The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Rye appearance

cutting Rye in neat rows with weed eater

Today I learned that by trimming Rye only from left to right instead of back and forth yields nice and neat rows where the Rye lays down in the same direction.



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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A scythe is a lovely tool to use around a homestead. I've just ordered one and am super excited to not need the power tool any longer.
Comment by James Wed May 14 18:45:45 2014

Ah, you are cutting and leaving it, right? I always cut from the right to left and make windrows, then haul it away to mulch other places. I never thought of doing it backwards to make an even cover. Good thinking!

Comment by Eric in Japan Thu May 15 10:01:48 2014

Hi All,

I have wondered whether a scythe is as easy as or less easy than a power driven tool?

Given sharpening, peening, etc.

I have found that a periodically sharpened hook is very effective at turning sod into small hills for planting corn as detailed in 'buffalo bird woman's garden'. Corn grows well, right in the middle of the lawn!! Amazing.

John

Comment by John Thu May 15 10:08:06 2014

James and John --- If you missed it, this post about scythe vs. weedeater might be interesting reading for you. My conclusion after seeing both in action is --- if I had to do all the cutting myself, I'd use a scythe, but I'd have to cut our growing area significantly to keep up using hand tools.

Eric --- One of these days we'll grow enough to mow and haul away, but for now, we do mulch in place. And Mark's method works wonders for that!

Comment by anna Thu May 15 12:00:09 2014





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