GRASSLAND MANAGEMENT

Up above the pylon at Filnore Woods is an area we call the top meadow. 

We are trying to encourage perennial wild flowers but at the moment there are still a lot of coarse grasses and other vigorous plants like hogweed and creeping thistle that threaten to take over and obliterate the smaller flowering plants typical of a hay meadow.

So we are mowing part of it in the time-honoured way with scythes.

Once it is cut it then has to be removed in order to reduce the fertility.  Grass left on the ground would rot down and act as a fertiliser.  Even if it is just left uncut it will fall over and form a thatch that is difficult for plants to seed into.

The action of scything is a rhythmic slicing back and forth at ground level.  The swishing sound is rather hypnotic.  Here are some of our labourers exercising their skill.

Jim is a practised mower

Andy has a prodigiously high work rate

It was the first time with a scythe for Nick but he is clearly a natural.

Mowing is half the job.  Once cut, the grass has to be raked off.  

Then it is carried by pitch fork, sledge (picture 4), barrow, or dumpy bag (picture 1) to one of our stacks.  

This will probably result in a strong growth of nettles as the grass rots down but hopefully the rest of the meadow will benefit.

Without mowing, the field would be overwhelmed with plants like Dock, Hogweed, Brambles, Thistles and Mugwort as in the picture below taken near the field gate.

Then hawthorn and oak trees would germinate creating scrubby woodland, leading eventually to high forest.