Mowing the Wildflower Patch

Nancy and I both love wildflowers. What's not to like? All we have to do is plant them and then admire their beauty. We don't weed, fertilize, or water. They seem to flourish on lack of attention. But one bit of maintenance we do is mow them in the fall. After the flowers have gone to seed and we've picked all the seeds we want, I bring out the mower and tractor.

When the leaves on the grove of white oaks grab the scene with colors, that's when you'll see me in the nearby wildflower patch with my tractor and mower.

The tractor is a 1957 Ford 960. 

The mower has 3 rotary blades and is made for mowing grass, not brush. 

I keep the gauge wheels off the ground several inches so that the grass and flowers are cut really high.

After I finish mowing, Nancy and I go for a walk among the trees in the windbreak.

In a small clearing in the woods, a young oak shows its colors. 

We visit the same big leaf that we discovered last spring and are happy that it survived the summer. 

The small tree grew over 6 inches during the year.

Photographs by Nancy A. Fredrickson