Orchard Grass Management

Here is another little orchard management story, this time about grass. I'm only one person and Plymouth City Council only lets volunteers use hand tools in their community orchards. For health and safety reasons, I don't blame the council. This rule makes complete sense in my mind, but it means I must think very carefully about how best to utilise my limited time.

Last year, I bought myself a little hedge clipper (see below), which I used to clip back the grass in little circles just around the trees. Even this conservative approach was a struggle though around all 26 trees. By the time I reached the last tree, the grass around the first one was already tall enough to clip again. This cycle looped around all summer. Not fun...

 

I noticed something interesting along the way though, something which I initially could not explain. The grass I clipped grew greener and more vigorously than the grass I left unclipped. This occurred consistently around every tree. 

Over the winter, this phenomenon niggles away in the back of my mind. It made my job harder for sure and I had no intention of repeating the experience this summer, but I had no idea how to prevent it. Herbicides are totally out of the question. All such poisons should be banned.

Then, one day, I read about the coevolution of grass and grazing herbivores. Over the millenia, grass has evolved to withstand repeated predation from grazing herds of wildebeest, bison, kangaroo, and so forth day in and day out. This connection between grass and grazer is so strong that grass actually needs grazers to thrive. Grass grows best when moderately grazed.

Suddenly, an epiphany! In the orchard, I was acting as the grazer. My actions last summer encouraged the grass to grow. Eureka!

To lighten my load, the solution was obvious. Don't cut the grass. This summer, I'm following this philosophy religiously by simply stamping down the grass around each tree. The results are beyond my wildest expectations.

As you can see, the grass stays flattened. In the dry June weather we are experiencing, the flattened grass mats are even dying off. My work is literally half that of last year. I just love putting theory into practice. I will never look back.