With a WeedWacker under his arm, Dan Kowalsky was at work trimming the median strip of U.S. Route 1 in suburban Westport, Conn., when he was asked, above the din: Why not use a scythe?

"You mean that Grim Reaper thing?" he yelled. "Can't get grass nice and short with that thing, nice and perfect."

People who scythe put up with a lot of Grim...