Lockdown Look Back - an update from Marc and Jane
- Catherine Beckham
- Mar 24, 2021
- 4 min read
Phew! Getting there!
It’s been a year since our regular group activities were interrupted by the pandemic. Time to take stock.
The lockdown hit just before our regular seed swap. Our friends at Lampeter Seed Library had donated a bag full of spare seeds so we had loads to share. But as lockdown gathered pace and life as we know it came to an end, like so many other groups we had to cancel at the last minute.
It wasn’t at all clear what we could, or should, do next. We could have abandoned the garden. But as the supermarket shelves emptied and seed companies began to run out of seeds, it became clear that growing our own food was the thing to do. Our project is all about sharing skills, plants and food, and it felt important to keep that going.
Luckily, once the government announced that we could take our daily exercise periods at an allotment, and Social Farms and Gardens and other organisations provided guidance on how to work safely. We adjusted our risk assessment to include regular washing of hands and tools, and planning our individual visitations to the garden.
We were a small team of volunteers organising through email, managing tasks to keep the garden ticking over. This is the thing we missed most last year – being able to involve more people in growing – something we hope to rectify later this year. Because this is a ‘community garden’ but Covid meant it couldn’t be in the same way anymore.
So we raised random seedlings in the polytunnel as usual and planted them into the beds outside. Some students confined to campus joined the rota, and some of the Aberystwyth Conservation Volunteers (ACV) who took over a bed (a Hugelkultur bed no less!), made planters and generally busied themselves.
As cases came down and restrictions were loosened we managed, somehow, to organise with the ever inspiring Aber Food Surplus (https://www.aberfoodsurplus.co.uk/) and Penparcau Planting Project, a seed swap by post, and an outdoor, socially distanced plant swap in late May. A tomato frenzy but lots of interesting plants and varieties donated by Aberystwyth gardeners.
It was a difficult way to work – planning our crops over Zoom, looking at photos of our 12 raised beds one by one, was awkward. But other people around town were growing too, and we wanted to help people grow at home. It was inspiring to feel we were making a difference together. And for many of us the garden provided some solitary respite from the confinements of home.
Despite the challenges, the record heat and sunshine, the bolting lettuce and wilting brassicas, the booming increasingly fearless rabbit population eyeing up the veg beds, the water rotas and battle with blight, we got a crop. Onions, broad beans, garlic, peas, tomatoes, potatoes, chard, broccoli, squashes, even peppers and chillies – less ambitious than we’d have liked, but a group effort completed at a social distance.
Some of our excess plants even found their way into municipal flower beds as part of various guerrilla gardening schemes and lettuce, chard and herbs were donated to Aber Food Surplus.
And in mid-summer – as the restrictions were relaxed even further we even featured on ITV’s Coast and Country. Which was a nice surprise.
As autumn crept upon us and harvest led to a new activity - seed saving. It’s very easy to do this with certain crops – tomatoes, lettuce, parsley – and with a little care to prevent cross-pollination, others are not too difficult, such as Swiss chard. We now have a small collection of seed packets for our own use and have donated others to the new Aberystwyth Seed Library (coming soon).
While autumn and winter have been fairly quiet the peace and respite the garden provides for these lockdown days has continued, and we have begun making plans for a more positive future.
The inevitable wear and tear of weather and lack of sufficient attention and people means there is lots to do, to fix and mend. We’ve built a potting bench and a couple of new raised beds, Dettoled the polytunnel and patched up the holes, cleaned the paths, collected leaf mold, pruned and tidied up (and realised there is a lot lot more to do!) and begun the annual round of seedling raising. Globe Artichokes (Imperial Star), Zephyr Courgette, Amaranth, and Wild Garlic are the exotics we’re trying this year, plus many more vegetable varieties and saving seed to share.
As you can see, it’s been a year in which despite things the garden has managed to keep ticking over. While our resources are very tight (thanks to those people who made a donation last year – it really helped!!), and some necessities are more pressing (did we mention the rebellious rabbits!) we’re working on plans, things we might be able to do and how we might do them, as and when restrictions are eased. When they are we hope you will visit, see what’s happening, and share your own gardening adventures with us too.
If you would like to donate, please go to our crowdfunding page here https://gofund.me/f00c4933
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