THE SEED OF AN IDEA
Digging For My Own Victory
After being diagnosed with ITP in 2006 and slowly coming to terms with it, one of the first things that I did, was spend some time re-evaluating my life.
The most important step I took, was sit down with a blank sheet of paper and write down everything that I wanted to do in the years ahead, as well as, all the things that I needed to change.
MAKING A LIST and CHECKING IT TWICE
At the top of my list of things that I wanted to do, was growing some of our own fruit and vegetables. This was not a new idea. The seed for it had been sown back in the 1960’s when I was a boy in short trousers, helping my Grandparents in their garden and allotment.
The idea had been buzzing around in my mind for ages, but work and other commitments as always, got in the way. Life always seems to happen when we are making other plans ! There was always something or someone else to pilfer my time and I had never got around to digging for my own victory.
In that strange Summer of 2006, I made a firm commitment to start growing our own food. It would be part of my recovery and survival plan. It took me a year or so thereafter to start but, since 2008 my wife and I have been growing some of our own produce. It has provided a wonderful antidote to my ITP.
Our garden has been a great way to reconnect with nature, enjoy some fresh air, and get some exercise. Plus we have had some great fresh food and hopefully done our bit for the environment. I have learned a great deal too, not least that the blackbirds are addicted to our raspberries and slugs find our kale irresistible.
It is often said that what is past is prologue and I certainly agree with that. In my case it took being diagnosed with ITP to recalibrate my life and then draw on some of my past to inspire me.
The seed of the idea of growing my own food, had been planted long ago by my Grandparents. That seed took an age to germinate but my ITP diagnosis spurred me to follow their example.
Welcome to our Garden - Clematis basking in the June Sunshine !
DIGGING FOR VICTORY
My Grandparents, like many thousands of other Britons, started growing their own food, in World War Two. They set about their garden with great gusto, plenty of enthusiasm and a modest amount of knowledge.
The Dig for Victory campaign introduced by the Government was the spur for so many at that time.
They soon learned and they ensured that I also caught the gardening bug.
In 2007 I discovered a book in our loft by A.G.L. Hellyer called Your Garden Week by Week. It was one that had been used by my Grandfather and he had obviously given it to me at some stage.
On discovering the book, I also found tucked inside the back cover, a seed catalogue dated 1959. The catalogue had a few hand written notes that my Grandfather had made next to items that he had ordered. It brought a tear to my eye just to see those scribbled annotations but it was beautifully serendipitous.
Sometimes, we all need something to refocus us along the way and I felt that my Grandfather was giving me a kind of gentle heavenly, nudge . It was to remind me that I should start to do the things that really mattered to me and help my long term health at the same time.
My maternal Grandparents have long since passed away but their influence is always with me. They were gardeners by necessity at first but then it became a passion once war had ended.
As for my paternal Grandparents, I remember as an infant at my first school in Bloomsbury, London when they would encourage me to grow in so many ways. Every child would be given some bulbs (Tulips or Daffodils) in Autumn and seeds (Candytuft or Nasturtium) in Spring. We would take them home, plant them, nurture them and I was ably assisted in bringing them to maturity by my paternal Grandparents.
I am so grateful for the wonderful examples that all of my Grandparents set me. We all need role models and good influences in our lives. Perhaps it is one of the missing ingredients in our society now !
FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL
I started to make plans, for our garden project in the Winter of 2007/8 and I have kept a garden journal ever since. I have recorded our plans, outcomes, successes, many failures and eaten some of the evidence. We have had numerous setbacks, lots of knocks, blisters and a few disasters. But it has been great fun and extremely rewarding.
The trouble with growing produce is that when you have anything remotely edible it attracts various interlopers wanting their ration too. So you have to combat the aphids, slugs, field mice, cabbage white butterflies, squirrels, hedgehogs, cats, birds and numerous plant diseases.
You will inevitably lose some of your crop. You can’t ward off all of the visitors, all of the time. As a gardener you are part of something much, much bigger and that is part of the joy and responsibility too.
We soon learned that our fruit and vegetables could be protected by netting but nature is often the best referee. Our resident hedgehog family and frogs from our neighbours pond clear up our slug problem and ladybirds reduce our aphid troubles. Nature has great ways, of helping you out, when it helps itself !
In our modest garden the most important lesson I have learned is to grow things that you really like and will actually eat. Also grow produce that you know does well in your garden. Learn from previous mistakes but don’t be afraid to have a go. The truth is that it is all an experiment so don’t stop being curious.
Our garden has been a wonderful distraction from my ITP over the last 19 years or so and it has had the added bonus of filling our plates, and our flower vases too. I can’t pretend that it has been free from a lot of hard work. But you have to remember that if you do nothing, then you get nothing !
Our little plot has continued to be a fantastic diversion and a useful supplementary source of fresh food. We are constantly reminded that our garden is not just our tiny patch of England, we share it with plenty of other visitors who help to make it our humble abode and their home too.
A few Raspberries for Breakfast - nothing better on a Summer morning. Sunshine in a basket !
MEMORIES OF THE WAY WE WERE
There are very few things more satisfying than getting up early on a Summer’s day and wandering around the garden before everything else stirs and seeing what is now ripe and ready to pick. This will dictate what the meals for today and the following few days might be. Now I can do what I once did as a young boy in my Grandparents garden and select fruit, vegetables and flowers as they become ready.
This is a lovely recollection of memories from my childhood when my Grandparents would send me out into their garden to pick what I felt was ready for them to prepare for our meals and flower vases. Off I would trot with a basket, a small spade and a pair of secateurs to trawl the garden for the richest pickings. Often I would get a few suggestions before I set off and obviously this was because my Grandfather knew what would be ready.
So I would return then and do now, to the kitchen half an hour or so later with , perhaps a few of radishes, lettuce, carrots, beetroots, potatoes, tomatoes, courgettes, runner beans, peas or broad beans depending on the month. The vegetables are supplemented by a few herbs like mint, basil, thyme, rosemary.
Then we would have a few dessert items too like raspberries, blackberries, loganberries or strawberries, pears or apples later on. The whole lot would be topped off, depending on the time of year with a few flowers like tulips, daffodils, roses, lily of the valley, carnations, peonies, poppies or sweet peas for the vases.
Wonderful memories of my childhood and family which when I replicate now take me back to another time and place. As just one example, when I smell the scent of our Lily of the Valley I can picture my Grandfather and Grandmother in their garden, picking a bunch of those delicate, little flowers in May. They were my Grandmother’s favourite flower.
Good times, lovely memories indeed !
SO WHY DIG THE DIRT ?
So what is it about gardening that helps so much ? Why dig the dirt ?
Growing some of my own fruit and vegetables provides me with better tasting food than anything that you can buy anywhere. If the items are picked when ready, in season and eaten fresh there is nothing better.
The sense of satisfaction that comes with growing something, from planting the seed, watering, feeding and nurturing it through to picking it when ready to be eaten with family and/or friends is one of the greatest pleasures.
I get much more from the garden than some food and flowers. I can feel my stresses lift when I am outside in the fresh air, connecting with the soil, engaging in the responsibility of helping nature. It gives me plenty of exercise and in the Summer months the important dose of Vitamin D .
Helping the environment is another huge benefit of growing our own produce. It gives me a real sense of satisfaction to know that we are eating only what is in season and not relying on products flown in from around the globe using valuable resources to do so.
The discipline required to implement a growing programme means that you spend time thinking about something that is going to be productive rather than mulling over other things, like my ITP, my next blood test, my platelet count and the many what if’s that our condition throws up.
Planning, planting and preparing is such an important part of working in the garden that it gets you focused on the future and not worrying too much about the immediate issues at hand. You are literally tending and planning your garden and your own future. The two things are completely interlinked.
Gardening to me is well being. We frequently use the phrases “being grounded” and “keeping your feet on the ground” to indicate that we are in touch with reality. As Monty Don says in his excellent book Down to Earth - “Grow good vegetables with honest hands, make a meal that is shared around a table, and you have the bedrock, the essence of well being”.
Finally and most importantly - gardening brings back memories of my parents and grandparents. The wonderful role models that they were, the lovely family times that we had sharing home grown food around the table groaning with produce picked directly from the garden.
FOREVER NOW
Something that I have tried to remind myself regularly is that none of us can do anything but live our lives for the NOW. We cannot change or erase what has already gone albeit we should, if we are wise , learn from the past and grow.
We cannot control tomorrow though we can plan for the future but still there are no certainties. So it really is so important to live for NOW. It is the only thing we can have any control over.
CAN YOU DIG IT ?
I soon concluded after my diagnosis that I did not just want to live with my ITP or just survive. I wanted to learn how to thrive with it and have a full, enjoyable and productive life despite it.
I would never stop being curious. I had to keep growing with my mystery illness for my own sake and for my wife and family too. My garden would be a huge part of that growth and it remains so to this day.
As a final thought one thing I always remember was a conversation I had with my haematologist in my early purple days.
I asked him - Can I go on holiday with my ITP ? His reply was - Yes, of course because you cannot go on holiday without it.
And that’s the thing, it’s always going to be a part of me but only a small part and life goes on.
So can you dig it ? Yes, you most certainly can.
Go and dig for your own victory.
FURTHER READING
Monty Don -
https://www.montydon.com
RHS - Royal Horticultural Society -
https://www.rhs.org.uk
BBC Gardener’s World Magazine -
https://www.gardenersworld.com
A G L Hellyer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Hellyer
The National Garden Scheme - Why is Gardening Good For Us ? - https://ngs.org.uk/health-benefits-of-gardens-and-gardening-a-neuroscientists-perspective/
BBC - How gardening can help you live better for longer - https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20250509-how-gardening-boosts-brain-health
RHS - Royal Horticultural Society - Why gardening makes us feel better - https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/health-and-wellbeing/articles/why-gardening-makes-us-feel-better