There is a problem that is familiar to most of us – you come over to Brittany and buy a house with a large garden and possibly a field attached, and you are then faced with the question of what to do about the grass.
Initially, you assume that one of the solutions on hand will be suitable: a powerful lawnmower, a petrol strimmer, a ride-on mower, a mini-tractor, etc. Most of us have embarked upon using one or more of these grass-cutting methods with a certain amount of enthusiasm, only to encounter a range of difficulties. Firstly, they are all tedious, and if you have a large amount of land, exceptionally tedious. Secondly, they are expensive, not only due to the cost of the original equipment, but also because of the cost of its servicing and repair. This is also a cause of stress and frustration, as the equipment often breaks down on ideal grass-cutting days in summer, and cannot be fixed for several days, by which time the grass has grown by several inches and it has started to rain, making the job a nightmare. Thirdly, in addition to the expense, one starts to feel concerned about the environmental impact of one’s grass cutting, both in terms of noise, and petrol consumption. Fourthly, the whole thing seems to be a waste of time, and one wonders whether it would have made more sense to let one of the local farmers have the land for crop production.
There is the idea that home owners can let parts of their land go ‘wild’ for the benefit of wildlife, but in practice this involves having thistles, brambles, nettles, etc. growing around your house, which not only gains you a poor reputation in the neighbourhood, but also makes daily life less than pleasant.
I have taken some time reminding readers of the depth and scale of the problem, in the hope that it will make some people stop to consider whether or not the solution that I have adopted this year might also be suitable for them – using a scythe.
I have had a couple of scythes in my shed for many years, and have used them from time to time, but have always found them too slow, and rather hard work, given the amount of land that I have to cut. This year, however, after my scythe mower broke down for the umpteenth time, I thought that I would give the scythes another chance, and in the end spent a very enjoyable couple of weeks scything about an acre and a half of grass land. Here are the advantages as I now see them:
- Scything is a tried and tested method of grassland management, that has been proven to work over many centuries.
- Scything an area of land one or twice a year encourages biodiversity, and allows a range of wild flowers to become established in a meadow.
- Scything is a healthy form of exercise: good for the back, the arms and the legs.
- Scything is quiet and fume-free, so that you can enjoy Nature while you work.
- It is simple technology: more or less anyone can work out how to fix the blade to the handle, and keep the blade sharp, etc.
- It is economical: scythes do not cost thousands of euros.
It yields a crop: the cut grass can be raked up, and either dried to make hay, or used as a mulch in other parts of the garden. The longer you scythe a piece of ground, the better the crop becomes – thistles and docks give way to grasses and wild flowers.
It’s friendly to wildlife.
You do not have to scythe a meadow every week – just doing it once of twice per year is enough to keep it in order. It makes sense to roughly maintain the same cutting routine from year to year – if you cut late, for example, it gives birds that nest in grass a chance to raise their young before you come along with your scythe.
As far as I know, there is no longer anyone producing traditional Breton scythes with the wooden handles and long, grass-cutting blades, but the Revex scythes with metal handles, sold in the garden centres are perfectly adequate for the job. The important thing is to get the blade sharp. The favoured method in Brittany was to hammer the edge of the blade on a small metal ‘anvil’ . The wafer-thin edge could then be sharpened with a whetstone every half-hour or so whilst working. If in doubt, ask a neighbour; most of the older generation in the Breton countryside appear to be expert scythe sharpeners.
I did get my scythe mower working again after a couple of days, but by that time, I had developed a passion for scything, so did not use it.
