Sometimes the best tool is your bare hands

Hello permaculture friends,

I found I was getting almost nothing from scything and raking, and without much thought grabbed a few handfuls of dead grass to put on my garden bed.  It was much more satisfying and productive than the scythe.  So much of the grass had been folded for so long, not just in winter but even last summer in the drought.  So I kept going, and in about 2  hours I got 8" of mulch up on my hugelbed.

I was just thinking about Robin Wall-Kimmerer's writing as I did this.  I felt like an herbivore, pulling on the grass as it likes to be pulled, opening the soil clumps up to more air, chewing a circle of grass here and then moving on to the next spot.  Leaving lots of edge behind.  The grass showed me so much this way that I would have missed with a tool: how under the brown some roseate green bunches are already starting of the ones with the wider blades, how many dew berry runners there are under it all, which my instinct told me to tear out and reduce.   I got so much grass together in a few hours of contented work this way, where tools would have demotivated me.  My behaviors and motivations don't necessarily have logic to them, but I observe what happens and this was the work I needed and pragmatic enough too.  I got my hands touching the good earth.

Joshua

I agree..

My hand kinda looks that way too, tell us what you do with hands that you might have used tools for!

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I fear some of these remarks may get taken out of context.  "Doing so much grass today was really satisfying."  
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Oh, also, I see flashes of grass in my mind's eye now every time I happen to close my eyes, after having done a few hours of grass gathering today.  The presence of these images feels like the ongoing connection to nature I so thrive on.

In season, I pull lots of weeds to feed to my various critters.. amaranth, kochia, lambs quarter, purslane, Russian thistle, and goat head (before it goes to seed). I also tend to yank bunches of grass and cattail. I don’t  wear gloves for this type of work.

Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Hello permaculture friends,

I found I was getting almost nothing from scything and raking, and without much thought grabbed a few handfuls of dead grass to put on my garden bed.  It was much more satisfying and productive than the scythe.  So much of the grass had been folded for so long, not just in winter but even last summer in the drought.  So I kept going, and in about 2  hours I got 8" of mulch up on my hugelbed.  Joshua

This works well for my planting beds that were left to go feral at the end of summer but not the 1/4 acre that I did not get mowed. True the scythe  gets bogged down  with the fallen grass and is too heavy to pull it through. My motorized scythe on the other hand keeps on cutting no mater how slow I am swinging it so I can successfully create a windrow to pick up with the fork.  The riding lawn mower will cut and blow standing dry grass into the wagon but not when it is lodged. [ the word for laying down ]  
Example of standing wheat that had a tractor pen on it to harvest the grain but the turkey got eaten by a racoon that is why you will see feathers on the flattened grass.
 

Thanks Hans for the info. Let me see if I’m understanding correctly, the wauna blade works even with lodged grass?  What about if the grass is really patchy and uneven?

I still like my tool for this situation, it was satisfying.

This is why I have always been a fan of hand jobs.

Joshua Myrvaagnes wrote:Thanks Hans for the info. Let me see if I’m understanding correctly, the wauna blade works even with lodged grass?  What about if the grass is really patchy and uneven?

I still like my tool for this situation, it was satisfying.

Yes the blade works on lodged grass which is to tangled to cut with the scythe.  I cam swing it just the same as the scythe or reverse it and swing it slowly as a weed whacker if very heavy.  I prefer the peacefulness of swinging the scythe but at 83 I have to compromise when the effort is too great.  If the grass is patch and uneven  in the field I use the riding lawnmower in the mulching setting which tends to support even growth of desirable grass.  I have a problem with field daisies which I can mow down when they start spring growth using the scythe selectively.  When they are patchy I may use the power scythe to scalp them below the surface.  I used to do this with weeds in bark and chip mulch on commercial landscapes; I billed it as power hoeing.  But yes for no till garden beds just pull it by hand.  That disturbs the soil just enough tp prepare it for replanting or if recovered not encourage weed seeds to sprout.

Hands are a precision tool. Hands with protection move mountains. Wear gloves! My 2c.

I harvest potatoes by hand. I see people online using various tools, and at some scale, you need a tractor, of course, but I find that in good soil, just digging them up by hand works better than anything else and is really satisfying. I do keep a hori or spade with me for when they grown down deeper than my loose soil and I have to pry them out, but that's relatively uncommon.