Hay not such a good idea

Looking out over the garden this morning I am thinking that perhaps the hay was not such a good idea. I bought 20 bales and spread them on the garden after weeding. I was hoping the hay would double as a mulch, as well as weed prevention, but it seems in the latter I was wrong. There are thousands of new seedlings springing up from the rotting hay and what’s more, I don’t know what they are. I am hoping I have not introduced a nasty weed into my garden. When buying this lot, I was informed that it should be weed free, so I was quite happy about that. The last lot of hay I bought was quite strawy and took ages to rot down, whereas this lot is already decomposing. I did get some rye grass growing last time and that would have been good had I have had a paddock of sheep or cows, but not so great coming up in the garden.

But anyway, even if I do get lots of weeds, I know the garden will benefit from the mulch. Plants in sandy soils need to be continually fed as both water and goodness leach out fairly quickly.

We have a beautiful day today and sunshine, something we haven’t seen much of for the last few weeks. I think the huge amount of rain contributed to the fast decomposition of the hay. Had it been drier, then perhaps these seedlings wouldn’t have appeared quite so soon.

Up here, the new lambs and calves are arriving. It was always later when we lived further south. I watched a mob of cows devouring their hay on the way back from the writing group on Tuesday. It brought back so many memories of my farming days. There was nothing nicer than the smell of diesel as I rode on the back of a trailer, laden with hay, on a beautiful, cold, sunny morning. And the delight from the cows as they rushed after the tractor as I threw segments of hay to them. The interaction between us and the animals was magical. And I loved the joy the newborn calves and lambs had as they frolicked in the paddocks. In the evenings, we would watch from our house as 20 or 30 lambs played chase with each other, running up and down the hillside, tails bobbing up and down in the air. I do miss those times. And I am thinking, that perhaps the hay is best left for the animals.