A year as a Garden Apprentice
Mandie Smith
As I embark on my second and final year of a Garden Apprenticeship at Plaw Hatch, I find myself reflecting on all that has happened since I began as a volunteer just weeks before our first Covid lockdown. After 4 years in London, I felt like the luckiest person in the world to have arrived at such an amazing community farm with such perfect timing! To be able to work each day out in nature, with my hands in the soil and around other people was the polar opposite of what many were experiencing at that time. Since then, I have seen a handful of wonderful volunteers come and (sometimes very sadly!) go, but with each new arrival I found that the knowledge I can pass on to them has grown as I have learned more and more from being in the garden.
With the seasons changing once again, I still walk the short walk to work each morning, past the milking herd in the parlour to the garden with all its vibrancy, and I smile at just how fortunate I am. The cucumbers and tomatoes have finally come to an end and the onions and garlic are drying out. The fun of harvesting potatoes is over for this year, and we are just finishing sorting and storing them for the winter ahead. The kales and chards are flourishing, but my favourite thing to harvest at the moment is still our courgettes! Whilst some of the plants have given all they can give, the ones that remain are still providing beautiful fruits. The piglets that were brought into the garden earlier this year are doing a fantastic job of devouring our green compost, churning the land, and providing wonderful fertilisation. They are located right next to the courgettes and often from their slumber they’ll abruptly rise at the sound of my wheelbarrow coming towards the bed of courgettes. They know! There is going to be a steady flow of sub-standard veg landing in their generously sized pen. As I launch the goodies, they’ll comically run with their ears flapping over their eyes to the source of the thud. Sometimes they find it immediately. Sometimes they miss what is right in front of them and then squabble with another pig who triumphed in the game of ‘thud-means-food’.
Back in the garden fields we have lost only a few crops to the incredible number of weeds that have challenged us over the summer, but many crops are doing well. In the polytunnels the short Indian summer in September has had the immediate effect of providing an abundance of beautiful peppers.
So, as we slow down in the garden with the change of season, I personally have a busy winter ahead with 6 weeks of seminars as part of the apprenticeship. I will be learning about animal husbandry, soil fertility, compost, biodynamic preparations, seeds, nutrition and food. With the ongoing support of my wonderful managers, Liz and Emma, I hope to enhance that learning and bring back a few ideas to share for the benefit of our lovely garden. And last, but not least, I am grateful for all the people who live on the farm with their dogs, ducks and chickens and those who come in each week to the dairy, shop and butchery, for creating such a magical, friendly place to live and work. Thank you all.
