I last waffled on about scything a few weeks ago, and I'd had to stop as my scythe was cutting the dry grass, but not the green underneath, and it felt very inefficient. I've made lots of progress since then though. First of all, I bought a peening jig, and learned how to peen my scythe to make the edge properly sharp again. I shouldn't have been surprised, but I was amazed how much of a difference it made. Once the scythe was sharp, I could cut right down to the ground with ease, and scything became an enjoyable, meditative task rather than a chore. I also bought a holder for the sharpening stone to clip onto my belt - this has been revolutionary as I no longer have to prop it in a pot of water on a wall and walk back and forth all day. The sharp scythe and the stone holder made me quite efficient, and combined with a window of good weather, I got quite a bit of hay cut in a relatively short amount of time. Raking and turning isn't quite as much fun as scything, but it has to be done to dry the hay out properly. Eventually some of it was dry enough to make bales, which we did in the wheelie bin, same as last year. We made four, and stored them in the garage, and turned the rest of the hay one more time. Then our brief window of sunshine disappeared, and thunderstorms were forecast. There was no point making damp hay bales, so I decided to experiment with a hay rick, having read some interesting things here and here. The hay still wouldn't dry out properly, but I reasoned that most of it wouldn't get any wetter, and I could do this by myself, whereas bin bales takes a couple of people and is rather more labour intensive. I built it up in layers, stacking each one carefully at right angles to the previous layer, and was pretty pleased with it when it was finished as the sun was setting. Then the rain came... And then the strangest storm I've ever witnessed, no rain, no thunder, just lightning flashing constantly around the sky for several hours. We've had a fair bit more rain since then too. The hay stack is still standing, but looking somewhat slumped, and is now more of a hay sponge, having soaked up quite a bit of water. I'm going to leave it standing and gradually use it for mulch in the garden.
I've still got most of the field left to mow. I'm off work for a fortnight now, and the forecast is rain, rain and more rain. I'm hoping to get it cut between showers (the grass is easier to cut when it's wet), but it's unlikely to dry out. I think there's going to be quite a bit of hay mulch this year.
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It's that time of year again. The meadow has gone from green, to yellow, to brown, and the farmers are out with their tractors taking advantage of a nice couple of days to make silage. We're making hay, not silage (hay is dried grass, silage is grass that has been fermented to use as animal feed - it's easier to make around here I believe because the weather is so unpredictable and silage doesn't need the longer window of dry weather). We don't have animals to feed though (not ones that will eat silage, anyway), so hay it is. Or not. I made a start, but it was feeling pretty hard going, more like I was hacking away at the grass than a smooth swishing motion that scything should be. I finally got round to buying this excellent 'learn to scythe' course from Beth Tilston (who I see won a scything competition while she was eight months pregnant, so I assume knows her stuff). I wasn't doing too badly, but I've made some adjustments to how my scythe is set up, and how I sharpen it, and it turns out it very likely needs peening. I was vaguely aware of peening, and was hoping it was something I could get away without doing, but apparently not. It's the process of hammering the cutting edge of the blade, and it looks from this informative link like it would have been a lot easier had I been doing it from the beginning... Hey ho. I've ordered a peening jig (which is apparently easier than using a hammer and anvil), and will give it a go when it arrives. In the meantime, it seems I'm going to have to make a peening log or a peening pony. Does the list of things to do never end? While I was in meadow mode, I started hunting for some yellow rattle. This is an excellent plant if you have a hay meadow to restore (which I do), as it is parasitic on grass, so goes some way to lessening the strength of some of the stronger grasses, allowing more space for wild flowers. There's some useful information about it in this link from Magnificent Meadows. We have some yellow rattle, but only in small patches throughout the meadow, and I wanted to collect some seed and spread it around a bit. It's quite difficult to spot until you get your eye in. The flowers are unobtrusive, and it's easiest to look for a space where the grass is a little more sparse. After a few minutes of wandering up and down the field, I found some. Some of the seed pods had dried and were doing their characteristic rattle, but many of the plants were still flowering, and I could see why you're advised not to cut the grass until at least mid July if you want to increase wildflowers. I collected some of the dried seed, and once I've cut the grass, I'll rake out some areas of soil and spread the seeds around a bit. I did have another attempt at hay making in a different area of the field, but I was only removing the dried bits of grass, and the rest of the grass was just being flattened rather than cut. Definitely a good idea to wait for the peening jig. There's plenty going on in the meadow still though, and leaving it a bit longer will allow more of the wild flowers to set seed. I'm enjoying the process of learning about and managing our meadow. It's quite a steep learning curve for me - before the last couple of years I'm not sure I could have identified anything beyond clover and 'grass' in this field, but I'm getting there. We've got far too much of some things it would be better to have less of... And not quite enough of some things it would be good to have more of... There are several stages to restoring a meadow - and of course it all depends on what you have in there in the first place. We have enough of the good stuff that it's not worth scraping the top soil off and resowing (fortunately). Instead, each year I'll wait for late July or August to cut, leave the dried grass for a few days so the seeds can drop, then remove the hay to remove some of the fertility from the soil, which should gradually make conditions worse for the strong grasses and better for the wildflowers.
Then the neighbouring cows get let in to grass the aftermath (the grass that grows back after it's been cut). I'm sure others would do it a different way. We don't have our own animals, so can't follow an ideal grazing pattern that some do. Some people do an extra cut early in the spring, but spring for me tends to be a time of early commutes and dark evenings, so that's not particularly convenient here. So instead I'll cut once, remove as much hay as I can, and each year sow more and more yellow rattle. We'll see. |
Hello!Sit down and make yourself comfortable. I'm Jenni, and I write here about our new foray into country living, which includes growing food, knitting, baking, wandering around the fields, and seeing which local cafe serves the best cake. Categories
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