Veggies

Everyone in my family grows veggies. My siblings and I were brought up by parents who work very hard at growing fruit and vegetables. In Scotland, we had raised beds and every summer I looked forward to harvests of strawberries, raspberries, carrots, salad leaves, and much more. Yet back when I was a teenager I did not appreciate quite how much love, effort and time my parents spent in the veggie garden. However, I remember well being asked to help wheelbarrow seaweed up to the house from the beach, and then digging it into the soil on the raised beds. I think that may have been the start of my realisation (and appreciation) of quite how much effort is required for a prosperous vegetable garden on a Scottish hillside.

This year, I had the opportunity to have my own vegetable plot at work, and saying "yes please!" has been one of the best decisions I have made this year. My job is busy and I work long hours, but when I can I take myself down to the veggie garden for some peace and quiet...and some weeding. My bed is constantly under attack from bindweed. I am calmer the moment I go down there. I can feel the benefits to my wellbeing, and that's before I even eat anything homegrown. Often I work without gloves, as I like to feel the precious soil with my bare hands, considering what an essential yet under-appreciated resource it is.

This year I attempted to grow peas, radishes, spring onions, onions, carrots and strawberries. We dug wood ash from our stove into the bed, and added some coffee grounds (free from Starbucks in Llandudno), and I surrounded the produce with wool pellets to keep the slugs at bay. I have also grown salad leaves in pots at home. I didn't have many strawberries but I savoured the few I did pick, and grumbled anytime a bird or slug got to them first. We enjoyed some radishes, though bizarrely they were the colour of mini turnips. My peas never came up, but I replaced them with tomatoes from work's polytunnel and there are little green fruits growing now. I'm over the moon that I managed to grow carrots. I surrounded them with cut out 5L plastic bottles, and they've grown really well with their protective casing. 

Photo by Sylvie Tan

I helped my colleagues dig up our potatoes, which I think might be the best feeling a gardener can have. I bubble with joy when I dig for potatoes. A friend I work with exclaimed "it's like digging for treasure!". My work has kept me in potatoes for weeks.

With Brexit looming and all our climate woes, growing some organic veggies gives me a little ray of light and positivity in globally tumultuous times.