The sweet scent of hay

One of the highlights of hay-making season is the sweet scent of newly mown grass and well-made hay.  It is hard to convey the scent on a blog, but perhaps the pictures of my dog Ellie go some way to demonstrate  just how good it is! 



Haysel

Mowing at Martin's meadows

At last -  at the end of last week the weather was set fair - time to make hay whilst the sun shone!
It seems that every hay field in Suffolk was a whirr with cutters, turners and balers. After such a wet June, everyone needed to take advantage of fine weather to harvest hay before the arrival of rain showers forecast for the weekend.
The Suffolk Wildlife Trust meadows were no exception, with all systems go from morning 'til night.


The process started with cutting last Saturday, then turning to allow the hay to 'make', followed by rowing up ready for baling.



Turning hay at Mickfield

Mown hay

Baling at Martin's meadows

The final and perhaps hardest work is loading the bales for carting back to be stored in the barn - but the satisfaction of looking at a stack of sweet smelling hay is some compensation for the aching limbs, as is knowing it is all over until next year!


Bales awaiting collection

My thanks must go to everyone who has worked so hard to help get such a lot done in such a short time - a good team prepared to pull together when the weather is right is invaluable for hay making.


Bales loaded and ready to go off to the barn

Last load of the evening





















Dyed in the Wool

A few days ago I called in at Martin's Meadows - the Dyer's greenweed (Genista tinctoria) was in full bloom and a buzz with bees.

A native of old grasslands and green lanes of the  boulder clay this member of the pea family really shines out in the meadow.  It's rich yellow flowers were once used for dyeing   fabric - hence its name.In addition to being an uncommon native plant in Suffolk, Dyer's greenweed was once widely cultivated. The account of the species in Martin Sanford's excellent  'A Flora of Suffolk' (2010) includes reference to Dyer's greenweed being cultivated and harvested in fields near Debenham in the 19th Century, with the resulting harvest going off by the cart load to be used for cloth dyeing in Haverhill.

Having been fairly widely cultivated, it is likely that the current Suffolk population of the plant is a mixture of both the true native and relics of cultivation.
It only occurs in one meadow at Martin's meadow (the most easterly one), but it does seem to be slowly spreading which is certainly good news for the bees who seem to absolutely love it.

A sea of green

It is the height of the grasses season at the moment. Often overlooked in favour of the more colourful meadow flowers like ox-eye daisy, buttercup, sorrel and orchids - the grasses put on a more subtle display. Yet look closely and they are just as beautiful and varied. (Picture to the left  - from left to right - wall barley, sweet vernal grass, red fescue, false oat grass, cock's foot, soft brome, rough meadow grass, Yorkshire fog, perennial rye grass, quaking grass, yellow oat grass - note: not all 'hay' grasses)

The grasses are also the 'main stay' of the meadows. Without them there would be little or no 'keep' (grazing or hay for livestock). Broad leaved herbs are of course an important part of hay/grazing providing variety and flavour, but it is the grasses that have the main feed value and best storage qualities. Well made hay is very much sought after and its ability to be stored makes it a vital for feeding livestock during the winter.

The timing of hay making is all important and varies around the country, depending on local climate and soil.  Ideally the hay is cut just as the grasses begin to flower, but before all the 'feed value'  and energy in the stem  has been used up by the grasses forming seed.

We are just entering the stressful time of year when hay-making begins, with anxious hay makers constantly looking to the skies to see if there is any dry weather on the horizon.  Harvesting and making hay requires several days of good dry weather - to cut, turn and allow the hay time to 'make' before it is baled and safely stacked undercover. Whilst the high rainfall in recent months has resulted in good hay growth - some fine weather to 'make hay whilst the sun shines' is now much needed. Fingers crossed!

Buttercup blog part 2

Following on from my last post, I thought I would just add a couple more buttercup pictures I took at Martin's Meadows today.
The summer weather that has arrived this week has really moved the flowering season on a pace and the meadow buttercups seem to have reached their peak in a matter of days.

As we walked around the edge of the meadows, Ellie caught a buttercup in her collar - an excellent  photo opportunity and from the slight yellow glow beneath her chin I would say she definitely likes butter!

Buttercup blog

We are in the midst of 'buttercup month' at the moment.

On the  drier grasslands (e.g Hutchison's meadow and many churchyards and road verges), bulbous buttercup - Ranunculus bulbosus has been in bloom for a week or two, adding some welcome yellow 'sunlight' to the rather rain swept days of April and early May. A frequent companion of one of the earliest flowering meadow grasses -  sweet vernal grass - Anthoxanthum odoratum, bulbous buttercup is easily distinguished from other buttercups, by it softly lobed leaves and its down-turned or reflexed sepals.

Often at least a fortnight of so later, meadow buttercup - Ranunculus acris begins to flower - carrying its much taller flowering heads up into the hay. It also has a much more cut or dissected leaf.

 Meadow buttercup is the buttercup that creates the beautiful haze of yellow seen in hay meadows - often flowering at the same time as common sorrel - Rumex acetosa - the yellow buttercup contrasting dramatically with the red sorrel.

For me, 'buttercup month' also means returning to the office after a meadow visit  with my shoes or boots covered with yellow dust from the petals and pollen!

A snake in the grass

This month, the meadows begin to 'move' as days lengthen, the soil warms up and April showers and downpours provide welcome moisture. However, growth is slow, the 'spring flush' of grass is yet to take off. Early and low flowering species like barren strawberry, bugle and germander speedwell are still clearly visible and cowslips are often the tallest flowers in the meadows.
This is an ideal time to see Adder's tongue - Ophioglossum vulgatum. This curious low-growing fern  occurs in old, undisturbed grasslands - its simple, lime-green leaves often forming quite large colonies of no more than a few centimetres high. The sporangia from which spores are released arise from the centre of the leaf  like a snake's tongue - hence the name Adder's tongue.