Winter Mulching

Given our uncertainty as to the hardiness of our grape choices, at the end of our first season we pressed all of them down for mulching. Although the mulch was not much, and probably insufficient, the depth of snows that winter made it a simple matter to heap deep, white hills over them. The effect was picturesque, with each additional snowfall making the hills taller until late winter: two rows of rounded mounds running down the yard.

This winter only two vines are pressed down and mulched. One is the new Concord -- a silly choice for our region, but one I made all the same out of wanting to have an example of the basic American grape in our yard. I trained it at a low angle, last summer: and I will keep doing so, to give the trunk a permanent incline low to the ground, for continual winter mulching of this sort. (We talked with someone from the region who has healthy Concords growing in the normal manner. So the option may be open of risking an upright trunk.)

My round-about-and-thither thoughts lead me to wonder about devising covers for my various manual typewriters, for the summer -- because in those months other demands on my time result in their getting little use. Dust does little harm the fine old mechanisms -- but that little is enough, no doubt, to make it worth giving them more protection than I do.

Mulching them with old manuscripts ... now there's a thought ...

Cheers ...