When it Thaws, It Pours
One mild night and the snow is gone. In true British style, I can say I’m relieved; it’s nice for a day or two but more than that and it gets a little boring. Stomping through snow and smashing ice on water troughs is fine short-term, but every single day it becomes extra work I could do without.
Snow melt collects in, and floods the pit before trickling away into a river tributary
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Of course, after snow comes the worst part - the thaw. This winter has been incredibly wet as it is, though for me it’s neither drier or wetter than the previous year because I having nothing to compare it to. Honestly, the farm has fared quite well; yes, there is mud but I’ve seen it A LOT worse other places. The sheep are still on pasture. There is still grass. And the ditches are doing their job…maybe a little too well.
Our farm is on a hill, and the ditches have been purposefully in place for centuries to divert the water through the property and down to a river tributary below. The only problem with this is that thunderous rains, or in this case, snow melt, just floods straight off the property. You might think this is a good thing. But no! Ideally I want the moisture to seep in and hydrate the soil for the future seasons.
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Over the course of several months, I’ve been digging some of the ditches out and then adding small dams (pictures above). The purpose is to create several pools and to slow the pace of the water down. This doesn’t trap all of that beautiful H20 on my land, but it does offer it the chance to seep into the surrounding soil. And I hope that this, combined with my no-dig, no plough, methods, will help to encourage a rich, diverse living substrate that can grow life around the year.
The blast of cold will have been very good for the coming year. Not only will it have helped kill off lots of pests, but I’ve always found that plants tend to grow and flower better after a properly arctic winter. Perhaps due to the fact it sends them into a deep dormancy period so that when warm weather arrives, they burst into life. And that life is already beginning to show; blackthorn have buds, small flowers are appearing on my almond trees, and beneath the ice melt, the bluebells have already begun to appear.
Signs of spring are definitely on their way. Even the birds know it, with even the mere hint of sun sending songbirds whirling to the upper branches to fill the air with their calls. My own birds (chickens, ducks and pheasants) all look like they’re keen to start laying. Whilst the sheep, despite the snow, seemed to have had a subtle behavioural change, choosing to gorge on grass as if spring brings great growing gusto. And now I hope that warm weather will bring the next season rolling in and this farm year can get underway.