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Tuesday 2 December 2008

Back to the soil

Ursula Buchan does a spot of gardening

I have waited several years for this moment — in fact, ever since the late 1990s upsurge in interest in gardening began to fade, the press stopped talking about it as the new sex, and the jeunesse d’orée turned their fickle gaze elsewhere. Now, as partygoers shade their hungover eyes from the glare of financial reality, and householders look in horror at their sky-rocketing bills, the talk is all of letting the holiday home, missing out on the cruise, keeping the old car going for another year, and ...and ...even growing some vegetables.

I am sorry that it has taken an economic downturn to turn some people back to the preoccupations of their parents, but you can see why this might give me a quiet satisfaction. For I have always believed that a growing acquaintance with the soil and its fruits has a beneficent effect, even on the most urbane of boulevardiers. What is more, too many people, put off by the cloth-cap and tannin-stained-mug image of vegetable gardening, have no idea that it is a great deal more fun — and easier — than it used to be. Both techniques and the vegetables themselves have improved markedly in recent years.

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