Politics and gardening

Garden by Emma Nagle (etcher) Flickr CCLPolitics and gardening don’t mix. You need to pay most attention to flowers and vegetables in March and April, when campaigning for the May elections fills your evenings. In June and July you should be watering your vegetables more evenings than not, instead of going out to parish council meetings or encouraging new members. Only in August, when it’s too late to do much more than harvest what came up nevertheless, can the activist give the garden or allotment the attention it needs.

Helen and I got our first garden, in Manchester, into pretty good shape in 1971-2, recovering from my first campaign as a parliamentary candidate and living in a city with at that time almost no visible Liberal activity. Then the Exchange by-election burst upon us. Ian Stuart, then chief shop steward at Heathrow and a skilled campaigner, took over our spare room (we had others sleeping on our dining and sitting room floors at times), looked out at our back garden, and remarked ‘It’s far too neat for an active Liberal’. Well, after Michael Steed’s close second place, Helen’s election as chair of the re-formed city party, and my agreement to become candidate for Moss Side, it was never neat again.

Yet plenty of active Liberal Democrats attempt to mix the two. Gardening is, after all, one of the most satisfying and relaxing hobbies, and eating your own produce on a table decorated with your own flowers is a real pleasure. I met Stewart Golton, now our Yorkshire regional chair, at the Leeds Allotment Association prize-giving some years ago – though I’ve never asked him how he manages to do the watering regularly. I find myself discussing gardening with activists in constituencies across the county. Earlier this summer David Ward ended an evening with us in Saltaire discussing the corrupt practices of Bradford politics by turning to the advantages of jostaberries over blackcurrant bushes, and Helen sent him home with a jar of jostaberry jam.

We are in the absurd position of having a garden in London and an allotment in Saltaire; keeping the weeds down and the produce picked and processed means a constant shuffle between the two. Being in government instead of semi-retirement for the last five years made it more of a stretch, though disappearing into the raspberries on a Sunday, with a brass band playing in the park across the river, became the most blissful switch-off from political stress. Distributing rhubarb along the government whips corridor in the Lords every Spring cheered up officials and colleagues, too.

You could say that gardening helps to keep us grounded? Saltaire Canalside Allotment Society is a wonderfully sociable group, a source of village and political gossip, and a mechanism for regular exchanges of surpluses. But if you’re looking to put your name down for an allotment plot, bear in mind that different societies have different authority structures. Ours is loosely progressive; we tolerate each other’s occasional weeds. One of our plotholders, now a gentle retired professor, was even a member of the Committee of 100 (do you know the history of CND?) in his youth. But some other societies are ruled with a rod of iron, with plots inspected for weeds and poor performers threatened with expulsion: authoritarian government at ground level. You can’t get away from politics entirely even when tilling the soil.

Photo by Emma Nagle (etcher) on Flickr CCL

* William Wallace is Liberal Democrat spokesman on constitutional issues in the Lords.

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12 Comments

  • Mavarine Du-Marie 15th Aug '15 - 1:31pm

    Lord William Wallace | Sat 15th August 2015 – 11:45 am -“looked out at our back garden, and remarked ‘It’s far too neat for an active Liberal’.”

    Belonging to the Libdems as a member and also beimg an active member and the Librarian for the Lambeth Horticultural Society (affliated to the RHS): http://www.lambethhorticulturalsociety.org.uk/

    I was thinking how I would fit everything into my pattern of life. Now after reading this, and the highlighted quote from the article, I will never feel so bad again looking at photos of my old garden (was nick-named by the locals as the ‘secret garden’ and now working on my new garden. They would be deemed by me to be work in progress than semi-neglected, more jungle than twee. And now I am feeling good to know that it’s in association with being a Liberal.

  • John Tilley 15th Aug '15 - 1:41pm

    Excellent article even though I disagree with the opening para. and premise.

    As a huge fan of Saltaire (tourist rather than resident) I can think of little in life that would be better than living there and being a regular at Saltaire’s Canalside Allotment Society.

    I know lots of Liberals who have successfully combined gardening and politics. Richard Wainwright had the national collection of Delphiniums; although I think this was started by his father.

    There is even a reference to gardening in ‘The Theory and Practice of Community Politics’.
    It notes that Gordon Lishman has two hobbies — writing constitutions and gardening. 🙂

  • Richard Underhill 15th Aug '15 - 7:17pm

    “Only in August, when it’s too late to do much more than harvest what came up nevertheless, can the activist give the garden or allotment the attention it needs.”
    We have a borough council by-elelction in Tunbridge Wells and would welcome one or more peers joining us.
    The UKIP candidate told The Times of Tunbridge Wells that he wants Labour or Liberal Democart to win. No Labour or Green candidate. Nominations have closed..
    Maidstone also have a by-election in Fant, both polling on 10 Septemebr 2015.

  • William Wallace 16th Aug '15 - 11:14am

    Iain BB. Helen has invited our b plot neighbours to share our greenhouse. That shares the watering, too. And, by the way, does anyone compost unused leaflets?

  • Richard Underhill 16th Aug '15 - 4:24pm

    William Wallace 16th Aug ’15 – 11:14am
    Unused leaflets could be shredded and used as a mulch after watering, not sure about the ink. Try the Henry Doubleday Research Association https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Doubleday_%281810%E2%80%931902%29

  • suzanne fletcher 16th Aug '15 - 7:48pm

    was hoping for some hints for July and August. now we are retired (from office anyway) we can go away after the elections for sun and relaxation (and sleep). so the sun comes out at home and dries everything up 🙁
    out neighbours did some watering for us this year, but they went away as well.
    we have had 3 tiny tomatoes, there are 6 beans growing, lots of sweetcorn with no sign of flowers and just 2 marrows the rest just not growing. thankful we don’t have to rely on our own produce to eat, and at elast the blackberries grow with out being looked after

  • Richard Underhill 17th Aug '15 - 2:02pm

    suzanne fletcher 16th Aug ’15 – 7:48pm
    Gardeners’ World is on the BBC TV I-player. Group pots together to make a mini-climate, etc.

  • Richard Underhill 17th Aug '15 - 2:04pm

    suzanne fletcher 16th Aug ’15 – 7:48pm Pick crops of fruit and flowers and give them away. Cut back the stems so that they grow while you are away and flower or fruit when you get back.

  • John Tilley 18th Aug '15 - 6:41am

    suzanne fletcher 16th Aug ’15 – 7:48pm
    “…..so the sun comes out at home and dries everything up ”

    Suzanne, the lesson is that politics and gardening can be combined. Holidays in July and August however should be avoided at all costs.
    My father always grumbled about holidays in August saying — ” I spend the whole bl@@dy year looking after the garden getting everything right and then we have to go on bl@@dy holiday leaving the garden when it is at its best and then come home when it is completely ruined.”. 🙂

  • Neil Sandison 18th Aug '15 - 8:57am

    Gardening and politics can mix if you take it out into your local community .For example edible gardens in areas of social inequality to help families get fresh fruit and veg on the table. wildlife gardens in that grot spot to encourage community ownership of a neglected patch .Healthy living walks , hedgerows and woodlands planted .Outdoor classrooms that encourage children to learn the sciences. even hanging baskets around your local shopping parade or retirement housing scheme .Plan now so that you can reap the rewards next spring.

  • Richard Underhill 19th Aug '15 - 9:24am

    Foodbanks are like old-fashioned shops. Although they give the food away, they only take in food which will keep. Therefore they do not accept fresh food, which is a pity. They also prefer to accept foods which they believe their clients will accept, which also reduces the range and they refuse tins of baked beans, because they have too many. The result is a poor diet.

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