UK: Joy Larkcom – Britain’s ‘Queen of Vegetable Growing’ now 85
Joy’s writing is going to be archived in the Garden Museum in London.
By Colette Sheridan
Senior Times
July 23, 2021
Excerpt:
Joy says it is possible to grow decent vegetables and herbs even in small urban spaces. ‘I’m always interested in what you can do in difficult environments such as what’s called ‘cut-and-come-again’ growing. This means you can grow an awful lot in little spaces. So many things are being done in cities now with window boxes on balconies. You can also use allotments and spare spaces. There’s a big move towards that. I’ve travelled quite a lot in China and I’ve seen the balconies, or platforms really, that people build attached to their homes quite high up. They put soil in old bowls with holes in the bottom. It can be done.’
Concerned about climate change, Joy says she was writing about it twenty-five years ago. ‘I think at that point, we had no idea of how huge the potential damage was. As the situation got worse, I’ve just been feeling devastated at the lack of political will and people not taking it seriously. It’s such an important issue. I feel such despair.’
But that doesn’t stop Joy from doing her bit and advising people that we should all cut down on waste. ‘It’s really about taking a step back from the kind of luxuries we all now take for granted. This thing that you’ve got to have the best and the latest, having the heat on all the time rather than wearing heavy sweaters..I’m still old fashioned and frugal because I was brought up in war time.’
