For the last ten years, we’ve been farming bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) around the place. It started when I planted a few seeds and gradually, they’ve bloomed and spread. Because I’m impatient, I also helped them along by mowing the plants after they had gone to seed and spreading the clippings to other parts of the ranch.

I was delighted as each year’s bloom got bigger than the last. We had a lot of rain last year during the fall and winter, and reached a peak bloom this spring. What was once a few small patches of flowers had covered a significant portion of the lawn around our house. The entire backyard, some of each side yard, the area in front of the greenhouse and rainwater shed, and about about 1000 square foot near the gate. They were dense and beautiful during March, but left a lot of debris after the seed ripened and the 2 to 3-foot plants dryed out in late May.

In previous years, I’ve used a self-propelled mower to chop all the debris up, but it was really no match for these substantial plants. On top of that, I wanted to collect seed from this incredible year so we could offer it to a local gardening society for their plant sale. I knew that the plants generate a lot of seed. I wanted a more efficient solution.

We go up to the Mother Earth News Faire every February in Belton, Texas. I’ve been reading the magazine since the 70’s, and it’s fun to see how the “back-to-the-earth” culture has evolved over the years. There are vendors for seeds, gardening tools and supplies, solar energy products, food preserving, various crafts and so on. This year, an old-fashioned scythe caught my eye. At over $150 I didn’t buy it, but the idea was intriguing.

By May, looking out the window at the expanse of dried bluebonnets and dreading the clean up, I remembered the scythe. A few YouTube videos later, I was convinced that not only was it a practical approach, it would actually reduce the labor. It would also leave the plants largely intact, so they could be “threshed” for the seed. The rest could be composted. It was starting to sound like a plan. Old-fashioned, but possible.

A little shopping on the ‘net led to gardening and farming sites that sold scythes, but to my surprise, Amazon had them too. They had both wooden and aluminum handles or “snathes” and an assortment of blades for different purposes. They even had special sharpening stones for the blades. They were a little less expensive than the models I had seen in Belton, so I ordered a set with an aluminum snathe.

 

Putting it together wasn’t difficult, and the whole thing weighs just a couple of pounds. The razor-sharp blade is very thin. When in use, the swinging motion slices easily through the plant stalks. The motion — swinging the upper body from side-to-side while pivoting at the waist — is actually pleasant. Although it takes a little practice, when everything is working properly, it provides a gentle workout. Since the plants are cut at the base and not shredded, they are easily moved with a pitch fork. From the back yard alone, I moved about 2 cubic yards of plant material onto a large plastic tarp. With another tarp on top, the spent bluebonnets could dry in the Texas sun for a while.

I didn’t get back to the project until October. The tractor wasn’t working and the weather got hot so I had to wait. By late September, I had purchased a “new” tractor (but that’s another story!) and the weather had cooled. It was time to shred!  By far, greasing the shredder and attaching it to the tractor took the most time. Actually shredding the couple of yards of bluebonnet “hay” took about an hour.

Bluebonnets expel their seed when the pods ripen and dry, so most of the viable seed had fallen onto the tarp. Swept-up into a wheel-barrow, it looked like about a gallon of mixed seed, dirt and debris. With another pile of “hay” in the greenhouse to shred, I will have a lot more seed and have to “winnow” it to remove the dirt and debris. A couple of different size screens will make sifting the seed out pretty easy. I expect to have a substantial yield for the local garden club. Not bad for the first real attempt at “farming” bluebonnets!