In various parts of our property, weeds take hold at this time of year. In between paving cracks and in raised beds, they are conspicuous, if small, which gets the attention of the Weeder-in-Chief (a pocket-money-motivated and obsessive 8-year-old). In other areas, they’re endemic - especially poor soil adjacent to some unwisely conceived bamboo forest.
In the latter location, they’re more of an issue. Thistles and sharp things inhibit access, rendering about 30% of the land inaccessible until I dust off the strimmer. The paving variety seldom reaches genuine irritant status, yet it’s dispatched first.
Mortgages and blown fuses
Our mortgage is up for renewal soon. Having been fleeced last time around (a year after we moved back - “no credit history”), it seems that will happen again thanks to a potent mix of Donald’s disastrous Hormuz debacle, plus the UK Gov’s usual economic illiteracy. Facing the prospect of spiralling base costs (mortgage, council tax, energy, fuel, food, etc.), like many others, we take on small jobs ourselves and move to homesteading (food, water conservation, solar, etc.).
When an EV charger blew out half the house’s electrics, we got a professional in. When it happened again, I did it. I am no electrician, but YouTube was my friend, and no one died = win. Similarly, broken home appliances, an oak with perilously snapped branches (after a storm), and construction of a few outdoor structures were all “in-housed.” (Chainsawing up a flimsy ladder was perhaps the least advisable activity.)
These tasks are all patio weeds. Individually small, not that expensive in the grand scheme. Certainly not when compared to mortgage, energy, council tax, and the sky-rocketing HMRC burden on running a small business.
What about the bigger weeds?
So, a local electrician, tree surgeon, and odd-job fella all lost income. Meanwhile, a bank, energy firm, and greedy bureaucracy report record receipts. That sucks.
Something snapped. I don’t want to be reasonable anymore; I want more money, power, and opportunity in the hands of local communities and creators, not critics, distant apparatchiks, and oligarchic extractors. Thorny, manky, parasitic weeds.
While I periodically daydream truly unspeakably nasty thoughts about those weeds (the strimmer approach), I’m more interested in something constructive: I want our local community and the people in it to succeed, despite, not because of the growing conditions.
Grow back better
In the thistle patch, we’re encouraging productive plants that compete with weeds (willow, artichokes, oregano, nasturtiums, rosemary, mints, etc.). In human terms, we have to support local and come together. We’ve seen that in a nearby village, where the community banded together to buy out and take over a pub that had fallen into ‘big weed’ hands. It’s buzzing again and brings people together.
All of us have skills that are useful to our community and the smaller businesses in it. There are also many smaller businesses that will disappear with their owners (succession planning, finance, and other issues).
I’m not yet quite sure, yet, what the human version of “productive plants” looks like. I’ve been building a Claude Plugin to help identify, assess, diligence, fraud check, and triage possible local businesses (with sensible earn-out models to bring down the initial burden and leverage the GGS ).
So, what to do with this plugin and the concept behind it (how to scale, whether to charge, etc.). What do you think? What would you do?