Today I went back to my day-job, after my customary fortnight's holiday at Easter. Nothing remarkable in that; the emails have stacked-up, staffing issues have flared-up and died down in my absence and my staff team have done their usual stirling job of keeping-on perfectly well without me. Just another post-holiday return to work. Except, for me, this one feels very different.
The difference is that for the past two weeks I have been toiling down on Plot 28 and busying myself raising plants from seeds...and I've really enjoyed myself. Now I really understand those self-sufficiency wannabees who claim that they are too busy to go to work. Sitting at my desk and pondering the memos and draft accounts, I keep wondering how the carrots are doing and whether I should be mulching the raspberries? Nothing is going to be the same as it was before I saw the first green leaf appear from the first seed I sowed. I don't want to sound all 'born-again' about it, but it is a real everyday kind of magic.
For the record, and for those of you who are keen to eat the goods later this year, plenty of progress has been made. Strawberries, apples, cherries, raspberries, blackcurrants, parsnips, peas, carrots, beans, onions, shallots, garlic, spinach and chard all in and doing well. The potatoes are chitting nicely and will be ready for planting in the next 10 days. Tomatoes, peppers, chillies, squash, sprouts and leeks adorn all our windowsills and will be in the ground when they are ready. Unfortunately, I was too enthusiastic with the courgettes and, like an over-pampered and spoiled first child, they are too 'leggy' and can't support themselves. I'll try again.
On a final note, I have scrounged a glass door from a skip and built the biggest cold frame in the Northern hemisphere. Who said my woodworking skills weren't up to scratch? Oh yes, it was my woodwork teacher as I recall. That's probably why I've been flying a desk all these years. Back to the day job then.
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Now then, son. Here's my theory, for what it's worth: planting a seed in the ground and watching it grow is one of the single most radicalising acts someone raised in a capitalist mindset can do.
ReplyDeleteCertainly happened to me about 15 years ago when I started on this permaculture mullarkey. I think one of the reasons it can have such a profound effect is that, within reason, the seeds and means for them to grown (fertile soil, sun, rain) are "free". Done properly, there is no need for profit to intrude.
Nature can feed us pretty much for nowt (which is why efforts by corporations like Monsanto, Novartis and Beyer to patent seeds are so fundamentally repulsive).
Now that's all a bit high falutin for your average allotment chap (or maybe not) but I reckon most of them know this to be instinctively true.
You're right of course. Allotmenteers are instinctively anti-capitalist and pro-sustainability, (which infers anti-profit), and trace their ancestry to the 'Diggers' in the 17th century. That's probably why I'm always loathe to go down to the plot in the Jag! But then I always was a fairweather anarchist. ;)
ReplyDeleteTake heart, brother - at least you've only got the one Jag!
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