My name is Andi Rickard.

In a previous life (before children) I was a properly employed person with a proper job and career path and everything. I worked as a Packaging Engineer, travelling the world and working at the forefront of development in the industry.

Until, one day, I realised I was making litter for a living.

And I didn’t want to do that anymore, so I took redundancy and skipped off to find something else to do. I worked for two years as a part time willow hurdle maker while I went back to college to study Horticulture and Landscape. And a bit after that I somehow discovered the scythe and got hooked.

Now, 15 years and three lovely children later, I am a self-employed gardener and champion of the scythe.

I have a number of regular private garden clients in the Wellington, Somerset area and, in between, I run the Somerset Scythe School: working as an itinerant mower myself and teaching others this noble traditional art. Sadly, Aidan Turner has not yet enrolled on one of my courses. 😦 (although he did appear in a magazine article about me).

In 2010 I went to my first Green Scythe Fair to pick up some tips on improving my technique and came away with the Ladies cup which I have grown very fond of over the last seven years.

Check out my website at http://www.somersetscytheschool.com for more on that.