A3a - red ants farming aphids on Suprifin broad beans.
I made myself busy about the allotment garden today, watering, sowing, re-potting, planting out, mulching, harvesting and a host of other tasks, all under an unusually warm April sun. Daytime temperatures in the polytunnel have exceeded 30degrees for well over a week. In the relative isolation of the site, I reflected on how I might have responded differently to the COVID 19 lockdown.
I have been 'furloughed'. I asked myself if I should, or could, have continued gardening the allotment garden of Nowhere in particular within the time normally available to me - as if I were still gardening within the constraints of a Monday-Friday, 9-5.30, working week.
An initial impetus for my increased daytime time presence and activity was a panic based reaction; a fear that the allotment site would be closed until further notice and that I would soon become unwell with the virus. The site has been kept open and I have not yet become unwell but how sustainable is the new time available for gardening that site? With another 3 weeks of lockdown looming there is a challenge in trying to maintain a sustainable response to this situation and its aftermath.
I could continue gardening within the pre-virus times and use the 'furlough' time to improve my gardening knowledge and prepare better for the sessions on the allotment garden of Nowhere in particular. I know there is a sense of manic doing about my presence in the garden which is partly about trying to avoid thinking about or escape from, the crisis. What are the limits of the garden for providing escape?
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