THIS IS NOW FULLY BOOKED. \;(But please let us know if you're interested in learning to scythe and we may be able to organise another session. If you are already a scyther and want to join the group, please let us know.)
New scythers: Come and learn to scythe and help with the restoration of Eynsham's new meadows.
Existing scythers: Come and bring your skills (and scythe if you have one) to mow our new meadows and help the beginners.
A scything worskhop will be hosted by Peace Oak Orchard and led Catriona Bass and Kevan Martin from Long Mead. We will teach the basics of scything in the Peace Oak meadow and then we will hone our skills on the small Dovehouse Close, Fishponds and St Leonard's Churchyard meadows. \;
The hay will be left on the ground for the seed to drop out for a couple of days. Then we will gather it up and scarify and roll as we did last year.
On September 5th we will finally sow the wildflower seed. As you may remember, last year we sowed only yellow rattle in these small meadow areas. Yellow rattle is semi-parasitic on grass and so this first step was intended to knock back the grass growth for a year, so that when we sow the wildflower seed they should succeed without strong competition from grasses next year. \;
We are hoping that you will become as addicted to the therapeutic art of scything as we are and we can form a great team to mow Eynsham's tiny meadows in the time-honoured tradition, far into the future. \;
Places are limited as we don't have unlimited scythes. If you would like to learn to scythe for your own purposes, rather than to help manage Eynsham's meadows, please let us know and we might be able to organise a separate workshop.
To encourage you all to sign up to the NRN website and reduce the administration of multiple mailing lists, we are charging £\;5 for non-members. NRN Membership is £\;10 and entitles you to free or discounted events going forward. Our 'experts' are volunteering their time.