Winter Projects Galore!
Well it finally happened; cold weather arrived. We’ve got off lightly here with the first major frost not killing the tender plants until the 24th November. Storm Arwen missed me too. It was howling just an hour away in Kings Lynn yet here? It was windy but nothing dramatic. And whilst Facebook is scattered with snow pictures, today has had a few blue patches amongst fat, sleety drops of rain.
With the garden well and truly finished for the year and the animals spending most of their time hunkered down against the miserable weather, it’s time to crack on with the extensive list of winter projects. Many are long-term tasks on the dream list and don’t contribute to the running and potential financials of the farm. Others, like getting bulbs in, are crucial for the 2022 season to kick off with gusto.
Seasonal spring bulbs have been on the radar for quite some time. There are boxes and boxes of daffodils sat in my shed and it’s been so warm their roots have begun to grow through the netting. I have some tulips too and an assortment of wonderful spring flowers sent to me from Dutch bulbs. One of the tasks this week was to begin getting the bulbs into the ground; or raised beds in this case. I had considered rotivating the ground but with the clay soil and high winter wet, I was concerned my cash crops would rot. And so, raised beds are the way to go. I managed to get about half of the daffodil bulbs in so far but the cold sent me scurrying in this weekend.
I also spend a couple of days in the Hill Meadow pond continuing the restoration work. We have had such low rainfall this year that it’s empty which is not good for a natural pond. Of course, it does allow me to get inside and trim, cut and saw my way out. The pond has become heavily overgrown in the past few decades and whilst this can be a good thing for wildlife, offering them a place to drink in the safety of cover, deciduous leaves falling into the water year after year poison and stagnate everything. So though I will be leaving a large bank of scrub and thicket along one side, I’m clearing as many of the overhanging trees as possible. The brambles on the edges need cutting back and the thick stems of wild roses, whilst offering wonderful hips in the autumn, need thinning.
It’s a lot of work and not something that can be done in a single season. But I’m enjoying the work and watching the pond come back to life. The Back Meadow pond, for example, has been gradually been restored over the past few years and I’ve watched it change from dead frogspawn to thriving with fat tadpoles ready to grow limbs and crawl out of the water. I’ll be adding a lot more water plants - currently there’s only sporadic water mint and some reeds - and this will help oxygenate the pond. It’ll be exciting to see it evolve next year.
Finally, I’ve been taking some time to wander the farm hedges to find inspiration for next month’s market. I had never intended on attending the Christmas market. In fact, I’d never intended on attending any markets at all this test year. I’ve barely any crops and now the frost has been, I’ve definitely no flowers to sell. However, I don’t want to look a gift-horse in the mouth. After all, I’m guessing a holiday market could be particularly lucrative. So a little haul of photographic inspiration and then some picking, and I’m looking forward to playing around with the various stems and greens over the next week. There is a complete lack of fir, pine or holly on the farm so evergreens are in short supply. Something I must rectify over the coming years.
I currently have a loooong list of winter tasks ahead of me, with the only thing holding me back being the lack of daylight hours. It’s a strange time; mega busy in the day and then twiddling my thumbs at night. I should take some time to relax but my mind is always whirring with the fun of the farm. So tonight - some dried flower arranging awaits!