Gardening through a pandemic – Part 1 Spring
March, April, May.
As we progressed through March 2020, coronavirus was becoming more and more alarming. When Italy put their country into lockdown, followed by Spain, panic buying ramped up here. As everyone else clambered for toilet rolls, my biggest concern was, have I got enough compost? I knew that as long as I could garden I could cope with anything!
On 23rd March 2020, Britain followed others into a nationwide lockdown. Like so many people I found myself stuck at home.
I am not a keyworker and I can’t work from home. So there it was, an unspecified period of time off work, with nowhere to go.
24th March – 2020 A good year to be a gardener!
So with my good supply of compost, bought just in time! I was able to spend every day in the garden. Luckily we had exceptional weather for the time of year, which really helped.
The tadpoles had just emerged from their frogspawn, and were now a wriggling mass. I’d been dreaming of having a pond for more years than I’d like to mention.
We’d finally created a pond four years earlier to encourage wildlife, specifically frogs and dragonflies. It was now so lovely to have the time to crouch and watch their progress daily.
The rhubarb had already started producing, so I was busy stewing that up for breakfast. It always makes enough to freeze and lasts us well into winter.
I decided to grow even more food than usual – in case of shortages. There was a real feeling of war time mentality and ‘dig for victory’ came to mind.
Ordering online
I’ve never bothered growing onions before, as how I choose which crops to grow is based on two things, does it taste better than the shop bought varieties? And is it expensive to buy? I don’t feel that onions come into either of these categories.
But faced with the possibility of not being able to get any, when we use them in nearly everything we cook. Meant I immediately ordered some onion sets.
Having not grown them before I had a quick look online, and discovered the biggest problem is the birds pulling them out. With that information I planted the sets under the brassica cage.
They grew really well and I was pleased with my first onion crop.
As it happened the shops never did run out of fruit and veg, but it wasn’t worth the risk!
First bedding plants
Whilst I was deciding what seeds I needed to order. I remembered that my mum always has pots in the summer on her porch, filled with colourful annual plants. I thought she will need those cheerful plants more than ever this year. So I ordered Busy Lizzies, Petunia, Lobelia, Cineraria and Verbena seeds and set about growing my first ever bedding plants. It’s always enjoyable growing something new.
First week of lockdown
All stocked up, those first few days were really quite nice. I was very happy pottering in the garden, whilst my husband worked from home. But the peace and quiet from no cars, and stranger still, no planes in the sky, was a constant reminder that something was very wrong in the world. It was hard not to feel guilty in my little bit of paradise, whilst such horrors were unfolding.
Our village had immediately set up a shopping volunteer scheme which I had signed up for. That at least made me feel I was helping a tiny bit.
Encouraging new gardeners
I needed more to occupy my mind. I decided to start posting on social media, about how easy it is to grow some simple crops.
As fresh veg and especially salad don’t last that long and involves regular trips to the shop – something nobody wanted to do. Many more people suddenly took an interest in growing their own.
I started thinking what non gardeners could use to grow plants in, and plastic food containers are ideal. The shallow rectangular ones are perfect for sowing seeds, then yogurt pots are ideal for potting on into.
As there are so many specialised gardening tools and equipment, it makes people think that they can’t garden without it, but make do and mend is another good philosophy from wartime. Even compost isn’t strictly necessary, garden soil will do.
Gardening is in the genes
My granddad and dad were keen gardeners, I am obviously very keen and one of my nieces is too.
I thought it would be nice to encourage the next generation, my great nieces & nephews to do some gardening. One of my great nephews had already shown an interest in gardening and loves sweet corn, so as I had some seeds, I posted them to him, which he grew.
For the others I sent peas & seed potatoes, trying to think of easy crops that children would actually eat. They seemed to enjoy planting and watering them, and they certainly got a good harvest for first timers. It must be in the genes!
As I mentioned my niece is already a keen gardener, like me she has dug up her lawn in favour of vegetable beds. We started to have much more contact through lockdown, sending each other regular photos of our gardening progress.
What do you do with all those loo roll holders?
As the panic buying of loo rolls had created a huge amount of jokes and ridicule. I thought I’d show, that we gardeners had been using them as plant pots for years. Especially for crops that don’t like their roots being disturbed like the pea family. Once your seedlings are ready, you can plant the whole thing in the ground and the cardboard just rots away, genius!
1st April – Let’s have a laugh!
Inspired by an old neighbour posting a spoof video about growing whisky. I made my own spoof video for April fool’s day. It was all about growing beer, from planting the lids to harvesting the bottles. Hopefully it cheered a few people up. The Brit’s have always had a quirky sense of humour, and the darker the circumstances, the more we need it!
7th April – Tulip time
The fabulous weather meant we had one of the best tulip years I’d ever known. The ones I’d planted in grannies old dolly tubs the year before lasted for weeks, and were an absolute joy.
10th April – Easter weekend
We had a lovely surprise on Good Friday, when a neighbour in our close bought a bunch of daffodils for each household, placing them on our doorsteps. This was such a lovely gesture and much appreciated.
I started thinking, that so many garden lovers normally visit gardens on bank holidays. With us all stuck at home, I decided to do a virtual garden tour and post it online on Easter Monday.
14th April – Gardening photos from a friend
A friend, that had had my old greenhouse a few years ago and discovered the joys of ‘growing your own’. Also found herself with a lot more time to garden, and sent me regular updates of her progress. Starting with the first time she’d grown cucumbers from seed – we’ll see the results later in the year…
19th April – Gardeners World
Gardeners World is one of my favourite programmes, and I’ve been watching it for thirty years. They started asking viewers to send videos of themselves gardening. This was because they obviously couldn’t get out and about to visit gardens (even Monty Don was filming himself). I immediately thought I’d have a go.
Having plenty of time on my hands I set about making a video of myself in the garden. Unfortunately it didn’t get on. It took another twelve months before I finally made my debut on Gardeners World. Better late than never!
25th April – Potting on the squash
The summer squash seeds that I’d shown people a few weeks earlier, could be grown in yogurt pots, were now ready to be potted into larger pots.
29th April – Tomato delivery
My sisters father in law is a proper gardener, with a wonderful cottage garden, including a stream. It’s a magical place for children and generations of us have spent many happy hours playing there. In the stream, on the swing that used to hang from the apple tree and generally chasing around. Unfortunately he is now suffering with his eye sight and asked if I could start his tomatoes off from seed. I was honoured to do so, and dropped the plants off at the door en-route to taking shopping for my mother. It was sad not to be able to stop and have a wander around the garden, but we had to stick to the rules.
8th May – 75th Anniversary of VE Day
Unfortunately all the celebrations that had been planned to celebrate the 75th anniversary of ‘Victory in Europe’ day, had to be cancelled. Instead people were encouraged to have a picnic in their front gardens, as you were still supposed to be staying at home.
The weather turned out to be fantastic, and on our one walk of the day, it was lovely to see everyone entering into the spirit of it. More importantly it was great to see everyone smiling, happy and having a good time. When we got back we sat out and had socially distanced chats with our neighbours, with Glen Miller playing.
14th May – Noticing nature
As we passed the pond on our daily walk around the village, we saw that the little ducklings had hatched. How nice to have time to stand and watch them. I do have mixed feelings when people say, they’ve noticed things they’d not seen before. Part of me thinks it’s sad that it takes such an awful event to make people appreciate what’s around them. The other part of me thinks, at least they’re noticing now.
29th May – Broad beans
Broad beans fill that gap between the winter brassicas and the summer crops. Especially as I direct sow them the previous October. This was a tip I got off my new neighbour when we moved her eight years ago. He told me, you don’t get the same problems with black fly, and he is correct you don’t!
I grow a heritage variety called ‘Crimson’ that certainly lives up to its name with beautiful dark pink/red flowers. They date back to 1777 and they taste delicious!
31st May – Damselfly day
Suddenly there were damselflies everywhere in the garden, even when I held out my hand they landed on it. In four years the pond has only produced a handful of dragonflies but dozens and dozens of damselflies.
Quite funny that I spent the first day of lockdown watching my tadpoles wriggling and the last day of spring was spent watching damselflies dance around the garden, what pleasure my little pond gives me.
Stay safe & happy gardening.
Gardening through a Pandemic –
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