This article was written in January 2019 and originally published by Huffington Post UK.

One of my new years resolutions is to become a better gardener. This includes houseplants, of which I currently only have four spider plants and a Christmas cactus – all the hardest plants to kill. If I could choose a universal resolution for the people of Britain in 2019 it would be to all become better gardeners – and in turn, get more grounded.

2019 may have only just begun, but chaos is already on the menu. With nobody seemingly having any clue what’s to come when it comes to Brexit – not even our own prime minister – fears over what lay ahead are all anyone can talk about. I am pretty sure at this point that many readers are getting rather bored of the Brexit chat – it is clear that the majority of Brits feel uncertainty, so what can we do to feel more grounded this year?

Step outside. Go on, I dare you.

It feels pretty good to feel the earth beneath your feet doesn’t it? There is a sense of freedom, like an energy force radiating right out from underneath your toes. Connecting with the outdoors has become a foreign task to many of us. We go from our car, to the office, to the lunch canteen, back to the office, back to the car and into our homes.

We have a bizarre fear of mud. It’s as if dirt isn’t the thing that we enjoyed playing with as kids, the thing that helped our bodies to grow a strong immunity to a world filled with man-made bugs. If you want a little perspective on what’s happening ‘out there’, the best place to start is right underneath your feet.

To add a little practicality into the mix here, one way to re-gain this connection - and get something pretty amazing out of it - is to start growing your own food. Amidst our daily indoor tasks, food shopping is high up on the list. The retail market value of supermarkets in the UK is £179billion per year. However, the thing about only buying your food in supermarkets is that you miss out on a huge variety of fruit and veg that doesn’t meet the very narrow criteria sold in large retail stores.

Did you know that there are actually hundreds of types of tomato; sweet corn is only one of four basic types of corn and that a courgette is actually a type of squash? Spend a day volunteering at your local community farm and I guarantee that you will come away awe-struck at how many vegetables you didn’t recognise that can be grown in the UK.

Growing your own food doesn’t have to be a laborious task - welcome to 2019, where you can speak into the air and an electronic box will play you your favourite song. There are countless ways to make food growing less complicated and you don’t even need to have a big garden to do it. Let’s be real, there’s probably an app for this. Start small, get some seeds and sow them in a tub on your windowsill – chillies are often a good one to start with. Move on to tomatoes, courgettes or salad. If you don’t have your own garden or growing space then look into food growing projects in your local area.

In the moments when it feels like uncertainty rules your life, take some time out to get grounded. Get your hands dirty, let soil plant itself in every crevice of your clothing and gain some perspective amidst all of the chaos.

Images and words: Rebecca Tyers
Originally published here.

This post was originally published by Huffington Post UK.

On the morning of my 24th birthday I put on a pair of old walking boots. They were the sturdy kind, the right level of ugly and perfectly durable. I had worn them every week throughout the summer; it had become a kind of ritual. I would wake up early and catch a train going south, while the rest of the house lay silent, the sun slowly rising over London in milky hues.

There are few things that could inspire me out of my slumber and into a day most likely spent on my hands and knees, ripping weeds from the corners of a poly tunnel, surrounded by frogs and spiders. I have always had an adventurous spirit, a desire for open spaces and moss-filled forests, yet I never saw myself wanting to become a farmer.

I can remember the first time I fell in love, and it wasn’t with a human being. It was early September, the sky was in the grip of a mood swing; the deep purple clouds hung low while the sun clung to their edges. I walked along a path that took me to where the squash had been growing all summer long, an array of shapes and textures. I began picking them, only able to carry two or three at once. Searching beneath the plants leaves to find squash of varying shapes, sizes and colours; the satisfying action of pulling them from their stems, watching the wheelbarrows fill up and up and up.

I felt strong. My tanned legs squatted to collect each squash, unperturbed by the scratches that they would receive, as I grazed the spiky edges of courgette leaves along the way. I felt alive, not because of the imminent rain or my rising heart rate, but because I felt empowered as a woman. No longer believing that I wasn’t strong enough, that the dirt beneath my fingernails signified anything but the work I had achieved. I had fallen in love with this feeling, this action of growing food and the empowerment it offered me. No longer believing that being a farmer had anything to do with my gender.

When I was a child I was not aware that growing food could be a career choice, or that female farmers even existed. My mother was the only example I had of a woman who was unafraid of getting dirty, who never questioned her own strength. I saw women on TV with slender figures in tight dresses, standing back as their men spoke for them. Any woman I saw growing food in the media was wearing a sun hat and doing the ‘light jobs’. No one ever seemed to question the fact that farming was seen as a ‘man’s role’, too hard and heavy for a woman.

Thankfully, for women growing up in 2018 strong female role models are in no short supply. Women who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, who are marching out on to centre stage and offering no apology for being strong and sweating over what they love. Farming taught me how to be one of those women, to take ownership of the space I take up in this world and the dreams I have to change it.

As women from all walks of life claim the equal space in society that we have been owed for centuries, it is time for us, both men and women, to let go of old ideals. We can be dirty, we can be strong, we can get stuck in and pull our weight. We do not need permission to take up space in hobbies or professions that we feel passionate about. There is no job that is only fit for a man, a truth that many women are proving time and time again.

Words: Rebecca Tyers
Originally published here.

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