Success sprouts from Tyrone photographer’s seeds of hope, two weeks after he dug up his front lawn to grow vegetables
A CO Tyrone man who turned his hand to growing vegetables in his front garden during lockdown is seeing some green shoots of hope.
Jim Kerr (61) had been left wondering what to do with himself after coronavirus stalled his photography and drone business.
But rather than wallow in selfpity, the father-of-three set about transforming his lawn.
Several weeks on, his crop is starting to appear through the ground.
As all three of his daughters are key workers, Jim said that gardening has also acted as a form of therapy for him.
“It’s good to have something to be able to do and look forward to every day,” he said.
“It also makes you feel very thankful for where you live and where you are and what you’re doing when other people are doing stuff to look after you.
“Obviously the fact that my own daughters are key workers too focuses my mind a lot more as well.”
The whole project involved digging deep into the recesses of his memory because as a boy his father taught him how to prepare ground for growing crops.
Even though that was over 45 years ago, Dungannon native Jim was delighted to find his green fingers had not deserted him.
“I haven’t gardened or planted a vegetable in 45 years so I was going on memory,” he explained.
Having spent the last two weeks of isolation transforming his front garden to grow a selection of vegetables, including parsnips, peas and potatoes, he is starting to see small shoots of growth.
He has also captured the entire process on film using his drone — principally for his daughters to see it all evolve.
His eldest child Anne (33) is a retail worker, while Kathyrn (29) and Helen (26) are both doctors who, until recently, were based in different Covid-19 wards.
Jim’s wife of 37 years, Majella, died in January 2018, aged 58, after a battle with breast cancer.
“Death was very rapid after her diagnosis,” he said.
“It’s nearly two-and-a-half years since she died and I’ve been adjusting to life since that.”
Jim, who is a licensed drone pilot operator, said half his income “comes from flying drones” and “the rest from doing social and corporate video or photography”.
“My sources of income went to zero quite literally overnight once the lockdown went into force because business completely evaporated,” he explained.
Living in the country with his eldest daughter, the Tyrone man is also a part-time carer for his mother Isobel (87), who has dementia and is in sheltered accommodation, so he said it was extremely important for him to self-isolate.
“I was looking at several months of being at home with no work and that’s when I thought I’d have a stab at digging up the lawn at the front of the house,” he said. “I started to film it in order to show the whole process to my two daughters who don’t live at home and weren’t going to be able to see this.
“It took 11 days to actually dig it all by spade to get the nine ridges made.
“There were nine ridges, or lazy beds, so I decided to name each ridge after people I know and I asked each of them to choose the vegetable they wanted me to grow.
“I give them updates so it’s as if they have a virtual garden.
“And when the vegetables mature, with a bit of luck, they’ll be able to come and harvest their vegetables in the garden.”
Jim said he began digging the garden in the last week of March.
He added that the first seeds were sown on April 15, while the remainder were planted during the last week of that month.
“Almost everything has appeared up through the ground now,” he said.
His crop includes parsnips, spring cabbages, peas, beetroot, carrots, potatoes and lettuce.
Jim said he is grateful he lives in a house in the country, which means he has space to focus on his “rewarding” project.
Although Jim has never experienced any mental health issues or depression, he added of his new endeavour: “It has given me a kind of calmness.”
He revealed his late wife, “who lived with arthritis her entire life before she had cancer”, had eight major operations which helped the family become a “very strong unit” to support each other.
“When you’ve faced adversity like that I think it helps to make you a stronger person, so Covid coming along hasn’t derailed me because of what happened to Majella,” he added.