HIPPO LAWN: Growing a lawn for grazing animals
The Hippo Lawn is an open area to the right of the house (as you face the river), just beneath our bedroom window. Although it has up until now (November 2007) been used as an all-purpose area for vehicles and building materials and you-name-it, we are planning to allow this area to grass over, in order to attract the hippos, buffalo, antelope and other grazers. To help things along, I am nurturing some grass nurseries, with various different types of grass, but most of it will probably self-seed, judging by the amount of different grass species which have just appeared in our balcony flowerbeds. These photos may seem dull to begin with, but they are really a personal record for me, which may be of some interest to a few other people out there - you never know! The early photos will be of more interest once the Hippo Lawn has grassed over completely, and we can look back upon its humble beginnings.
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October 2007 Hippo Lawn (4)
This month saw the beginnings of nurturing grass nurseries, to eventually grass over the entire Hippo Lawn. We planted both river grass and more conventional, hardy lawn grass. What we really need though, is Star Grass, for attracting the Buffalo. It has self-seeded all over the place in our balcony flowerbeds, so hopefully will do the same on the Hippo Lawn. -
November 2007 Hippo Lawn (6)
November brought the rain, and we expected great changes to the Hippo Lawn... -
January 2008 Hippo Lawn (1)
After several weeks of good rain, our Hippo Lawn in January is a far cry from the bare ground we had in October...