Shade-mapping, wild rhubarb for Easter, and pheasants (6-12 Apr.)

6th April - 12th April

This week’s weather:

Typical mixed weather for April. Mainly warm and breezy with fast moving clouds, then two days of wall to wall sunshine and decent heat. Actually got a wee bit of sunstroke while out making rabbit defences! The week ended with clouds and a damp chill on Easter Sunday.

Temp in poly tunnel Max 35, min 4. On the two days of heat, it was difficult to keep the polytunnel from being scorching hot and made me wonder how it would fare in the summer, although dad says that this is the Scottish summer - a hot week in April - as is normal

Shade mapping and discipline

As I’m hoping to construct a new vegetable garden for one of my permaculture diploma designs, I should be shade mapping the property whenever the sun shines. This means taking photos of the same areas from the same spots at regular intervals of the day. From these pictures you can see which areas of the garden get the most sun and shade at different times of year. This then informs where you plant what kind of plants, and where you shouldn’t bother planting at all. Of course we can make a rough guess as to where the sunniest spots might be, but I have already been surprised by the change in sun/shade patterns from March to April, and can see that some of the beds I had prepared for salads and greens won’t be useable until at least May when the sun is finally shining on them for more than 4 hours a day.

I should have been shade mapping since the beginning of March really, but there are seldom days when the sun is out for the whole day. This week, with our few sunny days, I just got so embroiled in outdoor projects that I forgot to do it.

This is a general theme at the moment. Diligence and discipline have largely gone out the window during the lockdown, as the normal structures of the day and strictures of time seem to have disintegrated into irrelevance. What is the significance of Tuesday, or 5pm, anymore? And with this have gone commitments to getting things done in a timely fashion. Jim would say this is my normal state (we have a running joke about my tardiness) but I feel life to be considerably more chaotic than normal right now, and by the end of the average day it’s anyones guess what will have been achieved, if anything. However, I take some comfort that we are still having regular meals, and our aperitivo is always punctual*, indicating that not all standards have fallen by the wayside.

*meaning that it is consistently and precisely at the moment when it is needed.

The making of an orchard - part 2

The sunny weather encouraged me to get out the hay fork and begin preparing an area I hope will become our orchard.

Now, I know that if I were to be more permaculture, I would wait until next spring to start preparing this space, as I may well find that it is no good as an orchard after all. I should be starting with shade maps, assessment of frost pockets, soil samples , and much observation about the flora and fauna there. But something in my gut tells me it should be an orchard and for the moment I’m doing nothing more invasive than tidying the ground of weeds and clearing away the dead grass in order to see whats there. And if I am going to be brutally honest, I also want it to cease being an eyesore.

Bonfire for the dead weeds under a rising full moon.

The first job was to remove all the black dock stalks and their seed heads (most of which have probably already dispersed). This is partly to prepare the area for scything as the scythe gets stuck on the dock stalks and it blunts the blade more quickly. A monotonous job, but in the process I got a good look at the other plants growing across the paddock and was pleased to see lots of daisy, plantains, yarrow, and several kinds of thistle - some thorny and others not - as well as a bunch of other plants I couldn’t identify. There were also a few raspberry and blackberry plants growing around the edges which I trimmed back. I have already planted a few ‘goose-currant’ plants around the edge, which I am warned will spread.

The ground is pretty lumpy as it used to be grazed by horses that have gudgled it up, but dad reckons mowing the paddock a few times will make it into a more decent grassy field. I will try scything instead - partly for the exercise, partly because I don’t have a mower, and also because it’s pretty badass.

Another discovery was a ‘wild’ rhubarb patch just over the property line in the scrubby woods to the north. I’m guessing that the previous owners who were here for 15 years, or the folk before them, had a makeshift compost heap over the fence as there are tons of bulb flowers that have come up, as well as this mammoth rhubarb patch. The colour of this rhubarb is astonishing and we made a rhubarb upside down cake on Easter Sunday. There’s plenty more on the way for poaching and putting into crumble.

This week’s pests:

Although I didn’t see any rabbits in the garden this week, I’ve been very aware of their presence due to Humphrey. His levels of perception aren’t yet such that he can spot a rabbit running in the field next door, but he can sniff out a rabbit poo wherever it may lurk, and has been eating them like Maltesers. I’m told he will grow out of this revolting habit.

Anyway, I have a couple of big planters outside the contested ‘rabbit-safe-zone’ which I want to fill with herbs. As the rabbits seem intent on using them like a salad bar, I thought it best to construct an anti-nibble cloche out of willow and scrap chicken wire. I have childhood memories of our garden being littered with such contraptions, and thinking it was a shame to cover up the prettiest plants and spoil the overall beauty of the garden. But now I totally get it. I have heard other gardeners talk about their ‘war’ with garden pests, and I am beginning to feel sympathy rage.

I’ve also had a bunch of bulbs eaten just outside the ‘safety-zone’. These were beautiful spring flowers I had planted around the front door. They were all just coming into bloom, when something ate them them up right down to their roots, leaving a series of craters in my front beds and a few tell-tale poos right next to them - the unmistakable mark of a pheasant. (As an aside, pheasant poo is another of Humphrey’s favourite delicacies, but he hadn’t found these particular ones as he’s not allowed at the front of the house for fear he’ll wander on to the road - something I wish the pheasants would do.)

Over the hill, my parents have a crazy pheasant problem and are resorting to a toy slingshot to try and scare them off. Normally the numbers would be reduced at this time of year but because of Covid19 the local gamekeeper has no staff to help him clear the pheasants off the land and they are being left to roam. As a result, no garden plant is safe. Pheasants like to peck plants at the base of their stem or uproot their bulbs in the most pointless and annoying fashion imaginable. We have heard a few of the dumb creatures in the woods nearby but I haven’t yet actually seen one in the garden. I was hoping that our resident fox might bring an end to them, but he seems far more intent on eating the suet-balls off our bird table.

Permaculture often reveals lateral approaches to dealing with pests (e.g. “You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficit”) which I will look forward to discovering. But for now, I shall defend my rosemary to the death. Or maybe not quite. Since posting about my rabbit woes on Instagram, I’ve been offered two particularly medieval traps and an air rifle, but in truth I’m not really sure I have it in me to kill a rabbit (although these ones are attractively pre-seasoned with rosemary and oregano…).

A last shout out goes to the newest pest on the block - the Cabbage White. Clearly there were a few cabbage white eggs lodged behind poles and slats in the poly tunnel, as a few emerged this week only to be immediately swatted. It feels brutal to squash a butterfly, but their caterpillars have decimated my kale in the past and so I have no love for them now.

Re-birth of the Sun

Finally, as this was Easter week, the theme of rebirth and regeneration was often on my mind. Whether you celebrate the Re-Birth of the Son or the Sun, this time of year is an inspiration - taking us out of the darkness of winter into a lighter, brighter time. We all need that right now, particularly with the recent announcement that the lockdown is set to continue.

I find the inevitable progression of Spring and the rerun of warmth in the air to be a huge comfort in these uncertain times. Indoors, my seeds are sprouting like mad, and my salad plants are zooming towards being harvestable.

Outdoors, bumblebees are buzzing, daisies are coming up in the grass, and wild edibles are returning to the hedgerow; bright green and full of the sun’s energy. This is a great time to pick nettles, goose-grass (“sticky-willy”), and wild garlic. I’m also told that now is the time to pickle dandelion buds, though I’m perhaps not quite organised enough to do that. But wild spring greens are all great tonics to revive our bodies after the winter, replenishing us with lost minerals and cleansing the blood and tissues of toxins we build up from comfort eating and spending too much time indoors. Nettle tea is a delicious antihistamine for those who get hayfever, and goosegrass infusion (leaving some goosegrass in water overnight) drunk in the morning is a great purifying tonic.