My mum usually does all the gardening on her own and my dad and I help a little bit. But this year it’s going to be different as we’re all at home a lot more than normal. My mum works full time normally and is away from home in her office, but she can’t do that now because of the Coronavirus, so she’s working from home. My dad works with mum but is also a professional musician and all of his gigs have been cancelled. I should be at school spending time with my friends or playing sports. I love cricket and I am missing the season. I’ve worked hard all winter to get into the A team, so I’m really sad about that. But I don’t mind being at home as we have a big garden with an orchard, fruit cage, veg beds, polytunnel and chickens. We also have lots of wildlife in the field including hares and deer. It’s very rural and I love it.

So, to help keep me fit and occupied (I’m still doing schoolwork in term time though) I’m going to help in the garden. When I was younger, I wrote labels, filled pots, sowed seeds and did some weeding but mostly I then played on my swings. Now I’m bigger and stronger, and taller than mum; I can do more.

To start with we had 37 grow bags delivered and 20 bags of compost. I wheelbarrowed them all from in front of the garage to the polytunnel, which is about 100 metres there and back. Each load I did about six grow bags, which was good exercise. The weather has been dry and sunny with a coldish wind but it’s great to be outside doing different types of activities for exercise. Before we did anything, we had to clear the polytunnel out and clean it with the jet wash to kill off any pests or diseases and to clear the plastic so the maximum amount of light can come in. Then dad and I put all the grow bags in place and put the irrigation pipes in. We put the compost bags stacked near mum’s potting station. It’s all ready now for us to start seed sowing and the grow bags are ready for planting up with the tomato, squash, courgette and cucumber plants we’ve bought. When we harvest our produce later in the year, dad likes to make soups, chutneys, jams and other things.

I’m lucky because I enjoy sowing, growing and cooking, although I’m only really learning, I think I know quite a lot already though. Next week I’ll tell you what we’re planning on growing this season.

Olivia