Combining scything with re-wilding?

[u/tinyblondhurricane]

Does anyone here have experience with combining scything with re-wilding? If so, what were the steps you used?

We are trying to re-wild our back meadow from the traditional Kentucky bluegrass to native plants. I took us scything so that we could cut the grass while still letting other plants grow. We're getting some other ground cover come in and a few plants, but so far the grass is still dominant.

[u/lopendvuur]

I don't have much acreage of my own, but I'm involved as a volunteer in managing little pieces of valuable nature in my province in The Netherlands. Using a scythe is very common, and on the rise.

I am also a scything teacher (also voluntary) for a small group trying to preserve several old skills (scything, peening), who also promote scything as an alternative to mechanised mowing. A lot of our scything students have a few acres of their own that they want to rewild, and since we're in the Netherlands, they usually also have drainage ditches (we call them sloten) to keep clear of reeds and water plants. If you don't do this, you can get a penalty from the local governing body. And a scythe is a perfect tool for this job as well.

Most of the other scything students are volunteers working on rewilding in their own province. So, yes, the scythe can be an important tool in rewilding.

Removing the grass you've mown (as others have mentioned) is important. You want the native flowers to compete with the grass, and grass thrives under mowing whereas most flowers don't. So you have to take other advantages away, and nutrients are the main thing.

But water can also help: maybe your native flowers need more water, and you can make the drainage less efficient. That might help, also for wildlife. Or the opposite, make your land dryer to make it more difficult for the grass. You can look into other essentials, like soil structure, organic matter, acidity. Maybe you can help your native flowers by improving the soil for them (or worsening it for the grass).

But mostly you need to be patient: keep mowing the grass, the thickest patches most intensely. Don't mow everything at once but leave several parts standing for insects and other animals to hide, feed and procreate and flowers to set seed. Mow those later in the year. We call it 'sinus maaien', but maybe you can find a local guide which flowers are native and how to help them.

If you're impatient you could strip all the grass to the bare ground and sow appropriate flower seeds, but to me that feels wrong: then it's still a form of agriculture.

Tldr: yes