Last year was the year I had both of my knees replaced (one in May and the other in November) and it was a year where I was very limited physically. For those of you who have seen some of the articles in this blog, you will realise that I have about an acre of land that I manage with a scythe. In between my two knee operations, I tried to do some scything, but it wasn't really … [Read more...] about A Community Mow
scything
The importance of a good hay rake
As you may know from some of my recent posts (especially "Rows and rows of windrows" last year), I cut the grass in a large part of my garden using a scythe. Why, you might ask? There are many good reasons including effectiveness, exercise, no pollution, no noise and low expense. One extremely important thing that goes along with my scythe is a good hay rake. I didn't know … [Read more...] about The importance of a good hay rake
Stinging Nettles – taking up the fight
Since moving to the UK, I've become accustomed to stinging nettles. They grow very vigorously, as a weed, and have runner roots just under the surface which spread out everywhere and result in new nettles. They're hard to get rid of and their leaves really do create an unpleasant sting. One thing I've found is that they love ground that has been dug up. In general, if … [Read more...] about Stinging Nettles – taking up the fight
Rows and rows of windrows
As you might already know, I do a bit of scything around my garden, and you may be wondering what happens to all the grass. Ok, that thought probably never entered your head, but I'd like to think it did. In my garden, I like to try to keep everything circular - everything that's produced by the garden goes back into the garden - and I use all the grass that I cut to enrich the … [Read more...] about Rows and rows of windrows
Pleasant pheasants
Last weekend, I was doing some early morning scything to cut some grass around my vegetable patches. It's a very peaceful start to the day that I enjoy very much. The ideal time to cut grass with a scythe is around dawn when the grass is wet with dew. Sometimes when I'm doing this, there are pheasants in the adjacent field, sometimes a fox, and sometimes other birds. It's like … [Read more...] about Pleasant pheasants