Traditional meadow management comes to tree nursery

A day of traditional meadow management skills was recently held at the Council’s tree nursery.

To celebrate the last day of the Council’s recent Wildflower Week, Countryside staff, the North Wales Scything co-operative and local residents were invited to the St Asaph Tree nursery, based near the business park to learn how to scythe or improve their proficiency in this traditional skill with the help of a local scything expert.

Phil Lewis from Smithy Farm led the demonstration on land at the tree nursery showing the ancient art of helping meadows thrive.

Scything is thought to date back to the Roman ages. It involves using a long-curved blade that is situated on an angle to a handle to allow cutting grass by hand.

The traditional technique was how hay would have been harvested from Denbighshire meadows and pastures before the use of tractors became more widespread.

The technique is friendly to the wildlife that frequents meadows as it gives them time to move on and those scything the change to spot any animals or insects.

It is also a greener way to manage grassland due to fuel free operation and better for physical use due to less hand vibration.

Those present on the day also learnt how to peen and sharpen their scythes and got to try their hand at using a hand/manual hay bailer.

Councillor Barry Mellor, Lead Member for Environment and Transport, said: “It was great to be able to help people revisit the past of how meadows were managed and also learn about the benefits of scything against today’s conventional methods.”