KW-19 The Second Best Time to Plant a Tree

Moderation is a fatal thing, Lady Hunstanton

This was one of those funny weeks where I have the strangest feeling that I really didn’t get anything much done. It should also be the week containing these legendary Frost Saints (the Eisheiligen) which set such a powerful marker in the gardening calendar.

If the human wasn’t on two legs, he might be hard to spot. Hence the bipediality.

I wrote somewhere that the primary focus on the food should be potatoes, tomatoes, beans. The last of the potatoes are in the ground, the tomatoes are all doing well, and I sowed all the climbing beans into pots.

The best time to plant a tree, according to the ancient Chinese proverb, was 20 years ago. The second best time is now. I got all the new trees in the ground. The orchard may now officially be described as excessive. Which is just the way I like it.

I do have a list (well, a map) of all the trees in the orchard and elsewhere. I don’t have it handy, but my best guess from memory is that we now have:

• Prunus domestica: Victoria plum, 2x Greengage, Mirabelle, Damson, Yellow egg

• 2x Pear, 8x Wild Pear

• 3x Sweet Cherry, 3x Sour Cherry

• 2x Apricot, 1x Peach

• 1x Medlar

• Loads of apples - maybe 16 trees of 12 different varieties

• 1x Sweet Chestnut, 5x Walnuts, 6x Pine nuts, 2x Hickory Nut, 5x Hazelnuts

If I find the orchard-tree-map, I shall make sure it’s up to date and post it next week. I do know that there are now exactly 50 fruit and nut trees. In 8 years or so, in a good year, this could easily produce 10 tonnes of fruit. This sort of silliness makes me happy.

The best news of last week was that the piggies are now in their summer field. They have had a good snuffle round and don’t appear at all motivated to escape. Or maybe they have conceded that they are actually doing pretty well over there, and that the fences are pretty well made, and it’s just not worth the effort. Either way, when they are awake, they are rootling around the long grass, tails-a-wagging, lounging around in mud, or going for quick, occasional and totally random sprints.

There they are again. The non-stop eating machines. They are either eating or sleeping all day, but the amount of bought-in-food I am giving them has gone down by around 20%. Pigs cannot sustain themselves on grass alone.

So, I guess it looks like some progress was made, even if it feels insubstantial. I dunno, maybe I’m just on a bit of a downer. Strangely, I think I have a solution. I should try to make the kitchen a tiny bit less building-site-chaotic. I think I would feel more comfortable about things generally if I always had at least one clean cups and I didn’t have to scrabble around trying to find a spoon. And a new french press. The last one got broken when its centre of gravity became inconsistent with sitting on a shelf. Does that make sense? Clean cups make a quiet mind? It’s worth a try.

This week, my work list is going to be deliberately very short.

• Muck out the pig house

• Prepare the roots bed

• Sow in the vineyard. A Bit.

The plan to sow the vineyard last week did not work. The ground is far from ready.

Last week, I tried out a more picture-heavy version of this newsletter. This week, my phone bricked. It might come back to life, but for the moment, I just have a couple of photos of the pigs in the pig field.

If I get it working again, I might do a bonus photo-blog-newsletter sometime later in the week if you like.

Until then, pirate people

Lots of love

Your Pirate Ben