Home & Shop Companion #0076
letter from a small corner of far away
Dear Lynn, dear Everyone,
On most visits to the field over recent days, I have been digging up a few dock plants. My dislike of docks is somewhat irrational, I particularly object to their ability to create so many seeds which can lie dormant for years. In cultivated ground they can be controlled easily enough when small, but in grass they can get too big for their boots, so before the seeds mature, I like to cut them back, or ideally dig them up. Usually I start in April or May when the soil is still damp and soft, before the plants get going, but this year the ground was dry and hard, then since the middle of June, the regular showers have made what should be haymaking weather into ideal dock pulling conditions. With the roots often reaching 8 to 10 inches when mature, they are still not easy to remove, but a few years back I found a fantastic tool in a junk shop, a two-pronged dock fork. Besides the extra thick tines, it has reinforcing strips of metal over the wooden handle, right to the top, so it is much stronger than a digging fork.
This morning, however, I decided to leave the docks alone; it is Sunday after all, and I needed a rest. I find it difficult to stop when there are jobs to do, and if you have land or livestock, there is always something to do. But I rarely regret it when I do stop, the refreshed body and spirit is encouragement in itself, and from a practical point of view, starting the week with energy and a bit more perspective usually leads to greater productivity and achievement. So this afternoon I sat down and started to watch the tennis final, Wimbledon being one of the sporting highlights in Britain, when even unsporty types like me take an interest. But after an hour, I lost interest and went out to potter in the garden. I picked some raspberries and blackcurrants and then summer pruned one of the apple trees. This particular tree grows very upright and very vigorously, so in shaping it, I have pruned it severely for many years, but the apples so far have been few. Pruning in the summer was something I never tried until last year; it is supposed to encourage fruiting, and indeed, there are a few more apples this year, so I am doing it again.
Besides the sport which dominated the news last week, [mostly because England reached the final of the European football [soccer] championships], the abandonment of Covid restrictions was also announced. In Britain we have a high rate of vaccinations, 67% of the population have had one dose [just over 50% have had both doses] second only to Canada and slightly more than Israel, but somewhat more than Germany, Italy and the US which are around 55%. It has been an impressive operation, but at the same time, the infection levels are now rising by 50% each week, mostly the Delta variant which is more transmissible than the original version of the disease. It is a strange decision, lifting measures to lower transmission rates when the virus is spreading quickly, giving one the feeling that the Government is just fed up with it all, doesn’t want to think about it, and wants it all to go away. And I guess we all do, too.
Besides tackling docks, the other regular job just now is digging potatoes. In the end, I didn’t ridge them up again one last time, as they are largely free of weeds and it is easier to dig when standing in a gently U-shaped furrow than in the sharply V-shaped furrow left by the ridging plough. The potatoes seem to be more popular than last year; the reason, according to my first customer who stopped within two minutes of the sign going up, before I had put the potatoes into bags, was that some supermarkets are not selling young potatoes as new potatoes this year, but only overwashed newish potatoes which must be a week old by the time they get there.
Take care,
William
William Castle is a violin maker, farmer & SFJ contributor who lives in Shropshire, England.
