Broken H Farm

Happy Sunday everyone! Its hay season here in Ohio and that means watching the sky and hoping for at least 3 days of dry weather in a row. We lucked out and had some perfect haying weather this week, so my little hayfield was cut and baled. 99 square bales (30# bales roughly 3000# total) off of .75 acres is pretty good in my eyes! It's the best hay yield I've had here and much appreciated. In spring 2021 I did put 200# of commercial fertilizer on the field followed with several applications of barn cleanings after a dismal 2020 yield of only 40 square bales (40# bales, roughly 1600#). Looks like it paid off. Hopefully I can get a 2nd cutting. Then I will have to figure out where to store it as the barn is full. The pasture is also doing great. So good in fact that I spent some time this morning mowing part of it off to encourage it to continue growing. Hopefully there will be plenty of stockpiled forage for the livestock to feed themselves well into winter and delay the need of feeding hay until at least January 1. Since I do not use any form of commercial fertilizer in my garden, and I started a batch of comfrey "tea". If you aren't growing comfrey, I HIGHLY encourage you to look into this amazing plant. I have patches of it growing in several areas for fertilizer, compost starter, medicinal uses and forage for the chickens and bees. To make the "tea" I gather up a 1/2 bucket (5-gallon bucket) of leaves and pour rainwater in over them to cover. I let this sit for about a week (you can let it sit for up to 4 weeks, it just gets stronger) covered in the sun so it can steep. After this time. I strain out the liquid into another bucket and put the spent leaves into the compost pile. The "tea" needs diluted prior to use. Depending on how long you have allowed it to steep the dilution rate may be anywhere from 1:2 to 1:10. I use the tea for watering the garden plants. Since I typically only let it go a week, I do a 1:2 ratio. It is especially beneficial for tomatoes. Comfrey is high in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. I hope your gardens are doing well, even if it's only a couple tomato plants and greens in a container. Every little bit counts. Keep busy, keep striving, keep moving forward!