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Wednesday Mar 24, 2010

Boldly going where no wheelbarrow has gone for a while

'This is a bicycle shop'. That was the puzzled response from the man behind the counter as I came in, knee-deep in wellies pushing a wheelbarrow, wearing gardening gloves. One thing it clearly wasn't, was a wheelbarrow shop. I'd arrived at the North London shop via Finsbury Park's most congested road looking like I belonged far, far away in the countryside. This was a high point of the weekend, and had me giggling like a child.

 

Working in community gardening projects, I have found to my amusement, often requires some imaginative thinking, and with a flat-tyred wheelbarrow and ten tonnes of soil to shift, there was only one option.

 

Two men had arrived shortly after we started ploughing into the improbable twin peaks of topsoil and dark, steaming (yes, hot and steaming) compost lying on the grass beside the children's nursery. These two brought fresh muscles and the wheelbarrow in question, but after several backbreaking barrowloads, driving the heavy earth up the plank ramp into the planters, enough was enough. After a few gentle pleas for anyone with a pump, I decided to put one of my special skills to use.

 

Heading from the safe confines of the park, I trundled out in mud-streaked jeans to the busy Saturday streets of Seven Sisters Road. I truly felt, passing the tube station and walking under the railway bridges amid the roar of noisy traffic that I had been transported inexplicably from a day on the farm straight into the heart of London.

 

Being a cyclist, and being woefully inadequate with any form of pump I have become expert at asking bicycle shops very nicely for all sorts of advice and use of their pumps, and to their credit they always come up trumps, and often do it for me if I do the job badly enough. Today, however, after some advice on the optimal tyre pressure for a wheelbarrow I took the barrow onto the street and carried out the operation myself.

 

To my surprise not only did the air go into the tyre, it stayed in there and I got it to the correct pressure, removing the pump to find everything was still in tact. Returning triumphantly along the busy streets we dug like crazy with a full complement of wheelbarrows.

Several hours later, exhausted and well into the drizzling afternoon we had filled eight large planters with soil and compost, and all the fruit shrubs and herbs were planted.

 

Standing back and admiring our work, the last few tired gardeners contempleted what they will look like as they grow, covering the fence, and sheilding the children from the distant but ever-present road. It is such an excellent, big space, tucked away in a corner of the park, shaded by huge London Planes with so much potential, it was really satisfying to nudge it from a two-dimensional grassy area to something which nurtures the growth of some beautiful, edible plants.

 

Hopefully generations of toddlers and their parents will be able to tend the trees and bushes as they grow, enjoying the fruit, and taking an important step to understanding their food and how easily they can grow it themselves.

Perhaps they'll even be driving their own wheelbarrows soon.

Posted by Laura ( 4:50 PM )
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