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| Corn cockle, from Wikipedia |
Transcript from Chapter 10 continued in Bill Clark's Route and Branch, a podcast by Chris Thomas:
One innovation was a small arable plot at the top of the field, to show the school children the sort of weeds that used to grow in the farmers’ arable fields. I already cultivated a small plot at the top of the Picnic Field. Only owning a cultivator meant that few seeds got buried deeply – as originally used to happen with the plough – to be brought to the surface in later years. And so the harvesting of some seeds was needed. Plants such as scarlet pimpernel and Venus’s looking-glass were usually few and far between, whilst poppies, spring up, flower and seed, at the ‘drop of a hat’, but others need help if there is to be a ‘show’ during the time most schools are visiting. The cornflowers, corncockles and corn marigolds were collected as they ripened, and then in late summer, the plot was flailed and cultivated a few times over the course of a few dry days – to frizzle up the grasses, docks and thistles. In the autumn or spring – during a dry period – the plot was cultivated again, and the gathered seeds broadcast and harrowed in. with a final firming down with the tractor tyres – in lieu of a roller – as a final touch. Over the seasons there was always a profusion of flowers, and I found that autumn cultivating and sowing favoured the Corn-cockles, and in spring, the Poppy. The Corn Marigold would not have grown in this area, as they prefer sandy soil, so they needed constant help to survive.
That plot had sat a little like a fish out of water in the Picnic Field, so a band of trees and shrubs would separate this new plot from the rest of Varley’s Field. Because of the mild winter, I was able to cultivate out a second crop of weeds over the whole field in mid-February, before getting on with this planting. I was rushing to finish, before promised rain or nightfall overtook me, when through the gloom, I spied a couple of regular visitors hastening along. ‘Look dear, isn’t that Mr Clark?’ ‘Of course not silly, Mr Clark doesn’t work, he just walks about,’ said the husband. I straightened up to tread in the tree, ‘There, I knew it was him,’ said his wife. ‘Oh dear you are planting trees, who on earth decided that?’ ‘Yes indeed, what bad planning, we always stop here to admire the view across this field,’ interjected her husband. ‘It was my plan, I will argue the reasons with you another day,’ I said with a wry smile, and turned to plunge my spade in the next spot as they went on their way, still grumbling. I had just two or three plants to go, when I heard, ‘There’s someone digging over there.’ And a lady came quite close as I bent down to place the tree in its hole. ‘Oh, how marvellous, come and look darling, Mr Clark is planting trees; you have no idea how many times we have stood in this corner and said how bare it looks. Are you going to plant the whole field, it could certainly do with it!’ The following day I was able to hand broadcast the corn cockles and various other flowers and the, ‘Arable Plot’ was done and dusted.
Except for cultivating out another crop of weeds, it was April before the rest became dry enough to think about seeding. With the forecast for only three more dry days, I decided to get the job done. At 6.00 am on the 23rd I was driving the little Ferguson 35 tractor up and down – with a home-made levelling bar fixed behind the spring-tine cultivator – and by 8.00 pm I had driven over every inch of the field in three different directions leaving it reasonably level and firm. The following day, as soon as it was daylight – headlights are not much help when not leaving a mark – although it was really too windy for seed sowing with the borrowed machine, I made a start on the sheltered side of the field. Luckily the wind dropped away, and I carried on sprinkling the fourteen varieties of grass and flower seeds until by evening I had broadcast two thirds of the seed in two directions. Unfortunately the TV weather forecast brought the next lot of rain forward from the following evening to midday. I had planned, whilst broadcasting the last seed in the third direction, to hook up harrows behind to cover the seed, then finish by rolling the field. So, at 3.00 am I coupled up the roll behind the harrows behind the drill behind the tractor, and although having to drive in a lower gear, I had a good mark to steer by in the headlights. At 11.00 am I pulled my ‘train’ off the field as the last specks of seed scattered into the gateway, and rushed the borrowed seed-drill back to the farmer in Stapleford – getting caught in the rain as I drove back up the hill!
Chapter 10 continues with the story of the rare snowdrop, Wendy's gold at https://routeandbranch.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-discovery-and-naming-of-wendys-gold.html
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