area, just a good sprinkling of water evenly over the surface should be sufficient to keep the soil moist.

You know how the colour of the soil changes when wet, it takes on a darker look, this is how you need to keep the area.

5) Liquid Feeds

An application of manure tea once the seedlings have grown to roughly 10 cm high, would be good to help establish strong root systems.

To Make Manure Tea: Collect some dried or old manure. Enough to fill an old bucket with then cover it with rain water and leave to ‘brew’ for a few days. Then, tip some of the brew into a watering can and dilute it to the colour of ‘weak’ tea and using a ‘sprinkler’ attachment on the end of the watering can, water the area with the solution.

Manure tea is great for adding nutrients to the soil, especially for a rapid uptake by young seedling if the underlying soil is poor.

To Make Seaweed Tea: If you are lucky to have found some seaweed, place this in an old bucket and fill the bucket with rain water, leave for a week, then dilute as above. Seaweed, is very difficult to come by, I think the council has first dibs!

But, seaweed tea it fabulous for giving the young seedlings all the nutrients for building good cell structures and establishing a good root system.

6) Watering Tips:

As a rule when you water seedlings or plants, you need to water the soil around the ‘drip’ line.
This is the area just ‘outside’ the reach of the leaves of the plant. Take a tree, for example, the branches stretch out in a fan like way, the ‘drip’ line of a tree is the area around the tree, is the part that stays dry when it has rained.

Watering like this makes the roots ‘look’ for the moisture, this means they have to develop feeder roots to tunnel their way through the soil seeking the droplets of moisture. This makes for a stronger root system as it is bigger and more complex to ‘anchor’ the plant into the soil than shallow, weaker systems that are near the surface.

Well, I think I have covered everything and I hope it makes sense!! It is a challenge to explain things that I can ‘see’ if you like, in a way that you will all ‘see’ what I am seeing,,just to confuse you even more!!

Please leave a comment if I have confused or not explained any thing well enough. Or please, let us all know how you put in your herbal ley, or if you followed my advise, how good was it??

I will put up some photos of my herbal ley in the various stages of development, as soon as the rain has stopped!!

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