Tales from Titchmarsh

With rising fuel prices, the need to be more self sufficient is clear, but wind farms and solar panels risk destroying our landscape, says Alan

A cynic, we were told by Oscar

Wilde, is someone who knows the price of ever ything and the value of nothing. It is something I find myself musing upon with increasing regularity, especially when it comes to the countr yside that surrounds us.

As gardeners, aside from growing our own food, our main aim is to beautify our own patch of the landscape. It is something for which we are often given little credit. Granted, events over the past couple of years have brought most people into closer contact with that patch of earth outside their back door, mainly because for a considerable time they were allowed limited access to spaces further afield. The scales fell away from the eyes of those who had hitherto overlooked the potential of a seemingly modest plot. With a warm, dr y spring in 2020 it offered a respite from the worries and woes of the world; its benefits on mental health were tangible. To sit among flowers, to watch butterflies, birds and bees, helped preserve a sense of proportion and perspective that was often elusive on city streets and in the centre of town.

Then came the relaxation of lockdown and the resumption of a relatively normal way of life. We were

We cannot witter on about the importance of mental health and nature conservation while being totally cavalier about a landscape that plays a huge part in preserving our sanity and ensuring natural biodiversity

allowed, once more, to appreciate the delights of the wider landscape – the ver y reason why many of us love living in this small pattern of islands on the shoulder of the globe. To walk the hills and dales, to dawdle along the banks of the river and watch the wildlife in hedgerow and woodland is a priceless gift that is free to all who care to avail themselves of it.

But life is real and life is earnest, and other preoccupations now begin to cloud the issue: Our fuel bills are soaring; having ‘gone it alone’ post-Brexit we must adjust the way we manage our land and our resources; with conflict in Europe there is a chance that imports of ever ything from gas to grain will be adversely affected. The need to become more self-sufficient is imperative, but at what cost?

Sustainability is the Holy Grail of energ y supplies. I am no expert when it comes to the pros and cons of nuclear energ y, North Sea oil and gas, wood-burning stoves and the need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, though it is obvious to most of us that the latter is certainly something we should be aiming for. And the sustainable alternatives? They are glaringly obvious: wind, wave and solar power. In themselves they are sensible ways of harnessing the power of nature. But if in our methods of deploying them we destroy the ver y thing we are tr ying to protect – the countr yside – then what on earth is the point? If areas of outstanding natural beauty – from Caithness to Cornwall – are to be covered in solar panels, what do we gain in the long run? Valuable farmland should be producing the food we need to replace the imports upon which we used to rely, not covered in photovoltaic cells made of silicon conductors. And yet, rolling field after rolling field of these Darth Vaders of the countr yside are springing up all across the land.

Make no mistake, I am not against wind farms and solar power – far from it. But consideration must be given to their placement. Farmland that is capable of producing food should be used to do so. A landscape that can raise our spirits and feed our souls as well as supporting our native wildlife should not be regarded as inconsequential. We cannot witter on about the importance of mental health and nature conservation while being totally cavalier about a landscape that plays a huge part in preserving our sanity and ensuring natural biodiversity. There are brownfield sites where solar panels will be just as effective at harnessing the power of the sun than in part of the countr yside that sustains us in other ways. There are offshore sites where wind farms can be even more effective than they are on land.

I do not offer myself as being in any way qualified to adjudicate on all these matters. I simply ask that in the quest for more sustainable energ y supplies we have the good sense not to squander the beauty of the earth for the convenience of our home comforts.