Clearing the grass

Croagh Patrick, the Holy Mountain

The weather was beautiful today so we took a walk to the summit of our land to see the views, plant a few more trees and enjoy the St. Stephen's Day holiday. The views were stunning but the land is very wet. The trees we have been planting out on about 1/3 of our ten acres are doing very nicely. The leader species - birch, willow, and alder - are growing vigorously. The ash and sycamores are coming along nicely too, but at a slower pace.



Alex walked down on the North side to check the fencing but my knee was acting up so I went back down the South side to work in the vineyard. Yesterday, I spent a good part of the day clearing grass from around the newly planted vines this year. They are very small and I have to go back and check on the first year of our three-year-olds to see if they did as little in year 1 as these. But the grass was smothering them so I really needed to clear them. So much more work to do.

The long shadow

Clearing grass from around the 1st year vines.

I got two rows done along with the five chardonnay plants. I worry because as I cleared the grass, there were puddles of water around the roots of the plants. That cannot be good. The plants at the bottom were less soggy than the ones nearer the top, which I didn't really understand. Doesn't water flow down hill? Anyway, I am hoping that clearing the grass will aerate the soil and roots and let some of that water dry off. We'll see.

I have one more row to do and then I start on the weeds. Alex started to prune the orchard today. We are dividing and  conquering, we hope. It is great fun and very therapeutic, much like polishing silver. I know a lot of people won't relate to that but there is something very satisfying about polishing silver and making it gleam. Similarly there is something very satisfying about pruning vascular plants and watching them thrive afterwards instead of languishing. Order out of chaos.

In between I made breakfast, lunch and dinner for Alex's mom who is recuperating at our house from a car accident and listened to the young neighbours performing on the day of the wren. Lovely musicality and custom of the Wren Boys, now wren kids.

Clare Island at the mouth of Clew Bay