A challenging farm

I have just been watching Monty Don help a young couple in Wales get their smallholding into action. They had two fields of rich grass and no animals or crops on them. One of the main problems was the husband's bi-polar disorder. His Zimbabwean-Welsh wife held things together. She worked three shifts a week as a nurse in a local hospital which brought in hard cash which they desperately needed. He had a demolition firm about which little was said. He did have several trucks and a JCB. All he could think about was building a large barn in one of their fields towards which he had a huge pile of rubble and another of what looked like second-hand floorboards. And nothing on the fields. Monty Don said they should cut the top field for hay when it was ready and then get some pigs in to clear an overgrown area which the husband wanted to get his digger into. He was taken to look at some cattle for stocking the lower field and also some pigs for the overgrown area.

But his bi-polar disorder got in the way. He found it very difficult to cope with it as well as committing to buying animals to stock the fields. He was really pleased when he got a contractor in to cut his hay. He stored some of it in a barn and the rest under a large tarpaulin in the field. So the field was producing money for him, at about £20 - 30 per bale if he wanted to sell it. This was a major step forward for him. In the end he bought four black pigs. Instead of putting them up in the overgrown area, he penned them beside their house. Perhaps he felt unsure about the safety of the animals when they were out of his sight. Mental illness can do that to you. After a few weeks he moved them up into his top field, but decided to keep them in an electric-fenced pen. He and Monty Don looked at the state of the pen after the pigs had been in it for a day and saw what a mess they had made of the grass.   The husband didn't react to Monty's suggestion that they might be better off in the overgrown area.  I think he had taken an important step for him. He had moved the pigs half way between the home pen and the overgrown area. He needed time and space to make important decisions. If he didn't have this space around him, he probably couldn't have thought constructively.

I know how he feels. I have PTSD which is more or less under control. But even now I need time and space to think about things before I can really make a decision. Any form of pressure, however well meant, is likely to scramble my brain so badly that I can't think. And there certainly was a stage in the programme when the husband had the pigs up in the overgrown area but felt absolutely nothing for them or the fact that he had all that hay in the barn. Monty Don didn't pressure him and over the next two months things were transformed. He let one field to another farmer to graze his sheep on, which produced regular income. And he bought some cattle to put in the top field. And he felt really positive about the farm with the animals. But there is always the risk that his bi-polar disorder might strike and turn things negative again. This puts a great strain on his wonderful wife and 2-year old daughter.

His wife wanted to grow fruit trees and turn their product into jams and chutneys. She remembered helping her grandmother in Zimbabwe doing just that. Monty Don showed her how there were all sorts of fruits and crops growing where she could gather them for free. Then he set her a challenge to display her wares at an important local food festival. She worked out her recipes and made jam and chutney and bottled them in quite a large quantity. Her labels were something to write home about. And they sold pretty well at the festival and people in the vicinity kept on asking her for jars. So her project was a success. Unfortunately, she became pregnant and felt that it might be better to hold off from the project for the time being. She knows that she produces a high quality product which people will buy. Her business could grow. At the end of the programme Monty Don and her husband planted a single pear tree as the first in her orchard of trees.

I thought this a was a really important programme not just because it was about helping an inexperienced couple set up a small farm, but it was as much about helping someone cope with mental illness. That last aspect was especially important for me. Well done, Monty Don.