The scythe: a very 21st century gardening tool

Start talking about scythes and people tend to come over all misty-eyed. I bet you’re already thinking peasants in cornfields, pink-cheeked milkmaids and swarthy men in those beautiful loose-fitting white shirts, or maybe no shirt at all…

Or perhaps I’ve just been watching a bit too much Poldark.

My ditching scythe

But put all that to the back of your mind, for now at least. When I’m not nursing a secret crush on Aidan Turner, I am a supremely practical, down-to-earth gardener looking for sustainable solutions to the way I manage my garden. And my scythe is ticking every box in the book. Sustainable, non-polluting, low-impact, cheap – it’s the ultimate 21^st century garden tool.

Nobody likes using a strimmer. Petrol ones are noisy, high carbon, and emit higher levels of unfiltered pollution than is legally permitted for cars – and you’re standing right behind the exhaust, breathing it all in. Battery strimmers are slightly better: they’re quieter, and don’t cause air pollution, at least. But you still litter your garden with tiny shreds of plastic as the wire breaks down. And the lithium-ion batteries they use are unrecyclable, too.

Scythes overcome all these problems with elegance and simplicity. They’re plastic-free, and there are no parts to go wrong. You don’t even need to wear protective gear while you’re using them as they slice through stems at ground level – so no danger of stones flicking up.

I won’t promise they’re completely kind to wildlife – if you’re a hedgehog, I suspect your chances aren’t much better with a knife-sharp scythe blade swinging towards you than if it were a strimmer line. But it does cut, rather than crush stems – so insects and wrigglies are more likely to survive.

Land cleared of chest-high vegetation by scythe in about half an hour

I can clear the same amount of land in the same amount of time as a strimmer, more cleanly and without any interruptions to unblock a line or recharge a battery. Scythes are cheaper, lighter, easier to maintain, less likely to be stolen… in fact I can’t believe I haven’t had one in my life before now.

If that’s whetted your appetite to find out more, I’ve put together a little Q&A with all you need to know about buying, using and looking after a scythe. If you’re not a paid subscriber you can become one (even just for one month so you can read this article!) by clicking on the button below. And do feel free to ask any further questions in the comments section – if I don’t know the answer, I probably know someone who does!