Boar damage

[elsie]

I've just returned from holiday and discovered several patches of my grass dug over by boar. Has anyone any suggestions on how to deal with it?
I don't think any of the large tractors the farmers now use around here could get to it to harrow/roller it (and they'd possibly cause more damage). I certainly can't pull the turfs roughly back into place. Someone suggested it might be possible to get it rotovated but I suspect the turfs are too large/clayey and the roots too matted together for a rotovator?

[Quiksilver]

When that happened here I just put the turves roughly back in place and ran over the area a few times with the ride-on (sans blades). Then filled in holes with top-soil, watered and over-seeded. I'd imagine that if you've been away for a while, the damage is extensive? Is there no-one locally that could give you a hand to level it? It makes all the difference getting the turves back in place and I doubt a rotovator is the solution. I'd offer to help, but I don't think you're in the SW?
When it's done, might be worth considering an electric fence (a lightweight one with push-in stakes & 2 strands of wire is enough). As long as the lowest strand is set just above ground level, it's enough to deter them.

[niemeyjt]

I've just returned from holiday and discovered several patches of my grass dug over by boar. Has anyone any suggestions on how to deal with it?

Shoot it (or get the chasse to do it).

As for the grass, if you cannot repair it and want to start again, get a spader on a minitractor on it first - that will deal with any clods. Then a stone burier (which is a reverse rotavator). Then reseed etc.

If you can mostly repair it with just a few patches now, get some seed trays and fill them with soil and sow grass seed in them and keep in a cold frame over winter. Transplant to bare patches in the spring.

[Veem]

Elsie, if you contact the local Chasse and complain LOUDLY and insistently, they should send people to help reset the sods for you, at no cost to you. If you get hassle from the chasse, I suggest that the Mairie is next on the list of calls. Good luck!
Veem's OH aka Biggles

[Yonner]

When that happened here I just put the turves roughly back in place and ran over the area a few times with the ride-on (sans blades). Then filled in holes with top-soil, watered and over-seeded. I'd imagine that if you've been away for a while, the damage is extensive? Is there no-one locally that could give you a hand to level it? It makes all the difference getting the turves back in place and I doubt a rotovator is the solution. I'd offer to help, but I don't think you're in the SW?
When it's done, might be worth considering an electric fence (a lightweight one with push-in stakes & 2 strands of wire is enough). As long as the lowest strand is set just above ground level, it's enough to deter them.

I can't offer any other solution to those voiced, but I'd like to ask where you'd suggest getting topsoil from Quicksilver, maybe we haven't searched hard enough locally, but I can't find any of good quality - ie brickless. TIA

[Veem]

Or elsie, do as I didm and treat it as a 3-d jigsaw and get down on your knees and painstakingly put it back to how it was. Here it was in the paddocks, not in lawns. It did piece together fairly well and you couldn't tell a few weeks later where the damage had been. I dread it happening again ..........

[Quiksilver]

When that happened here I just put the turves roughly back in place and ran over the area a few times with the ride-on (sans blades). Then filled in holes with top-soil, watered and over-seeded. I'd imagine that if you've been away for a while, the damage is extensive? Is there no-one locally that could give you a hand to level it? It makes all the difference getting the turves back in place and I doubt a rotovator is the solution. I'd offer to help, but I don't think you're in the SW?
When it's done, might be worth considering an electric fence (a lightweight one with push-in stakes & 2 strands of wire is enough). As long as the lowest strand is set just above ground level, it's enough to deter them.

I can't offer any other solution to those voiced, but I'd like to ask where you'd suggest getting topsoil from Quicksilver, maybe we haven't searched hard enough locally, but I can't find any of good quality - ie brickless. TIA

There are a couple of firms locally that deliver topsoil, one being the local vidange firm Don't laugh! I did wonder, but found out that they get it from a (fairly) local quarry. 1st lot, impeccable, 2nd lot full of couch grass roots and 3rd lot (I'm a sucker for punishment) they must have treated with something nasty, because nothing except bindweed and couch will grow in it. It sounds as though you got yours from a maçon or groundworks Co.. Worth a call to a vidange Co. or a local paysagiste to find out where they get theirs?

[niemeyjt]

Maybe I misunderstand, but if the boar have redistributed the soil, rather than carting it away, why should Elsie need more of it?

[Quiksilver]

Or elsie, do as I didm and treat it as a 3-d jigsaw and get down on your knees and painstakingly put it back to how it was. Here it was in the paddocks, not in lawns. It did piece together fairly well and you couldn't tell a few weeks later where the damage had been. I dread it happening again ..........

Have you got manure heaps, Veem? Sanglier love those! I sprinkled a mix of pepper and chilli powder over mine. It did the trick...that and the electric fence

[Quiksilver]

Maybe I misunderstand, but if the boar have redistributed the soil, rather than carting it away, why should Elsie need more of it?

Not vast quantities....just enough to fill the hollows and give a 'key' for grass seed