One of our favourite jobs at this time of year is scything long grass under the trees. It was a beautiful foggy Kalangadoo Spring morning and scything is such relaxing yet efficient way to cut grass and weeds. The main issue is keeping your blade honed frequently (with a stone) - which is very easy and occasionally peening the blade, to which there is somewhat of an art. But once you get the hang of it you will never want to use a noisy wipper snipper again.

If you are interested there is a wonderful place near Mudgee in NSW that sells excellent Austrian Scythes and the sharpening gear to go with them. You can buy online or attend one of their Scything workshops which also include a variety of other traditional skills. www.scythesaustralia.com.au

Following flowering as the fruit are "setting" there is very high nutrient demand on the trees so a combination of geese, slashing with a tractor, scything, hand weeding and mulching helps favour trees over weeds. It is never a perfect job and it doesn't need to be, but the poor old apple tree certainly appreciates not having to compete with large perennial grass tussocks!