It might seem an odd time to start a gardening blog. Its late September in Shetland. The days are noticeably shorter, the weather is beginning to turn, and the garden is moving towards winter. But there is still plenty growing.
At the moment, I don’t have a greenhouse, polytunnel, polycrub or any other covered growing space. I have actually only had my current garden for five months so its a new space. The goal is to get a undercover space this winter but for now my garden is all outside and exposed to the Shetland weather.
There is still plenty growing, peas, cabbages, kale, leeks, herbs and the usual collection of hardy plants that seem quite content to carry on regardless of what the weather is doing.
This feels significant to me.
We often think about food security in terms of large scale agriculture, supply chains and global markets. but on an island, resilience can also beging at a much smaller scale : knowing what will grow, saving seed, keeping productive ground, learning how to preserve a harvest and maintaining the skills to produce at least some of what we eat.
Shetland has always had to think carefully about what it can produce locally and what has to come from elsewhere. That matters more in a world facing changing climate, economic uncertainty and geopolitical instability . Long supply chains can be efficient, exposed when something goes wrong.
I’m not suggesting that a few vegetable beds can solve those problems but resilience is rarely about one big solution. It is about having options, retaining knowledge and reducing unnecessary dependence where we can.
Growing with what we have
Shetland has a reputation for being a difficult place to garden, and it certainly has its challenges. The wind, cool temperatures and short growing season means you have to work with the conditions rather than ignore them. The wind can be relentless but the assumption that little can be grown here dosen’t match what I see in my garden.
In fact , quite alot can grow outside. Shetlanders have always had vegetable gardens long before tesco delivered here and polytunnels we invented. The traditional vegetables thrive here in the long summer light and mild temperatures – leeks , tatties, kale and cabbage grow very well and rhubarb is a Shetland staple.
Im interested in growing food here, not just as a hobby but in the wider question of how resilient island food production can be. Shetland is naturally dependent on supplies coming from elsewhere, and that dependence becomes more interesting in a world of changing climate, rising costs and increasingly uncertain global supply chains.
There is a long history of people here making the most of what the islands could produce. Im interested in what we can learn from that, while also looking at what modern growing methods can add. There is plenty to learn from the past and experiment with for the future, as climate change is already changing our weather so our crops will need to adapt.
For now, though, im starting with what is already in the ground.
Perhaps late September isin’t such a bad time to begin after all.
shetlandgrown 
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