Wow that looks amazing I saw that you used a rice knife to cut the Vetiver and somebody suggested hedge trimmers Have you tried any other methods or discovered an easier way? Would love another update You have done an amazing job and should be very proud
Thank you - I have only tried cutting with the rice knife thus far - at larger scales I could absolutely see using a hedge trimmer. The hedge trimmer does make a mess of the cut ends (lots of fraying) based on what I've seen after the landscape crew cut it. The rice knife is cleaner, but obviously takes much more time.
Hi Art, It certainly can be - vetiver grass can be easily shaded out, and the terraces create great places to establishing canopy-forming perennial vegetation. However, if it isn't shaded, it'll keep acting as an awesome placeholder for future plantings.
Here the lines were separated by 24" of vertical fall - horizontally the distanced varied a little with some slight slope changes. The slope was between 55 and 65% grade, so you can get an idea of how far they were separated laterally - pretty close to provide good canopy closure.
@@7thGenerationDesign Looks amazing, absolutely love it. Based on your experience, would you plant the rows within a 24" spacing again or maybe leave more distance to make it easier to walk through, less cutting, etc.? Key for us will be slope stabilization and we are looking for that sweet spot of how close to plant them. Cheers.
Are you able to gather your grass up easily following cutting with the electric trimmer? I'm assuming you're referring to one with oscillating toothed blades? For the cut I referred to we were re-using the cut grass as weed-blocking mulch, and to have it in parallel, organized bundles made for easy transport - easy to do with one hand/arm creating the bunch and the other working the rice knife. However it did take way too long...definitely interested in faster solutions while still being able to easily use/transport the cut grass. Thanks!
@@7thGenerationDesign Yes, the oscillating blades and teeth. I got mine for about $2 at a yard sale. I've never had a problem gathering it up, but the rice knife method is probably superior for gathering. But even then, I think the electric trimmer would still save you a ton of time.
We are in Central CA, and get ours from Doug at Drylands Farming Company: www.drylandsfarmingcompany.com/ Depends on where you are - there might be a list of nurseries available at The Vetiver Network website
