The thermometer read 7 degrees this morning when I got up. And the forecast called for a high of 18 in Philadelphia (we are usually a few degrees cooler here).
“It’s a perfect morning for mowing meadows,” I announced.
On the preserves we try to mow the meadows as late as we can in winter and yet while the ground is still frozen to minimize damage to the fields and soils. We’re also trying to keep the tall grasses up as late as we can for winter cover for wildlife and because they are beautiful.
The tractor has four-wheel drive, so it isn’t likely to get too stuck in thawing mud, but ruts would compact the soil and alter surface hydrology by collecting water and either creating a wet spot or draining an existing wet spot. And I abide by the saying, “Having four-wheel drive just means you’ll be farther from the road when you get stuck.”
So we mow when the ground is frozen. It’s best when it is below 20, and preferable before the sun has warmed the ground. Even then you have to keep an eye out since Crow’s Nest’s fields have a number of surface springs with groundwater flowing that never substantially freeze.
If we can’t finish the fields in winter we wait until mid-summer after ground-nesting songbirds would have fledged.
How cold was it today? There was ice on the inside of the barn windows. The camera stopped working after a few minutes outside.
I mowed for over four hours at a rate of about an acre an hour. We have been spreading out the mowing over the course of a couple weeks to minimize the impact on wildlife. Today’s mowing represents a small but substantial part of our remaining meadows.
I mowed a strip that buffers a wooded spring, the perimeter of a field we will burn this spring, and half of the field around the Chief’s Grove.
A personal aesthetic preference for neatness, and my work ethic (to do a thorough job) tries to compel me to mow the entire field to an even height. But I know that it is better to create a patchy meadow, leaving some areas unmowed, to leave a more varied and diverse habitat (much as a prescribed fire does). I cut most of the woody plants that would otherwise invade the meadow, but I left patches of grasses standing here and there.
It was pretty uncomfortable to sit mostly still (just steering, occasionally braking or shifting gears) on this winter morning (by midday the temperature rose to 15). But the results should be worth it.