Light in the Dark - A Polytunnel Named Julio
Someone said to me recently (recently now fast tracked to a context of the past twelve to twenty four hours, rather than a few days/weeks ago), ‘if [C19] wasn’t so bloody scary it would almost be exciting’. It got me thinking: What do you want to do ‘after’? What changes will you make and what changes will you be forced to make, that might be for your inherent good? I was impressed by my friend’s positivity and agree with the sentiment, although I am not quite there yet.
We find ourselves in uncharted territory this year. PYRUS has been built on what we know and what we set out to learn. There has been many twists in our tale over the past eight years, and we have steered ourselves through more changes than I can write about here. The one thing I do know about us is that as a partnership, Fiona and I are adaptable. Really adaptable. I can also add passionate, hard working and determined to that list. These things I know and therefore we will use them as a starting point for the big unknown.
I am sitting in my living room writing this, my three dogs snoring on their duvet at my feet. My cat is curled up on the bed in the other room, the window is open and the beginnings of Scottish spring pours in. It is Tuesday, I would usually be working from home on a Tuesday so, on the face of things, it is just a normal day. But let’s not pretend; everything is changed. The city streets are quiet, all over the world humans are shut indoors, fearing a tiny enemy we cannot see. I am writing a journal post! This makes me happy, despite the context. I have wanted to rekindle the journal for a very long time but life and business got in the way. I am grateful for this opportunity and I will make the most of it.
We have talked a lot about what you might like to read and learn about/see snippets of, from our day to day at PYRUS. The garden is our heart and that is all we have just now, we thought you might like to be a part of it. If you are like me and live in a city, a rural walled garden might be the utopian dream. If you have a garden, you will probably spend more time in it than ever before this year, and you are probably considering growing yourself some flowers for the house, or vegetables for your table. Last week we began work on one of our new polytunnels. It is so important at this time of year to get the tunnels up and running as quickly as possible; they extend our season and protect our crops. This year the tunnels feel even more precious as we diversify into vegetable crops and plan out our season as never before.
Julio, Frida and Remy.
We practice no dig techniques these days and the process of readying the new tunnel is relatively simple. Lay a path resistant to weeds, pull out the big perennial weeds, edge the beds, cover the beds and mulch (deep). Leave for as long as possible for the worms to do their work and plant straight in. We are both really interested in permaculture, sustainable practice and soil health. This is the manifesto we take forwards: Improve the soil, create as little damage and waste as possible, encourage and enhance the garden ecosystem. We urge you to follow Charles Dowding and consider no dig if you are working on your garden, it will save your back and your soil structure (and soil health is everything).
Sieving our compost
It is physical work making and developing a garden on the scale of ours, and that feels good at the moment. Of our four tunnels, Betty and Al are fully functioning members of the team, Julio should be finished this week or next. Cecilia is next on the list and will be up and running by the summer. I have joked about making name plaques for them in the past, maybe this year will be the time to actually do it. Surely they deserve their names in gilt, since they are worth their weight in gold to us?
For the record, yes, we and everyone who has every worked for us loves Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. Annie named Julio last year, long before social distancing and Covid 19 were part of our everyday. The lyrics seem strangely apt now.
Well I'm on my way
I don't know where I'm goin'
I'm on my way, I'm takin' my time
But I don't know where
Goodbye to Rosie, the Queen of Corona
Come with us on our garden journey this year? Join us in our own garden schoolyard as we become fledgling vegetable growers, make new plans, establish a new normal and feel our way through this together. It might just be exciting.
