Fraser, our PLANT volunteer, has recently cut the grass in our Community Garden’s wild corner using his very own scythe. This is what he wrote about scything for us:
I learned to scythe at the Transylvania Hay-making Festival in the Carpathian mountain meadows of Romania. This runs for a week every August and is a wonderful opportunity to live with local villagers and take part in scything the beautiful flower meadows.
Scything is much easier if you use an Austrian scythe. The blade is shorter and lighter than traditional British scythes, which makes them more manoeuvrable and requiring less physical effort. Austrian scythes can be purchased from Simon Fairlie or Steve Tomlin and they both offers short courses on scything.
Scything is great exercise (a bit like a golf swing), quiet (no lawnmower noises) and green as it does not require electricity or petrol. Why not give it a try?
You can read more about the comeback of scything and its advantages for biodiveristy on a recent Plantlife blog here. And if you are up for a trip to Glasgow there is a free scything course on 23th of September with Steven Porch.
