Thu, Oct 04, 2007 · Filed under Autumn, Fieldwork
Yet another experiment: making mulch from some of the hay that grows alongside the garden. The hay, originally alfalfa and red clover, is dying out, and what’s left is mainly grass and alfalfa, currently around 10″ (25cm) high. I cut it with the riding mower, which instead of scattering the clippings, leaves a convenient tiny windrow. A couple of days drying in this year’s hot October sun, and it should be good to go. I tried thoroughly dried grass clippings as mulch a couple of years ago on a few tomato plants, and it worked out well, so on to a larger scale. This crop will be used on the garlic, to be planted in a month or so. The mower is sadly in need of new blades, so the cut is rough, but it should work out fine.
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Sun, Jun 17, 2007 · Filed under Fieldwork, Spring, Veggies
The garden, approaching 2.5 acres with this year’s addition, floats near one corner of a 9 acre field of hay. I could fairly easily expand into much more of the field, and ride around all day, machine seeding and cultivating. This is definitely not the plan. Instead, it’s stay small in area and add people—I’m somehow attached to the idea that, in a pinch, I could still (with help!) manage the whole thing without gas-powered machines…more or less. So, twice a season, Bob cuts and bales the hay that’s all around, using 30-year-old big tractor gear, carefully kept up over the decades. Since the whole farm is certified organic, I suppose we could find a specialty market for “organic hay”, but that seems a little precious—this stuff gets fed to the half dozen cows, couple of dozen goats, and single miniature donkey, who live to eat and loaf on other parts of the tiny farm (I call ‘em 10,000 lbs of pet…they’re Bob and Karen’s, it’s not I who takes care of ‘em!). This field is overdue for reseeding, the hay has lots of grass that’s grown into the diminishing clover and alfalfa. Oh, you can also see Conall’s old Volvo station wagon, in the parking circle mowed out of the hay in front of the stand—it’s rapidly become part of the season’s local errand routine (it will lose some character when he gets that rear bumper reattached). And that’s the hay story.
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