Postcards from your veg garden plot
By Ann Johnson
At a meeting last week I heard someone comment on ‘postcards from the allotment’ when recalling an art project. This phrase inspired me to think about how many of us have been growing our own edible gardens over lockdown. This might be something you have done for years or perhaps a new hobby. Whilst some of you might have allotments, others will have found suitable planting areas, patio potting spaces, window boxes or space in your own garden to make this happen.
So how about sending us any photos you have of your summer edible garden or how about pictures of what you’re growing right now. We would love to hear from you.
Of course, growing your own is something people in Britain would have done for centuries mainly for necessity, to sell or for medicinal purposes. In the last 100 years or so, it has been needed to help us survive major and catastrophic events.
This image shown is a comic postcard depicting life in World War 1. One which you can find in London’s Garden Museum.
The postcard shows a line of people marching with garden tools towards an allotment and titled, ‘There’s a long long trail a winding to the land of spuds and greens’. The postcard was sent to a Dorset address and postmarked 1917.
For me it depicts a comical scene of the community coming together to make a difference in what must have been such hard times. Many of the people in the line wearing their ‘Sunday best’ which would surely have been less than smart on their return trail.
World War 2 saw the campaign ‘Dig for Victory’, which started in October 1939 (one month after the outbreak of the war). This campaign persuading the public to transform their garden spaces into vegetable plots and was aimed to replace imported food with locally grown produce. It played a key role in feeding the nation during the hardest of times.
Britain had 1.4 million allotments in 1945 and I imagine many continued the value of growing your own way even past the end of the war. I know my father in law shared many a fond memory of taking care of his large veg plot at the end of the garden an interest he retained all of his life.
The resurgence today is for many other reasons such as; reducing costs, reducing carbon, providing health benefits, or perhaps maybe the Covid 19 lockdown has created space in your life to make it interest or hobby. The extra time has given many the chance to create something usually reserved for future retirement years and has been a great opportunity to manage your mental well-being by being occupied in times of social isolation.
Whatever your reason, why not share it with the Forest of Hearts!
What we would like you to do is imagine you are sending us a postcard. Provide the image of your produce whether grown in spring, summer or autumn; whether herbs, veg or fruit or even an image of the wonderful preserves you have now made from them: the jars, the frozen or pickled delights. Alongside your image, provide a little text to explain what you managed to achieve; the successes, the challenges and the value of doing it.
Send them to tom@forestofhearts.com and they’ll be published in our next blog entry for all to see.
Stay safe and keep growing!