Digging for Victory

15.04.20 – Jessica Laughton

In recent weeks (as so often for me at this time of year), my attention has ventured into the garden. For me, spring time ignites my passion for gardening. I enjoy the warmer weather, being outside in the fresh air and hearing the birds sing.

I come from a family of green fingered individuals. My Grandfather grew his own vegetables, my Great Uncle won several gardening competitions, my uncle grows some of the hottest chillies known to man (which he uses in his cooking) and my Great Grandmother could eat an apple, plant the pip straight into the soil and a tree would grow. Regrettably, my gardening skills don’t extend that far and whilst gardening has always been a keen interest of mine, it has become a personal goal that I grow some of my own food.

A couple of weeks ago, my husband and I made a decision to grow our own vegetables. We have a reasonably sized garden though the space for growing is limited. After much deliberation, we decided to relocate our patio furniture to elsewhere in the garden and boldly created two new vegetable beds and a herb garden where we once had a patio. This past week we have planted potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots and lettuce. Our three year old son has thoroughly enjoyed helping to prepare the vegetable beds, sow the seeds, plant the potatoes and water the plots.

For now, it’s still early days, so maybe slightly too soon to expect the first shoots to show. But, the sense of anticipation is quite wonderful, and really uplifting. Soon, the seed leaves will be popping their heads above the surface. Should this spring develop anything like last years did, there will soon be a need to water the garden on three or four times per week, but you can keep up with that sort of thing very easily when you spend nearly all your time at home.

If planting vegetables together has given us a useful degree of focus, it has also given us a sense of pride and determination as we ‘dig for victory’ to help us get through these somewhat challenging times. Already it’s given us something to do together with our small family. And to think, in less than two months time we may all be munching on the first lettuce of the summer. From garden to fork in the time it takes to wash a few leaves – now, you can’t get much tastier than that!