Life out in the sticks these late winter days often finds me playing with sticks. I gather them up and find other uses for them; it’s the ultimate in recycling. It’s a way for me to branch out and learn new skills.
Stick project #1: Creating a dead hedge. It all started a couple of months ago when I was "tidying" up my Girl Cave and tossing fallen branches to the far edge of it. The sticks started piling up and before I knew it, I had a certifiable dead hedge and I rather like it.
I'm hoping that all sorts of critters, from beetles to snails, native bees, toads, lizards, field mice, rabbits, snakes, and nesting birds, will find it a happy and safe place to hang out.
Eventually, it will decompose and enrich the soil, but I'm planning to add to it whenever I find a fallen branch -- making it an ongoing effort to ever-so-slightly slow climate change via carbon sequestration. Bonus: creating an inviting habitat for all creatures, great and small, of Farm Dover.
Stick project #2: The spring spruce up of our teepee.
The vertical poles still stand from 2024 and will hopefully last another year; all I had to do was add new horizontal connections. I fastened long branches from our pussy willow to the vertical poles with bits of string.
Next month, I'll recruit Hazel and Norbert to help me plant the base with sunflowers, sweet peas, cucumbers, pumpkins and grape hyacinths. It's always a well-loved destination for some of my favorite people.
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Stick project #3: Hurdle fence. Later this month, I'll plant one of the raised beds in front of the cottage with peas and fava beans, but they will need protecting from some overzealous rabbits. I've added to last year’s woven hurdle fence around the bed. I'm hoping it will make it just that much harder for the bunnies to leap into the bed and feast on sprouts. Fingers crossed.
And finally, Stick project #4: Cloches. This week, I will cut some more willow sticks to create a cloche to protect the soon-to-be-planted radishes. Here's one I fashioned last year.
Gleaning. Piling. Connecting. Weaving; all part of my stick life here. It's nice to have these projects while waiting for spring to arrive. It feels good to be out in my own little world, a break from the worry of our nation and planet’s future.. Playing with sticks: Won’t you come out on a limb and join me?
