Friday, March 20, 2009

First day Of Spring!

Today, at 12:41, spring officially began. Everything changed, I could tell. The bald spot on my head suddenly felt slightly sunburnt. I took a bike ride up to Badefols to post some letters and on the way back, I saw that my neighbor Dede was out on his tractor.
Normally, every year, Dede comes over to plow up our garden. Last year was so wet and cold, that we didn't have the garden plowed until June! Everything was late. There had been a few warm days in March. The plants started to bloom and then in April, a real killing frost. We had no plums, kiwis or figs.

This year, again, we have had a profound early warm spell, but it has been much dryer.
There are leaves and buds on the kiwi, the mirabelle plum is about to begin to flower...in fact the lilacs and wisteria are beginning to show real promise! Last year, I did have a bumper crop of raspberries and I expect to have even more this year.
As the land around the house becomes less fertile and more naturally wild, because it is not being used as cow pasturage, more wild flowers are beginning to reappear.
Last year, a few bumblebee and goat orchids appeared. This year, I have identified at least 6 more orchid plants making their presence known. It's pretty early for many, so maybe more will show up later. I have to be very careful cutting the lawn when they are growing.

So, on my way back from Badefols, I stopped and talked to DeDe and told him our ground was dry enough and would it be possible for him to turn it over when he had a chance?

Sure enough, about an hour later, he showed up on his old Massey-Ferguson and had turned over and the first cultivation done in about a half hour. He will come back and do a fine cultivation when it dries out for a few days. During the winter, I put almost a ton of aged horse manure and the ashes from the fireplace on the garden and all of that was turned into the soil!

On May 1st, we go to a village near here called Clairvivre, which is a gleaming pre WW2 art deco social community for the rehabilitation and education of underpriveleged and troubled people...one of the specialities of Clairvivre is gardening and they have a series of very beautiful art deco greenhouses which are used to raise vegetable starters and the money raised supports the community services. It is also a great source for flowers and shrubs. We always buy at least one new rose there each year. Last year, the plants sat until June. This year, we are ready to have the best garden ever!

Luckily, I had a bottle of Pineau rouge in the cave and gave it to DeDe as thanks for his work. We used to buy all of our wood from him, but in the last few years, he has had a lot of back problems, so he is out of the wood business and I hadn't seen him around most of the winter. He looks pretty good today, though. I think he will be around for quite a few more seasons.
(click on the pictures to enlarge them, there is a lot of great detail)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gee Microdot,

Your home is absolutely lovely. It looks like you have a good-sized property there. Plenty of work I imagine. You must be very proud. Does Dede help with the plowing as well? What will you do when Dede is no longer able to help you with it or passes on; are there others nearby you could ask?

Thanks for these great photos. I have always wondered what your home looked like after your many vivid stories. It's different than I imagined but certainly no slouch!

microdot said...

Batboy, if you could only have seen it when I first saw it. The house had been abandoned for years and it was covered with brambles up to the second floor.
There is a well, but we did not discover it for weeks after we had moved in...actually we had to live in a gite while we worked on the house to point where we could "camp out" in it.
It was once one of the biggest farms in the region, but we have onlky the property attached to the house and barn.
Dede? well I think he will be around for a few more years, but last year, I had to do the tractor work with my friends old 1963 Ford....
We had to rent a cultivator and we did both of our gardens. I thought Dede was out of the business...he is a retired farmer and when he developed back problems, there was a point I thought he had kind of drifted into alzhiemer land as well...but, in reality, his biggest problem is that he drinks way too much and his forced inactivity contributed to his state of semi pickledness....
That's the way these old guys are around here, they keep working everyday. Up at 5am...when they can't work any more, they die.
Luckily, there are more plus 100 year old individuals in thios part of france than in any other part of Europe....they keep going...
It's the duck fat!

M said...

Wow, you live in a beautiful area. I love your house (well, what I can see of it).

I have soil envy. No matter how much compost we make, and how many bags and trailer loads of mulch we add, the 'burbs just won't give me soil like that.

mud_rake said...

Microdot- you have presented another wondrous visual and written account of your French estate. I marvel at both the beauty of the countryside, house and gardens as well as your care for that property.

If I did not have children and grandchildren here in Ohio, I would inquire of you if there was a neighboring home nearby so that my wife and I could do as you did.

Alas, we are in 5 degree C Toledo with only the very tips of the tulips able to peek out yet.

That red clay soil must need lots of work to make it ready for planting. Of course the ash and manure surely help loosen it enough.

Please be sure to keep this 'garden section' of your blog going throughout the year with many more photos so that we can participate in vicarious visits to Aquitaine.