One man went to mow…
James Benn
Actually two women, and five men went to mow on 11 August… not a meadow, but the wildflower strip on Goulburn Green. Not with noisy strimmers, nor long-armed hedge trimmers, but in relative silence, by hand, with Austrian Scythes as student ‘mowers’. Two hours later the strip was cut, and mostly cleared off site.
The silence had not been total. If you watch the video, you’ll hear a fair bit of grunting as well as the gentle hiss as our scythe blades cut through the stubborn knapweed, oxeye daisy and other stalks. Blades honed and re-honed every few minutes to maintain their sharpness and efficiency, under the ever-watchful eye of our scything instructor Mary Ellis.
Once established, wildflower meadows are delightfully low maintenance for most of the year; but the old growth needs cutting down after the seed has set and removing as cleanly as possible. Counter-intuitively, to encourage variety in a meadow it is best to cut sections of a meadow at different times throughout the season, even before some flowers have opened fully let alone set seed. Vary the early cut locations from year to year.
In comparative test after test, scything comes out as the best solution. Walk-behind power scythes are no longer available to rent, strimmers make heavy weather of the job as the long stalks often wrap themselves around the strimmer head and inverted long-arm hedge trimmers not much better. With scything the cut is clean, the stalks are left long for easy raking up and little ‘chaff’ left to inadvertently enrich the soil and encourage grass to grow. It’s also safer for the small creatures who may be living among the wildflowers.
As more households join the Re-Betchworth B-Line initiative (see previous articles), there will be more mini meadows to cut in addition to the wildflower strip on Goulburn Green. So Re-B contracted with Mary to run that day’s scything workshop.
She started on safety, and returned to it again and again as it could be all too easy to inadvertently cut your hand while carrying or sharpening the blade. Once handle positions on the snaith (the long wooden arm of the scythe) had been correctly adjusted to each student we started learning on the well-mown short grass section of the Green. The only thing missing was some gentle beat-driven rhythms as we were taught to move our bodies, then arms and eventually scythes in a smooth semi-circle. It was remarkably satisfying, as well as clearly demonstrating the difference a sharp blade makes.
Once we had the hang of that, we students moved over to tackle the altogether tougher wildflower strip. That completed, we learnt about sharpening, then moved to practice both our mowing and honing skills on Norman’s much gentler meadows above the A25. A very good day with an excellent instructor, who Re-B will certainly bring back if there is a demand next year. Anyone up for joining next year’s scything team? Do let us know.
James Benn
Actually two women, and five men went to mow on 11 August… not a meadow, but the wildflower strip on Goulburn Green. Not with noisy strimmers, nor long-armed hedge trimmers, but in relative silence, by hand, with Austrian Scythes as student ‘mowers’. Two hours later the strip was cut, and mostly cleared off site.
The silence had not been total. If you watch the video, you’ll hear a fair bit of grunting as well as the gentle hiss as our scythe blades cut through the stubborn knapweed, oxeye daisy and other stalks. Blades honed and re-honed every few minutes to maintain their sharpness and efficiency, under the ever-watchful eye of our scything instructor Mary Ellis.
Once established, wildflower meadows are delightfully low maintenance for most of the year; but the old growth needs cutting down after the seed has set and removing as cleanly as possible. Counter-intuitively, to encourage variety in a meadow it is best to cut sections of a meadow at different times throughout the season, even before some flowers have opened fully let alone set seed. Vary the early cut locations from year to year.
In comparative test after test, scything comes out as the best solution. Walk-behind power scythes are no longer available to rent, strimmers make heavy weather of the job as the long stalks often wrap themselves around the strimmer head and inverted long-arm hedge trimmers not much better. With scything the cut is clean, the stalks are left long for easy raking up and little ‘chaff’ left to inadvertently enrich the soil and encourage grass to grow. It’s also safer for the small creatures who may be living among the wildflowers.
As more households join the Re-Betchworth B-Line initiative (see previous articles), there will be more mini meadows to cut in addition to the wildflower strip on Goulburn Green. So Re-B contracted with Mary to run that day’s scything workshop.
She started on safety, and returned to it again and again as it could be all too easy to inadvertently cut your hand while carrying or sharpening the blade. Once handle positions on the snaith (the long wooden arm of the scythe) had been correctly adjusted to each student we started learning on the well-mown short grass section of the Green. The only thing missing was some gentle beat-driven rhythms as we were taught to move our bodies, then arms and eventually scythes in a smooth semi-circle. It was remarkably satisfying, as well as clearly demonstrating the difference a sharp blade makes.
Once we had the hang of that, we students moved over to tackle the altogether tougher wildflower strip. That completed, we learnt about sharpening, then moved to practice both our mowing and honing skills on Norman’s much gentler meadows above the A25. A very good day with an excellent instructor, who Re-B will certainly bring back if there is a demand next year. Anyone up for joining next year’s scything team? Do let us know.
