One thing this property has is lots of grass. It grows very thick and long, and we don’t have livestock yet to keep it mown. We need to keep it down, so a week ago we got our new tractor, which is a beauty. It has a ‘four in one’ bucket at the front for moving stuff and a slasher at the back for mowing. So we have been out learning to slash the grass. The sun has shone the whole week too, with the result that there is a lot of our first hay lying around. It would be fine to leave to return to the pasture, but it’s also a great resource for compost and mulching.
I took a large feed bag down the hill to where we had mowed and made a few trips back and forth bagging that first hay and laboriously carrying it back up the hill. With the hay I started my compost pile under the veggie garden. I was going to get all fancy and make a bay out of bamboo stakes and chicken wire, but the site I selected is cut into a steep hill, so I thought I’d just try leaning it against the slope and setting it on a bit of weed mat I uncovered at the house. It’s due to rain this week, finally, so hopefully it will get nice and moist and start to ferment down to compost.
This should be a little like using manure, only you bypass the cows. The grass goes directly to break down and can be used to add both nutrients and organic matter to garden beds. My idea is eventually to fertilize the paddock to get good lush grass from a relatively robust ecosystem, then cut the nutrient rich grass to add to my vegetable beds.