Mowing tall grasses

The first thing we saw as we originally visited our current property was grass - lots of it and different species. The height and the sprawling stems that gathered every spring made regular methods of mowing challenging. The predominant grasses are reed canary grass and creeping sedge rush, both invasive and toxic to growing flowers and vegetables. These two continued to flourish in spite of many efforts and plans to reduce their dominance. One way or another we have cut and cultivated the areas outside of the wetland to look somewhat suburban.

We used a push mower, a rented berush mower, a riding mower and, eventually, a tractor with a mowing implement. Still grasses flourished outside the areas we cultivated with gravel and turf. The challenges remained and we looked for more effective tools. A challenging factor is the uneven terrain in the wetland buffer - the standard mowers couldn't negotiate the holes and mounds.

The issue with the various types of brush mower is the huge quantity of cuttings that were left behind. These clogged up future cuttings and it was necessary to repeatedly and manually clear out the mower deck. Still there was a surplus of grass clippings.

As a long-time gardener I had heard of the effectiveness of a flail mower for clearing garden plant debirs and cover crops, but I never had the resources to get one.

A neighbor showed me the effectiveness of a flail mower as he cleared hald an acre of tall weeds and grass. The flail mower can handle tall growth in uneven terrain. His field of tall weeds became almost like a typical lawn (around here that means the weeds as still present and a lush turf lawn is just a dream!)

A flail mower requires more power than other mowers because it slings hammes around a rotating shaft, and slicing a cuttings multiple times before it expels them. And the design slides over bumps and holes without getting stuck.

Our experience with the Farmry 61" flail mower has been pleasing and effective. It cuts tall reed canary grass and leaves only a thin layer of cuttings. The result is almost like a lawn.

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