by Helen Westwood

B EFORE BREXIT we took the decision to convert our modest Scottish garden to food production, armed with just basic gardening experience. We hoped this would buffer us from some of the shortages and price hikes we might experience post Brexit and liked the idea of growing our own fresh fruit and veg. It also feels good to live a more sustainable way of life. So, we built a green house and couple of raised beds to get us going and soon we were living “The Good Life”.

Full of enthusiasm, I persuaded my husband to drive me and my trusty wheelbarrow to the local stables where the owners had agreed to give me some free horse manure. The best stuff is over a year old and nicely matured like a good bottle of red. I was soon happily shoveling my free dung into bags, feeling smug I’d got some free compost. The plants absolutely thrived that year because we had the soil of the century…. but we never did get the manure smell completely out of my husband’s car! A year later we dug up half the lawn, built 3 more raised beds and filled our patio with troughs and tubs full of plants. As the plot thickened, we were soon enjoying vegetables galore.

While the full impact of Brexit didn’t happen straight away, when the Pandemic hit, we were so glad we had a productive garden to keep us in fresh vegetables without ever having to leave the house. However, the benefit of growing your own produce stretches far wider than this. We discovered that spending time outdoors with nature has a positive impact on mental health and gardening keeps you fit. We needn’t have worried about cancelling our gym memberships in lockdown as digging up potatoes and picking beans is flipping hard work. Muscles ached which I never knew I had, and you should see the size of my biceps. Quite honestly, I think our garden saved our sanity when the World appeared to be falling apart around us. While pulling up my carrots I kept thinking, “Keep Calm and Carrot on”!