Gardening in a time of change

Daffodil 'Tete-a-Tete', an early variety and one of my favourites.

Well, this is a peculiar situation. A garden blogger, who can’t garden in the garden they write about!

The UK is ten days in to the stricter lockdown Prime Minister Johnson announced on 23^rd March in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Life has changed beyond recognition in that time, and there has been a period of adjustment for everyone. My workspace has changed from a studio at the old Spode Works (a repurposed pottery factory in Stoke) to the kitchen table at no 25. Our household has swollen by the return of our two older children. Our eldest, on a field trip to Mpanda to research rain forest frogs travelled for a couple of days through rural Tanzania to catch one of the last flights back to Europe from East Africa. We retrieved our middle child, who'd been living in perfect isolation in his Sheffield student flat, when the stricter rules were announced. He brought with him the contents of his food cupboards, but we forgot the precious supply of loo roll from his flat. I’m still not sure why the loo roll shortage has become so widespread, however, it has given us all something to laugh about at least. No 25 is a full house of five adults now!

Despite hearing about the pandemic on the news since October, its arrival in the UK still took me by surprise, as it did many people. Nigel summed it up perfectly, when he pointed out, “It was so big, you just didn’t see it coming!”. I think it was very hard to envisage the implications of it on everyday life until its effects actually reached our small town on the Cheshire/Staffordshire border. I’ve become like a World War 2 housewife, planning meals to minimize waste and shopping excursions. A meal plan has gone up on the wall, so the family can have something to look forward to. Mealtimes have become incredibly important, helping to give some structure to the day. And it is wonderful to meet up with the family as we eat, to exchange what we’ve been up to in our in different corners of the house.

Our allotment, at the end of the garden is getting all the attention it missed out on, when we forgot about it in the aftermath of the fire that destroyed Betley Court. I dug up 4lbs of unharvested potatoes, all weird heritage varieties, like Shetland Black (a purple-fleshed salad potato), pink fir apple (knobbly potato, looks like a pine cone) and Gypsy Pink (pretty pink dappled potato).

Pink fir apple potatoes

Distinctive 'Gypsy Pink' potatoes

We made the most amazing potato salad using the pink fir apples, four types of homegrown fresh herbs, and mayonnaise. Delicious!  The herbs were grown from left over living herb plants bought in supermarkets – just potted on after using most, but not all of the leaves in previous dishes.

Of course, I’m also babysitting plants that I bought earlier in the year for Betley Court Gardens, but cannot now plant.  The bay window of our Victorian semi is serving as a greenhouse for more than a dozen dahlias (D. Bishop of Llandaf and D. Extase). I usually bring on the tubers I save in the autumn, and make cuttings to increase stock.

Dahlia 'Extase' being brought on for propagation

The bronze foliage of Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaf'

Our cat, Joey Two-Breakfasts is most perturbed that his bed in the sun has been repurposed into a makeshift greenhouse staging in the form of a piano stool.

Joey Two-Breakfast, taking the whole 'social distancing' regulations in his stride, even if he can't sleep in the window anymore

Elsewhere, we have a nursery area by the shed, for plants awaiting planting out at Betley Court Gardens.

Makeshift nursery, by the shed.

We’ve got ox-eye daisies, lavender, thyme, rosemary and Verbena bonariensis all earmarked for BC, but in lockdown for the foreseeable future. The greenhouse on the allotment is filled with anemones (wind flowers) and the marvelously named ranunculus corms (Persian buttercups). Finally, there’s a pair of huge selection boxes of summer bulbs, corms and tubers I bought for the formal beds.

Summer bulbs and corms, bursting to grow.

The bulbs and corms are bursting to start growing, and as a temporary measure, I’ll plant them up in pots. Thank goodness I stocked up on compost before lockdown!

We gardeners are a lucky breed. We’re always imagining the future anyway, in our gardens, plots and planters. We plan for when the frosts pass, when it is clement enough to garden, when we can harvest. We plan knowing nothing is guaranteed. I hope this means we have a psychological head-start on preparing ourselves for the uncertain times ahead.

Take care out there!

Ladybird Su

Post script
Clarification has been issued by the Government since I wrote this post, and although not classed as essential workers, self-employed gardeners can continue to work, but only if it is safe to do so and where they can maintain social distancing. Looking forward to seeing my 'green babies' at Betley Court again!