Nature has to be managed

Back at the start of 2024 when I had made the decision to sell my flock of sheep and I was still in the unknown stage of what the future health of my family member would be, I struggled with the ideas of what I was going to do next. Life was extremely chaotic and I'm not afraid to admit that mentally I was in overdrive but also very lost. It was a new unknown for me after spending so many years previous determined to chase the dream of a successful livestock farming lifestyle. What was I going to do next? Where was life going to take me?

Realising I was struggling I decided to invest in myself and found a mindset coach to try and help answer the questions going around in my head whilst also building my confidence back up. So many topics of discussion were brainstormed in our sessions, some of which included this blog, my Smoko Stories, as well as other areas of my life I was yet to tick off the achievement list. It definitely helped re-wire my mindset about what I wanted my life to look like next.

However, it became obvious quite quickly that I was missing something. Something which had been a big part of my lifestyle for a long time. It was being outside in the fresh air with my hands in some kind of dirt.

When I was young, our families farming system was heavily involved in the market gardening sector. One of my earliest memories was of me stood in the garden next to my older brother, aged about four years old, standing along the fence line stealing the leaves off young flat lettuce plants in their blue travel trays which were waiting to be planted in the field by my grandfather, mother and one of the then farm workers on an old international tractor and our new blue planting machine. My grandmother was watching and laughing from the kitchen window which overlooked the field. I have fond memories of the rows and rows of flat lettuce, runner beans and potatoes being grown on the farm along with the many other large farms in the rural area growing crops such as cauli's and cabbages. We even used to host school educational trips every year whilst my brother and I were in primary school.

In more recent years I have watched my father enjoy growing vegetables in his small back garden, experimenting with new potatoes, broad beans, runner beans and many, many other crops over the past several years. So I turned to a spare patch of garden in the Spring of 2024 to have a go myself at growing my own small plot of vegetables. Why? Because I realised I needed to get my hands dirty as well as switching my mind off from the chaos of the day to day world.

My newly built vegetable plot was very small and I originally felt like a bit of a fraud as all the vegetables which were planted I purchased as established plants from one of my favourite local gardening centres. Some of my free Friday evenings were spent in front of the TV watching the famous Monty Don explain the wealth of knowledge he has for designing and growing his magnificent gardens. Come the autumn months my friends and family had even started buying me helpful gardening books and tools as they could see how much I had been enjoying the fruits of my labour that previous summer.

It was in November however that the love of my new gardening hobby really sunk in. Monty Don was running a tour around the UK and my Mum, Dad and I had been successful with getting ourselves tickets to go and hear his story. As soon as I entered the arena I became extremely aware that I had dramatically dropped the average age of the audience by probably 20 years. I questioned if I was actually going to enjoy the evening let alone understand anything from this gardening legend.

I was however, fascinated to learn that Monty had lived a very similar lifestyle to myself having worked in the creative industries designing costume jewellery alongside his wife before a sudden end to their business following the stock market crash in 1987. Through out the evening Monty shared how he had experienced spells of depression through his adult years and explained how gardening, spending time outdoors and the love of his dogs had helped him enjoy his life once more. Nevertheless, there was one very small section of the evening that has stayed with me ever since.

Whilst Monty was explaining to us all the journey he took in building his amazing gardens in the rural landscape of Herefordshire he shared the importance of taking your time to sit and observe the ways in which nature and the weather works in the space you have chosen for your garden. Ensuring that the right plant is positioned in the right place, Monty came out with the simple line of 'Plants only grow where they want to grow'. A statement I'm sure you will all agree with. But it was the sentence which came next that made me literally laugh out loud and give a little cheer of approval. Monty said

"I think the re-wilding craze is absolute nonsense! This whole nature is good and man is bad is utter nonsense. As far as I am concerned if you have and want a garden, you have to garden it"

Monty went on the explain the farming landscape around him and the way in which nature works within his garden as well as the large agricultural businesses that surround him. The changing of the seasons and the placement of the plants which grow within it. The rotations of his own vegetable patch as well as the lessons learnt when things have gone wrong. He ended his evening with a very simple image on the large screen behind him of his hands holding a heap of soil. Soil which has been cared for, which has been managed, and most importantly has been able to grow the flowers and vegetables Monty has become so well known for doing. Monty ended with the line 

"If we want to see the wonders of nature and the environment, it has to be managed".

I came away from that evening with excitement for my 2025 growing season, and even though it has been a challenging season so far with the huge amount of wind we have been experiencing, I am happy to say I am still attempting to grow my own vegetables. My vegetable patch has increased from one border in 2024 to four borders and an old farm tyre in 2025. I have been growing from seed instead of established plants and have reminded myself on several occasions to be patient with nature. But more importantly than this I have looked at the soil and how it is performing with a completely different mindset whilst questioning how it can be scaled up in management if I was still running my flock of sheep.

I'm not going to lie, but it has been an extremely difficult Spring and Summer so far due to not having the annual routines of feeding and seeing the new season ewes and lambs grazing in the fields of the family farm. It's almost felt like a ghost town on occasions with the sheds and fields being so empty and quiet. I still haven't found my new routine of what to do with myself on the dates that I would have been carrying out major sheep jobs such as weaning, weighing and shearing. I've also sadly lost my small, scruffy, brown, energetic gardening pal who always enjoyed this vegetable growing journey alongside me. That's a story for another day. But there was a comment left on my social media post for the 'End of an era' blog post story which has stuck with me following its publishment.

"I love your passion for the farm and the energy you always produce within. I'd recommend enjoying the Spring for a new reason, fresh new flowers, new greenery, the smells"

So that is what I am trying my best to do, with a little bit of inspirational help from Monty!

Plus, I've come to learn home grown vegetables taste a lot better than shop bought.

Until next time.

Hx