Courtesy of Christian K, 3 Crows Farm, Cranbrook BC
I use a battery powered lawn mower to even out my harvests of arugula, lettuce and mesclun mix,
and spinach. I do my initial harvest with a Farmers Friend Quick Greens cutter, but find that my
2nd, 3rd and maybe 4th cut are much improved if I run the mower over the bed to even out the
cuttings and help remove the missed leaves. It takes about 30 seconds, and the next cutting comes
in with full leaves and no crusty dried leaves to pick out.
When it’s time to clear the bed I put on a ‘dethatching’ blade and lower the deck to 2″, and it
scalps the bed well enough that there is little debris remaining and I can sometimes just use the
Johnny Seed tilther to prep for the next seeding or transplanting.
The mower is tidy, doesn’t foul the neighbouring beds, is light, quick, gas free, relatively
quiet and way less effort. It’s like a poor man’s power harrow – works with a cheap gas mower too
if that’s what you’ve got.
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