Maria Donovan

I’m always surprised by the last photo I took for the month. This time it’s the allotment, which feeds me and my imagination. Join in with Bushboy’s Last on the card challenge.

Most of my time is split between writing and doing what I can in the garden and on the allotment. It works out well because my work requires some understanding of what it is to try to be self-sufficient. My novel is based in a future where this is more of a necessity than it is now. I have, for instance, learned a lot about pollination – since in the world of my imagination there are so few insects left that the job is given to children instead.

It’s not an entirely imaginary concept – some places around the globe are already so polluted and insect numbers so low that children are sent to climb trees and pollinate blossoms to make future fruit.

I know I suffer anxiety sometimes because things get eaten or don’t grow; everything that does come up to be harvested feels like a miracle. I feel great respect for those who grow food at scale; in places where individual self-sufficiency is a necessity to sustain life, the pressures must be enormous.

I took this photo because I realised how much we have done this year and how I meant to record it step by step. We started with one raised bed two years ago and slowly we have tried to win back some ground from the horseradish that is everywhere! Now there are six raised beds and a few that are not formally enclosed. Neat paths between are covered in cardboard and home-made wood chippings. It’s a lot easier to walk around now without falling into some crack in the earth. Last year there was still such a huge patch of horseradish right between the beds, and it made a nice hiding place for a rat.

There’s a lovely set of new runner beans, peas, mangetout and dwarf beans on the right. The first set on the left is over and needs to come out to make way for winter greens. New brassicas under cover in the foreground, not in a raised bed yet. Maybe that will come next year.

It’s good to notice what there is and if I compare it to the chest-high thistles in the plot next door – untouched over the summer, awaiting new tenants – I can see what a difference those hours of attention have made. Thistles are good too (the goldfinches will be happy) but not generally popular among allotment holders.

The bonus is that, at the end of the day, when it cools down a bit, I can go there and pick something for supper and some to give away. As soon as you enter the allotment area it feels different: so many flowers as well as vegetables and fruit bushes.

It’s lovely and peaceful there and I am looking forward to having a shed!

Thanks as always to Brian for hosting this challenge, which helps me keep in touch with the world of the blog! For me it’s back to work now on my novel. And later… a trip to the allotment.

Are you growing any of your own food? Or is it all too much of a tie? How do you balance your commitments and all the things you’d like to do?