In recent years there has been an increasing emphasis upon where we get our food from and the carbon associated with its growth, its cultivation, transportation from the field to the market place and then to our plate. It all adds up.
From this there has become resounding call for us all to ‘grow our own’. To pick up spade, find a space and live a life of plenty from the toil of our very own hands. There have arisen a plethora of TV programmes explaining how to get the most from your marrows, the squish from your squash, the choicest cuts of curly kale, but how many of us actually do it, and do we have any idea what is required? Basically what a thirty minute TV programme cannot show you is the labour that is requisite. As I can testify the reality is somewhat different from: plant seed, leave to grow, pick plant, eat.
A few years back I was granted an allotment from our local council. Having been on the waiting list for four years I was delighted to get stuck in and so one cold November day myself, missus and toddling daughter went to view our land. The first thing that astonished us was the scale. A full allotment is a big area, bigger than any garden I have ever had in any house I have ever lived in. It was a truly daunting prospect. However we duly set to work trying to get it ready, not planting anything yet, just getting it ready. Three years later our allotment is still not fully ready.
Then the thing is what do you grow? There are plenty of books that can offer advice, but there is a big difference between reading a book and actually planting a seed. What is your soil type? What is the drainage? Are you on a slope? North or south facing? For something so inanimate, seeds can seem surprisingly picky of their preferred surroundings.
Then there is the time. The thing is, food, particularly some vegetables, can take an awfully long time to grow. I mean ages. Take broad beans for example. You plant them in November and they do nothing, nitch, for the best part of four months. Around the end of February small stumpy plants start to appear and suddenly the race is on so that by mid of May pluming bushes hang with plump bean pods ready for the pot. By the end of May, you’ve eaten them all and you’re looking for your next emerging crop. Let me be clear, with the time required for weeding, vegetable rotation, planting , weeding, watering and weeding (again!) an allotment is hard work. If we had solely relied on our plot to feed us this winter we would have starved and hard though it is to admit it, the actuality is that, as long as you are careful with what you buy, supermarkets are quite good at providing your food (without you digging, hoeing etc).
So, do I wish to discourage anyone from growing their own? Absolutely not for the rewards should you persevere are glorious. Last year from our allotment courgettes, runner beans, butternut squash, rhubarb, raspberries, potatoes, strawberries and herbs were quite happy to thrive in near abject neglect and were picked and biked home on hot summer evenings as swallows banked and dived around us. Which certainly beats going to Tescos.
So if you haven’t done it before, find yourself a pot for your tomatoes or potatoes, or dig yourself a ditch for your pulses and pumpkins. Go out there and find your green fingers.
Matt Taylor, CRed System Co-ordinator
