2022 Grass Volume Discussion

Has anyone else noticed that the grass is growing really well around here. At least in SW Washington, the alternating rain and sun this Spring has really made the grass pop. My chicken tractor (with seven chickens) is just going up and down the same three strips every two weeks. I've never seen regeneration like that. It has almost always taken a month on my grass.

With all the bad news in the world about inflation and the rising cost of food, it seems to me that this is an excellent year to make hay. If you can come up with an agreement with a farmer to provide some hay for a discount on meat, do it. Or maybe just take advantage of rising hay costs to bring an old field back in to production.

Here I am talking about it, but all I have is a mower. No hay rake, no baler. And precious little time. But it looks like rain remains on the forecast for awhile.

this is totally happening here as well. Our grass is growing so fast. I feel I need to mow it every week. We just bought a battery powered mower so it has been a good test. I really wasn't expecting to use it this much.  I was expecting once every 3 weeks. Our mower is set to cut at 4 inches and it takes no time for the grass to bounce back.

The goats have been getting mowed grass. They eat it no problem. When the grass is to long i use the scythe and cut it down and feed to the goats. With all the rain it makes me want to sprinkle some dried seaweed onto the grass. Maybe even Epsom salts. This is more to supplement the goats than anything.

Luckily we do not have a big area to mow!!

Mow - really??? It's been so wet where I am, it's been really hard to get the grass dry enough to mow. I mowed one area and by the time we had another "window of opportunity", it really needed it again, but other areas were over a ft tall. One day I was so glad that I got 2 smaller areas done and was working on a 3rd when I got rained out. A lot of my areas are relatively small with lots of obstacles. I'd like to try a scythe to see if I could use it for even some of the areas, because from what I've read, a scythe cuts better if there's at least some dew on the grass. We get a *lot* of dew.

So yes, lots of grass this year. Too wet here to make hay out of it. It would make decent compost if I had some browns to mix with it!

I'm with Jay and finding it really hard to find a sunny day when the grass has dried out enough. Plenty of sun but the grass is just so wet- especially because it's so long. We have four areas we mow and we haven't been able to get them all done in a row before it starts raining again!

Yeah, we have been able to mow our lawns. But the fields, I don't know. I have some clients who want their fields mowed before the fourth of July every year. That is going to be a challenge. No one around here is haying yet.

Here in MA  we are having a "perfect weather" year as far as plants and gardens go.     Sunny warm days, cool nights, and a good rain about every 5 days or so.   Grass and other things are growing just lovely.   We had 2 dry years, and then last year was cold and damp for much too long and didn't make for good garden results.   I'm sure enjoying every minute of THIS year, and appreciating it more for sure.   Compost making is going great this year too with plenty of grass clippings to alternate veggie mulching,   mulching in place, and then a load for the compost bin!  

Well, the farmers have been haying, and their windrows have been huge. Probably 2.5 feet tall, where normally they might be 1.5 feet tall. It seems to me that a few more fields in my neighborhood are being hayed that have been resting for the past few years. But there is one big field that was sold recently and isn't being hayed. So, I don't know. It looks like it's a banner year for hay around my parts.