ALL THINGS A SCYTHE

I think I am turning into my grandad. I’m not growing a beard (or anything else), or getting more grumpy (debatable) but I am growing my own veg, keeping bees and, last week, I learned to scythe.

And I absolutely loved it. To be honest I was a bit sceptical about scything as a method of cutting grass; I thought it was a bit of a romantic option and let’s be honest, the hippy and eco warrior’s choice. Surely a strimmer made more sense, especially when submitting an invoice at the end of the job?

I was surprised; firstly it is much quicker than I thought, both to prepare for and to actually cut the grass. There is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek video on YouTube that shows a guy picking up his scythe and cutting a huge swath of grass whilst another chap puts petrol into the strimmer, gets the cord to the right length, puts his harness and helmet on and then starts his strimmer. By the time he starts strimming his patch, the guy with the scythe has finished his and is having a cup of tea.

I am wondering why the council don’t use scythes, especially for verges as there is less risk of flying debris hitting motorists, you don’t risk pebble dashing yourself with dog mess or small stones, there is less risk of harm to wildlife and surely it would be cheaper without the fuel costs? The list of benefits seems a long one – or am I missing something?