Equipment for making hay with a scythe

Scything is one part of the process of hay making, and there are a few bits of scythe mowing equipment that take you from just cutting grass to making fine haystacks. A good selection of scythe blades and snaths, a hay rake, and a hay fork will be the core of a haying setup. Scythe blades You want to have a few blades to suit the tasks. For easy mowing of a prepared field, 75 cm blades are good. There are longer blades, but they suit perfect grass and flat…

Read More

Why mow with a scythe?

First up, it’s appealing and enjoyable. To mow with a scythe is not necessarily hard work, and it doesn’t leave me with aches and sore knees like weeding and digging do. If you like the idea of being out in the early morning, just you, the scythe and maybe a dog, wet grass and birds singing, scything could be for you too. But practically, I mow with a scythe because: A scythe makes good useful hay Wet conditions are an advantage rather than a problem Scythe mowing is suited to…

Read More

Salvia karwinskii

One of the big, caney, Winter-flowering salvias of the involucrata group, Salvia karwinskii is a stand-out in the garden with big candelabras of pink flower spikes. Left to its own devices it is an open fountain of canes a couple of metres high, with sparse foliage compared to the canopies of S. involucrata and S. wagneriana. Leaves are large; 140 mm blades on 50 mm petioles, spear head shaped and 65 mm wide toward the base. Both surfaces are covered in short hairs, making the upper surface a matt green, and…

Read More

Salvia uliginosa

Salvia uliginosa and bog sage are the two unattractive names of this pretty plant with lovely pale blue flowers. As both names indicate, it grows naturally in marshy ground, but in gardens it grows well in standard soil. In fact withholding of water can be a strategy to contain it. I waited a while to get uliginosa, as it is invasive and I wanted to have a spot where that wouldn’t matter. It spreads by underground stems that look and act a bit like couch grass. Unusually for salvias that grow…

Read More

Salvia adenophora

Salvia adenophora is a robust plant here. It grows over 3 metres tall on straight and sturdy canes through the Summer, then flowers right through the shorter days with an abundance of bright red blooms in upright spikes. In warm climates adenophora will have sporadic flowers throughout the year, but the main flowering season begins in mid-Autumn. It makes a useful display before the main Winter show of S. gesneriiflora et al get going. The leaves are mid green and heart shaped, glossy above with sharply embossed veins, and greyed a…

Read More

Salvia Desley

Salvia ‘Desley’ is one of the outstanding performers in my garden. It flowers heavily and continuously through the year, in a rich plum colour that makes an excellent foil for other plants.  I have it in many spots, both full sun and part shade. ‘Desley’ is a shrubby, Salvia splendens -derived plant. It grows to 1.5 m in sun or higher in shade, as a rounded bush. Leaves are dark green and glossy, with indented veins, around 60 mm long by 35 mm wide toward the base, and tapered at…

Read More

Salvia iodantha

Salvia iodantha is big, flashy and unruly. Masses of fuchsia/magenta/red-purple flowers begin in mid-Autumn and continue on for months on long canes. I find the plant impossible to tame, although I’m not a persistent pruner. Left to itself, canes grow from the base to many metres long, then arch over at flowering time. When I have pruned it, it didn’t respond by bushing out, just sent out single branches of the canes, resulting in an unappealing shape. It’s definitely one for the background if you don’t mind it falling over…

Read More

Salvia azurea

  Salvia azurea is one of the few salvias that die down in Winter but still do well in a subtropical garden. As its common name ‘Prairie Sage’ indicates, it is adapted to the cold Winters of central USA. In Autumn it has a lovely display of pale blue flowers on airy stems, which slowly but surely arch over to the ground as the weeks pass. The growth habit is unusual for a Salvia in a few ways. The leaves are linear like tarragon, and in sets. Leader leaves are…

Read More

Salvia Meigans Magic

Salvia ‘Meigans Magic’ is one of three similar cultivars based on Salvia leucantha. All have white-based flowers with darker bracts, but ‘Waverly’ has a pink tinge and is a smaller plant, while ‘Phyllis Fancy’ is very similar with a blue tinge and paler look. What distinguishes ‘Meigans Magic’ is the dark calyces and more compact flower spikes. ‘Meigans Magic’ is a branchy shrub and can fill a big area, up to 2 m high and 4 m diameter. I planted my original pair of ‘Meigans Magic’ and ‘Phyllis Fancy’ about a…

Read More

Salvia coccinea

Salvia coccinea literally translates as scarlet sage, and it’s an apt descriptor for the original plant, although there are several forms including pink and white flowers. It is also known as tropical sage, as it comes from the tropics of South America (BC). This salvia is unusual as for practical purposes it is an annual, and its free self-sowing has let it naturalise in many places. It grows occasionally as a roadside weed here in Northern New South Wales.     Description S. coccinea is generally short, around 50 cm,…

Read More