Snow is certainly at the forefront of many minds. ‘No snow
up there yet’, they say, even the neighbours are at, ‘when will it snow’ they
ask. Right now I’m happy without it and hopefully by the time you read this we
will still be looking at green fields. ‘It could still snow in April you know’,
arggh, no, maybe this year we will have a snow free year?
Without the white stuff I have been able to get on and
renovate a 130 metre stretch of dry stone wall. The first task involved finding
a lot of the top stones in the verge. That meant cutting back the dense thicket
of bramble and nettle that has secured a foothold over the years. In my mind
that is a job worth doing as weeds in the verge easily become seeds in the
fields, which in turn require removal the next summer and beyond. Have you read
the saying ‘one years seeding, seven years weeding’? It applies to nettles so
it is well worth removing them.
A few years back I found an old National Park paper that
listed the roadside verge in our part of Farndale as being of interest due to
the abundance of wild flowers. Sadly there is not much to see, but we have seen
on some stretches that keeping the dominant weeds species cut back does allow
more delicate plants a chance to grow. To my mind it is a good think having a
verge swap wild flower seeds with the field, rather than the nettles and
thistles that the stock won’t eat and require labourious methods of control.
One theory I have read relating to the strong growth of nettles etc in the verges
suggests they enjoy the road salt we put down to melt the ice and… and we are
back there again!
In a different part of the farm, but still on the topic of
invasive plants, our pigs have done a wonderful job of clearing away a stretch
of bracken. It is great to see them getting down into the root system. It is
surprising to see the volume and strength of the roots as they lie exposed, but
the girls make short work of it. They are often to be seen crunching chunks of
it, with the ends poking out of the sides of their mouths.
British
Saddleback pigs are renowned for being hardy. It is one of the reasons we chose
the breed to help us tidy the farm up. It is still a surprise to see them
ignore their ark in favour for a nest. On the other hand it is wonderful to see
them exhibit their natural behaviour, sleeping out together in a carefully
built rush bed. I wonder if they will carry on doing that when the you know
what comes…
Originally written for and published in the Esk Valley News, February 2014 issue.
