A Long Absence From The Garden

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I am not even sure when I last visited the site but I have to say you have been in my thoughts many times – just not had time! When you read about recession and the changes that people have to make in reduced circumstances, no one ever mentions the loss of a garden! Yes, there is talk of the loss of holidays, of eating less extravagantly, and in extreme cases of losing the house because the mortgage fell into arrears.

The spectre of all these looms over me at the moment but the loss of my precious garden, even the thought of it, can drive me to tears when everything else can be endured.

I have become a full-time carer for my mother – not much has changed actually, except that she is now officially demented and needs a closer eye than before, and I now tutor about ten children of different ages in science and/or maths. That has been very interesting to say the least; I took my GCSE equivalent more than 40 years ago and, although nothing much has really changed in the subjects, I cannot remember half of what I used to take for granted. The tests are more logical though and easier in that there is less of the “Cutting down rain forests is bad for the environment; discuss” type of question. All that has been replaced by detailed examples demonstrating the principles. Better or worse? I wouldn’t dare to say!

One thing that constantly strikes me is how relevant gardening is to all of the subjects I tutor in:Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Maths. So few of the children have any experience of being in a garden let alone gardening. Compost is a marvelous demonstration of the whole of the carbon cycle and the nitrogen cycle and how detritivors (woodlice to you and me) help in creating that fabulous plant food we know and love. I wish I could arrange a field trip to me garden for schools teaching environmental biology. I use gardening in all its guises as the way of explaining so much of the syllabuses that I can’t imagine why a school garden is not compulsory – for the teachers at least!

Because I have been so busy with one thing and another, I have rather neglected the garden of late and I am humbled by the way it struggles on without me, producing flowers under mounds of snow and mountains of leaves. I think I am avoiding the garden in case I have to lose it but as the weather starts to improve after all the snow we have had and the coldest winter for 30 years, I can’t hold out for much longer. Perhaps I should request a government grant to save the garden even if we lose the house.

I am still blogging away mind – www.gardeningforeveryman.com/everymanblog.php so visit me there if you have a free moment and spur me into action again. Loss of income makes for a lonely world.

• 29 Jan, 2010
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