In 1971, when Earth Day was born, I first had a garden of my own. Gardening was happening-- a back to the land moment in a time of national stress. And here we are again. Different time, different stress, same response. In honor of Earth Day we decided to share something we are doing that seems fitting for the occasion: scything!

Every spring I need to cut my meadow to knock back the things that want to take it over, like invasive weeds, and successional shrubs and trees. The ideal is to cut it 6-12” high so that no damage is done to the tops of the meadow grass clumps, or turtles, or later hatching insects like fireflies and moths. Cutting high creates stiff upright open ended grass stems: true bee hotels.

Lawn mowers can’t do the job right, so we have been using string trimmers. But this year, PRFCT’s new head gardener, Tim, decided to do it by hand, with a scythe. Really? Watch it happen in our video.

I can’t imagine ever going back to noisy machines. The only sound is a quiet swoosh as Tim works his way through the tall grasses leaving beautiful windrows on the ground. They will be raked up and heaped into a haystack.

Our Earth Day Birthday message? Take your time, re-think the way you are caring for your piece of earth. Be gentle.