Foodie thoughts

GROW TO BE A BETTER YOU

The healing benefits of gardening are well documented. “In 40 years of medical practice,” the neurologist Oliver Sacks wrote, “I have found only two types of non-pharmaceutical therapy to be vitally important for patients: music and gardens.”

Perhaps the patron saint of modern gardening is artist and LGBT activist Derek Jarman. In 1989, shortly after his HIV diagnosis, he left London for a simple life on the shingled shores of Kent. He took up residence in a former fisherman’s hut on the beach by the nuclear power plant at Dungeness, a newly designated conservation area. He named it Prospect Cottage and set about making a garden, which sustained his mental health until his death in 1994.

Tom and Barbara saw the appeal too. Applications for council-run allotments have soared during the pandemic – despite 18-month waiting lists – as folk seek to embrace the good life and grow their own fruit and vegetables.

The National Allotment Society says 40 per cent of councils reported a “significant uplift” in applications to join waiting lists, with a 300 per cent increase in one case – Hyndburn in Lancashire.

During the Second World War and the “Dig for Victory” campaign, 18 per cent of UK fruit and vegetables were grown in gardens and allotments, dropping to 3 per cent in 2017-18.

There are an estimated 330,000 allotments in England, most the responsibility of local councils, while the National Trust also has many sites.

John Hamlyn has an allotment on a hillside in the fishing village of Staithes, growing rhubarb, broccoli, beans, kale and tomatoes alongside herbs and fruit and is more or less self sufficient.

He said: “Particularly during the pandemic, my time up here has become more precious and beneficial. Being in touch with nature has been a huge deal.”