cutting the long grass

We have cut down the long grass in the back garden.  The daffodil lawn still needs tidying up by hand, as it's impossible to get the lawn tractor on to it, but this afternoon the Systems Administrator put the power scythe over the daffodil lawn and the bottom lawn, while I raked until my arms ached, and we carted away the long grass to the bonfire heap, then the SA gave the bottom lawn a final cut with the normal lawnmower.

It is a job the SA absolutely loathes, because the power scythe is such a beast to steer and vibrates so much, and the work has a sort of never ending quality as you can't tell which of the fallen grass has been cut through and which tussocks are merely lying down, so you have to go over it again and again.  Still, it's done now, and it only has to be done once a year.  Long grass is in general pretty labour saving, but like many garden features that don't require much routine maintenance it does need one annual burst of effort.  If you don't cut grass at least once in the year the old dead stems look very tatty, and over time tree seedlings and brambles would take over.

The power scythe, although it's a beast, is a big improvement on the previous method, which was that one of us would go back and forth with a petrol driven strimmer, swinging it in front of us in an arc.  I don't think either of us could manage that nowadays.  The twisting motion is very hard on the back.  I sometimes toy with the idea of acquiring a real manual scythe and cutting the long grass by hand a la Poldark, but was put off by my failed experiment with a lightweight scythe bought from an ad in a gardening magazine, that was incapable of cutting anything but merely knocked it down, which only made matters slightly worse.  There are people nowadays who run scything courses (numbers have probably leapt since Poldark*), so perhaps I should go on one of those and try out a scythe before buying one.  They are supposed to be set up to take account of your height anyway.

I like long grass in a garden of our size.  It cuts down on the mowing for most of the year, which is a good thing, saving time and petrol.  Petrol driven lawnmower engines are much more polluting, gallon for gallon, than petrol cars, so cutting down the hours makes me feel we're doing something for the environment, and the long grass is an excellent habitat for all sorts of wildlife.  And it is very attractive, while I like the contrast between the areas of regular mown lawn and the waving seedheads and flowers of the long grass.  It is a slightly ambiguous space in design terms, not quite mass because you can see over it, but while it gives a feeling of openness you feel inhibited about walking through it, so it is not quite pure void either as mown grass or paving would be.

Now that the bottom lawn is cut I can get on with planting the pots of ox eye daisies I've got sitting in the greenhouse, and some more Crocus tommasinianus should be arriving any day soon when my Kevock order comes.  It's good fun, long grass gardening, only of course I don't have to drive the power scythe.

*I did not watch Poldark, but Aidan Turner's polished torso was all over the media, with accounts of his topless scything.  I would not scythe toplessly myself.  It sounds itchy.