Gardening

Launched on 22nd April 1970, Earth Day is an annual global call to arms to save our planet. With a focus on education, the day aims to raise awareness of the problems facing our world and what we can do about them. When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, it was a watershed moment for the modern environmental movement. Before that, there was a distinct lack of interest and engagement with the reality of pollution and how it was harming our planet, as massive industry enjoyed the spoils of success.

Spring is a great time to get little ones enthused about gardening. There’s something so magical about the first shoots peeping out of the soil and then steadily growing into a healthy plant. Gardening offers education in all areas of the curriculum, from measuring seed spacing and counting seeds (maths), to assessing growing conditions (science), to reading the seed packets and writing labels (English), to finding out about traditional crops that grow well in your area (History), to sketching out a map of your plot on graph paper (Geography). Throw in a bit of Latin for the plant names and you really have a complete educational experience! National Gardening Week takes place from 13-19th April.

You walk past the same patch of wasteland every morning. Your kids always comment on it, how empty and barren it looks. Broken supermarket trolleys, carrier bags, scratchy bare earth and rubble can all be glimpsed through a wire fence. Several rows of houses back onto the wasteland and many people see this barren landscape from their windows, not to mention all of the people who walk and drive past it every day. Rumours indicate that the area is to be the site of a new block of flats, or a mini supermarket, but years have gone by and nothing has happened.

This year marks the 20th National Potato Day and what better way to celebrate the fourth most important world food crop? The potato originated in the Andes, in high elevation zones. When it made its way to Europe in the 1500s, it was considered a food for the lower classes. An anti-famine crop, it was recognised as a nutritious food for the poor.

Flowers are probably our most common default present - in the UK we spend £2.2 billion on cut flowers every year. A nice bunch for your mother-in-law to say happy birthday. A get-well gift for an ailing auntie. A token of love for your partner. Even a treat for yourself to brighten up the house after a long week at work. Flowers lift our spirits and speak words of condolence, comfort, celebration and love. And yet, our addiction to cut flowers is a bit of an ethical nightmare.

May is officially asparagus season in Britain. Crunchy and fresh, asparagus is one of our most delicious vegetables, well worth the wait until spring. It’s also a vegetable that dehydrates quite quickly – hence those stringy, bitter asparagus tips in the supermarkets all year round, flown in from South America and Spain. British asparagus is surprisingly juicy and the flavour unique. From the lily family, alongside onions and leeks, asparagus has a bud-like head and a long stalk, both of which are edible.

Whether you’re a Christian who celebrates the resurrection of Christ, a Pagan who celebrates the goddess Eostre and her hare, or simply someone who loves nature, there’s plenty to get excited about at this time of year. Kids are off school and a lot of adults get the Easter weekend off so there’s an opportunity for quality family time. All of the symbolism connected with Easter celebrates new life: eggs, baby bunnies, and lambs to name but a few. Hedgerows are bursting with life, birdsong is in the air, the fields and woods are full of young animals and it feels as if anything is possible.

There’s no doubt about it, the Brits are a nation of garden lovers. We now even have a national week dedicated to our beloved pastime – National Gardening Week http://www.nationalgardeningweek.org.uk/ – which runs annually from 14th to 20th April. Whether you have acres of land or simply a few flower pots on a windowsill, gardening is accessible to all. This time of year is filled with excitement as little seedlings begin to appear and we start to celebrate the arrival of spring. Some cultures mark this time of year as the beginning of a new year and it is easy to see why. After the dark months of winter, the earth is waking up and life springs anew.

7th April is World Health Day, and also celebrates the founding of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Since 1950, this day highlights an area of concern for WHO, calling for education and awareness on a worldwide scale. This year’s World Health Day focuses on vectors - organisms that transmit infections from one host to another – with the emphasis on ticks, mosquitoes and other bugs such as sandflies. Though we are fortunate in the UK not to have to worry too much about diseases transmitted by these creatures, for some countries they pose serious risks to the nation’s health.

Spring heralds a time of change. In the world around us, we see the wheel of the year continue on its cycle and enter a new phase and, whether we like it or not, we’re going along for the ride! Sometimes it can feel like we need just a few more winter weeks to really gather our thoughts and ideas before we bring them into the light. But spring comes leaping and bouncing into our lives with the energy of the lambs, and demands that we shake off the cobwebs and dance into the warmer, brighter days.