From dawn, the sky is crystal blue and the newly waning moon, after a harvest one on the 10th, is clearly visible in the morning sky. I go out into the back yard to assess the day and I estimate the temperature to be 8 degrees centigrade.
The forecast is good, and knowing that this may be the last warm sunny day, I dedicate it to ranching. My favourite days of all are those without plans. Without commitments. I make sure I complete one and tidy up, before moving onto the next.
It works well. Furthermore, instead of using timber for raised beds, I tend to use brick all dug up from the ranch and concrete, because it lasts a lot longer. Patches of concrete are oases against the onslaught of weeds.
Last year Pev terraced the lower part of the field into 3 large beds with a digger. Digging the trench is very labour intense but probably no more expensive than building a wooden raised bed, especially given the price of timber these days.
The apple and damson harvests are large. In an ideal world, where I was part of a well-coordinated network of growers and gardeners, other people would harvest the fruit and at some later stage, would be rewarded with jams and wines.
