Maud in November
Denis Wood
Maud came limping in the other day.
"It was my own fault," she said — but luckily there was no real grief.
"He came down with me on the landing side because the ditches are still blind in the country, but it reminded me that by now most of the leaves are down and it is time you made a final clearance — those from the orchard where you had scab, like most of us, had better be burned, together with any fallen scabby apples, old pea-sticks beginning to get coral-spot fungus, and thick prunings not suitable for the compost bin burn these in small bonfires every few days when the wind will not carry the smoke over the road or into your neighbour's garden — still days are the best. The small amount of potash in bonfire ash is very quickly leached out by rain, so gather it up immediately and keep it in old buckets or cake tins, until you are actually ready to put it on to crops.
"Don't burn good leaves such as beech, hornbeam, lime, hazel, etc., but collect these into a compound of wire netting, sprinkle a little seaweed fertiliser such as Marinure, and keep the pile turned from time to time so that the leaves do not pack down like the pages of a book. Leaves take much longer to decompose than most of what usually goes into a compost bin, but when really crumbly and fine, after perhaps as long as a year, leaf soil is wonderful stuff.
'Then mind you keep your compost bin going. It is colder now and the rate of conversion is bound to be slowed down compared with the summer when not only was the outside temperature higher but you had all the grass cuttings and nettles that you needed to generate heat quickly. I advise you now to empty your compost bin and re-fill it, bringing what was at the bottom and will be the most decomposed up to the top and putting the present top layer, which will probably contain some fallen apples and unripe tomatoes, down to the bottom and, as far as you can, bring the outside to the inside.
"Put a layer of farmyard manure over this, if you can get it, or else Marinure, then a layer of soil and a dressing of hydrated lime. If you have one of those wire mesh contraptions, wrap sacks or put planks round the outsides to keep the heat in.
"Prune your fruit trees. It is the bushes and standards that you must get at now by making an open centre and cutting out any crowding and crossing branches. You can read all about it in The Gardener's Guide to Pruning, by H. Fraser, published by Collingridge, and out of print but available in many libraries. You ought to have summer-pruned the cordons, dwarf pyramids and espaliers."
By now small bubbles of saliva were collecting in the corners of her mouth.
"Sherry?" I said weakly as she began to sweep out. "No — nor a Bloody Mary nor any of those lethal mixtures which you concoct to take your mind off your garden.
Get some broad beans in Aquadulce and Longpods this instant [she had been the head monitor at St Faith's], Windsors in February. Peas too — you could get in a row of Feltham First now."
She was gone.
I was sorry to see through the window that her exuberance in driving out of the gate had resulted in a minor brush with a farm tractor coming up the road, but by then I was too busy writing out lists of peas and beans — anyway I had mixed myself a Bullshot,
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