Selfsufficientish.com

A tentative little step back in to the forum...

Hope all the regulars are well, and hello to anyone new.

As the title suggests, I'm looking for ideas for dealing with old grass. A fairly large section of our field was left uncut (and uneaten!) at the end of last summer, then died back and got covered in snow. The snow has gone now and left a squashed clumpy area of dead looking grass, way too long and tough to be scythed. The ground under it is very uneven too since it hasn't been used for anything for 15 years minimum, and the moles have had free reign. We haven't done anything with it since moving here except plant a few fruit trees on it last year.

Anyone got any suggestions for clearing this old grass? There seems to be a lot of grass burning going on on the hillsides opposite us at the moment but I'm sure one would need to be quite expert to try something like that!

I'm afraid I can't help you, but it's good to see you back!

Cattle, then sheep. When the sheep have eaten it right down, you'll be able the lie of the land and decide what to do next.

Hello there! good to see you back hope you stayed warm through the snow.

kind thoughts
Deb

You will notice the absence now of one angry poster, you're back among friends

Hi Burek - nice to hear from you again!

I think your old grass will just die off and new grass will come through. This happened to us when a lot of our garden got out of control when we first moved here - I never thought the grass would grow again as it had been really long and then all flattened through the winter, but it did!

The molehills are another problem - we're left with very lumpy land thanks to the moles, making it really hard to walk on. I don't know what the answer is to the mole problem, unless you've got access to a tractor which could harrow them maybe?

Millymollymandy wrote:The molehills are another problem - we're left with very lumpy land thanks to the moles, making it really hard to walk on. I don't know what the answer is to the mole problem, unless you've got access to a tractor which could harrow them maybe?

Rollers. They're a standard grass management tool. if you don't have a tractor, borrow a roller from a farm and tow it behind a 4WD.

Harrow, reseed and roll come spring.

I'm with stonehead.

If you get that tractor then get a big tough topper and bash the grass back. Nothing like a good short back and sides to do grass the world of good. It'll deal with mole hills no bother. I got one see......and our 40 year old rushes were no bother at all so your one year old grass stands no chance.

When we had awkward terrain in the woods we put up a temporary fence the put a pig in to turn the land over, natures greatest plough "A PIG" .

good luck

Russ

Thanks all for comments and friendly hello's!

A pig! Ah, sounds like the excuse DH has been waiting for!

Think I'll offer the patch to a neighbour for his cow first, then another neighbour for his sheep, and see what happens. I'm not particularly bothered about the acutal existence of molehills (although I wish they wouldn't wreck my veg during the season!) more that I thought the ground was very uneven and difficult to get anything over it to cut the grass now that it's got this bad. But thanks for enlightening me, it may be worth a go after all.

Must say, it isn't looking half so bad in this spring-like sunshine we've had today.

Hey Burek!

Nice to see you back mate!

Nev