Tuesday 4 September 2012

Working on the meadows

I also did some meadow work today, a petrol ran scythe like cutter is used to cut the tall meadow grass. We rake this to one side out of the path of the machine then fork it onto a carrier pulled by a tractor. Then the grass is gone over again with a mower, so that the light can access meadow plant seeds and increase their chances of germination. When this is done over a area that has a lot of bio-diversity, then we would take the cuttings to be dispersed over places we wanted to encourage meadow plant growth. The cutter runs over the grass slowly so that any hiding wildlife can have a chance to escape. Unfortunately we unearthed a nest of baby mice, which were mewing at their disturbance. We put them in a place where they wouldn't get trampled, but they are probably not going to survive.


The close cutting mower also cuts up any 'thatched' grass - grass that has knitted together so much that it makes a preventative barrier to new meadow plant seedling coming through. They can probably come through regardless, but it's to help them along as much as possible. The hay is gathered up meticulously so that it doesn't end up as a mulch and also meadow plants grow better when there is less nutrients in the soil, so it is to prevent them from decomposing and putting too nutrients in the soil. The grass will also get cut again before winter, because of bulb plants - they will be able to grow in tall grass but it is to make it easier for them.

Jette with a new hairstyle -

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