Opening up Cae Mari Jones ready for further mowing
It has been an amazing period of settled hay weather and it looks set to continue for a while yet. The days have developed a definite rhythm. Phil mows early in the morning. After breakfast one or both of us, depending on our commitments for the day, go out and spread the various ages of hay on the field. This can take up to 2 hours. Then there is a break from hay making (more then filled by work on and off the smallholding!) until the evening, when from about 7.30pm onwards we cart the hay that is ready and row up the rest. We are currently finishing between 9pm and 10pm, depending on the volume on the field.
This morning, Phil mowed a strip along the back of the other hay meadow, Cae Mari Jones, opening up the field in preparation for an Introductory Scythe Course we are running on Wednesday, and the Social Mow and Hand Hay Making Day on Sunday. The grass mown on the rougher edges of the fields usually contains a fair amount of bracken, hogweed and other coarser plants. Rather then making it into hay we tend to use it for mulch in the garden, where it does a useful job suppressing weeds, retaining moisture and adding fertility, .
We have cut most of the lushest part of the Top Field now. We will do a bit more mowing along the edges of it to control bracken and bramble invasion. The hay aftermaths and the rest of the field, which is much more dominated by Yellow Rattle and broad leaved plants such as Cat’s Ear and Hawkbits, will be grazed by cattle in mid to late August, followed by winter grazing by our sheep.
Example of the remaining vegetation in the Top Field. We have cut the grassiest part.