The allotment became my thinking space

For Emily Jarvis (@emandpaulsallotment), her biggest inspiration when it comes to gardening, is her dad who first instilled the love of gardening in her, and she now loves re-creating all her childhood memories of her time in the garden with her partner and children. In this blog post, Emily, CoirProducts Featured Grower this week, shares with us her gardening journey. She tells us what she loves to grow, what some of her gardening successes are, and the wider benefits of gardening. Given her own work as a trained mental health nurse with the NHS, Emily reflects on how much she values gardening in improving her own health and wellbeing. Read on to learn all about Emily’s gardening journey.

How and when did you start gardening/growing? 

I started growing as a child with my dad or pops as he is affectionately known. We created a kitchen garden in raised beds in our garden at home, and as the eldest of six siblings I was the one who enjoyed helping with this. The taste of produce from your own growing space out does the supermarket experience for me. Later on, I attended an allotment open day with my little girl Isla who was 3 at the time and I was just turning 30 and I signed up for our very own plot, and now I get to re-create all the memories I had as a child with Isla who is 9, my step children Alfie and Maddi and my partner Paul.

How has your garden changed since you first started growing? 

When I first took on the allotment it was all bare ground and at times it seemed a little overwhelming, particularly juggling working full-time, being a mum and juggling life. Over time, we moved to raised beds and bark paths, which made keeping on top of things much easier. We adapted our approach to suit us as a family. Through the lockdown and the pandemic this space was really important to us as a family, particularly given that myself and my partner were working throughout in the NHS in frontline services.