[EJCTM]

Hi All,

My lawn has suffered terribly this Autumn (mainly from my ducks and chickens!) and has bare patches of earth between the grass tufts. When it rains these turn to mud.

I usually reseed every Spring which makes the lawn great throughout the summer, however I thought I would try and find out if I can reseed in Autumn so that I can let the birds free-range once it has established, otherwise I am left with two options: either keep them penned up all winter, which they hate, or let them completely destroy the lawn over the winter and have to start again in Spring, which I don't fancy as there would be more mud coming into the house!

I also have a bit of a drainage problem (clay soil - hence the mud) so have forked holes and filled with gravel over most of the lawn - is this enough?

No need to feed obviously as plenty of chicken/duck manure to fertilise!

All advice appreciated!

[compostqueen]

Apparently it should be done in Sept when it's still quite warm and there is sufficient rainfall. I'd leave it til April when it will actively grow from seed. 

[arugula]

For future reference there's nothing wrong with reseeding your lawn in the Autumn, but as CQ says its getting on the late side now as its getting too cold for it to grow.

[EJCTM]

Thanks guys. So difficult to know with the variable weather we are having. minus 4 degrees one night and then 15 degrees during the day the following week!

I might risk it and see, depends on how much I can get the seed for!