Meadow cutting

Keeping the grass short after the July hay cut is important to let light and air down to the wildflower seeds. Having failed to harrow the meadow this year I am not sure that the seeds dropped during haymaking have made the best contact with the earth, so long grass is definitely worth avoiding.

The grass had got to about 8 to 10 cm, so using the highest setting on a ride-on mower brought it down to about 4cm.

I tried to cut around the meadow cranesbill which is growing strongly, am not sure if this is right, but I worry that repeated cutting when it is using up so much energy will weaken the plants for the winter. However leaving uncut areas around the cranesbill gives a very ‘patchy’ look to the meadow.

I like this, as it gives variety of habitat rather than on uniform environment. One of my main objectives on a small piece of land is to maximise diversity of habitat, even if it leaves the field looking a bit odd.

We have maybe grown so accustom to the uniform farmed fields of monocrops that are so sterile for wildlife that seeing a ‘patchy’ field looks odd.

I may have to do another cut in about 3 or 4 weeks time. I wish that there was some way of picking up the cuttings to take more nutrients out of the ground, but the mower becomes full quickly that this is just not practical.