Field notes from the orchard
· 3 min read
This is less a manual and more a record of what worked for me. The overgrown part is hardly ever the hard part; consistency is. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about pruning. The soil is better every year, mostly because I stopped digging it.
The process
I sow a little too early every spring and never seem to learn. Thanks for reading, and for the generous jottings that keep arriving. If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about mulch. I would rather do one thing deliberately than five things quickly. Leave some corners messy; the insects will thank you.
If you only take one thing from this, make it the part about herbs. A friend once described fruit trees as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. Half of the work is deciding what to leave out.
First steps
If something here is unclear, that is on me, not you. Half of gardening is noticing what grows on its own. Compost is slow magic, and it cannot be rushed. The slugs got most of the lettuce, but the beans did well. Saving seed means next year’s garden starts this autumn.
Where it started
A cold frame extends the season by weeks at either end. I altered my mind about cover crops twice while writing this. You can get unexpectedly far with a watering can and some persistence. This got going as a quick note and slowly turned into something longer. There is no single right way to approach saving seed, but some ways are kinder than others.
What surprised me most was how little equipment it needed. You can get unexpectedly far with a cold frame and some persistence. I wrote most of this on a quiet Monday morning. Between sowing seeds and saving seed, the second one taught me more.
What I would do differently
I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. In January the light changes, and so does the work. Some of this will be obvious; some of it took me years. The shift showed up slowly, then all at once. I keep coming back to cover crops, mostly because it rewards persistence.
Here is what altered, and what stayed exactly the same. The trick, if there is one, is to leave plenty of room for missteps. Between composting and saving seed, the second one taught me more. Modest, repeatable steps beat big plans very nearly every time. I keep coming back to mulch, mostly because it rewards persistence.
The small things matter less than the practice of paying attention. I altered my mind about wildflowers twice while writing this.
fruit treesherbs