Letting West Virginia Take It Back

Noticed how we’re not mowing? It’s not because we’re lazy. It’s on purpose.

Before we ever put a shovel in the ground, this field looked… decent enough. It had been mowed for years, so there was grass. But under that, it was mostly moss, patchy soil, and wet spots that held water way too long. It wasn’t thriving. It was just clipped short enough to hide the fact that it wasn’t working.

We started by digging a network of shallow swales to fix the drainage. Then we threw down a food plot mix to attract deer: brassicas, turnips, chicory, wild radish. We also planted clover: crimson, white, and yellow. That mix did more than draw wildlife. It built the base for something bigger.

Once the water started moving and the plants got established, everything changed. The clover took hold and spread. Ryegrass, orchardgrass, and fescue filled in. Barley and cereal rye popped up. The field thickened. But this time it wasn’t just mowed turf. It had texture, height, movement.

So we left it alone. No more mowing. No fertilizers. No forced order.

Why? Because short, overmanaged fields do very little. They don’t hold water well. They don’t support insects or birds. They don't build soil. But when you let a field grow, let it lodge, let it cycle naturally, everything shifts. You get better wildlife cover. You get pollinators back. You get soil structure. You get habitat.

We let it reseed itself. We added brush piles and let the grass lodge. We watched birds bounce between the barley and rabbits run cover along the swales. We didn’t rewild it in the technical sense. We just gave it space. And now, West Virginia is taking it back.

We may toss in a few native flowers this fall: goldenrod, mountain mint, maybe some bee balm in the thinner spots. But the field’s already becoming what it wants to be.

This isn’t a landscaping decision. It’s not a statement. It’s a low-cost, low-effort way to bring the land back into balance. And anyone with a backyard, a field edge, or a forgotten corner can do the same.

You don’t need a plan. You just need to stop mowing.