Grow Your Own

Percy was going down the allotments, he loved his patch of ground on which he grew all sorts of vegetables and fruit. It was his pride and joy. He had started it when his children were small and money was tight and the cabbages, carrots and potatoes made up a large part of their everyday meals.  His wife Molly was a good cook and she  made marvellous meals out of the produce, but they gave lots away too to family, friends and neighbours.

His wife was gone now, she passed away five years ago and he still missed her. His allotment had been a source of comfort to him as he went almost every day and it kept him going. In fact, he didnt know what he would do without it, even though his knees were getting stiff and he sometimes had a job to bend down.

His grandson Jack had developed his love of growing things and when he was little, Percy had given him his own small patch of ground and taught him to grow things from seed. Jack soon got the hang of it and Percy was so proud of him. Now Jack was almost as good as Percy and as he was now fifteen, he had long ago graduated from his little bit of ground to helping Percy on his patch, in fact if Percy was under the weather Jack would take over after school and do what ever was needed.

One day there were rumours that a supermarket was going to be built and they would be taking over the ground that the allotments were on. There was uproar amongst the owners of the allotments and they decided to get a petition up, although they didn’t hold up much hope of it doing any good, as the big companies are used to getting their own way. Percy held a meeting,as he had been an allotment owner the longest and to his surprise, over a hundred people turned up, not just the other owners but family and friends too and lots of people who had shared in the produce for many years and wanted to support Percy and the others and their local community.

Percy was deeply touched and thanked everyone for coming. They drew up a plan of what to present at the next council meeting, as their local councillor was there in support too. They said they wouldnt let anything stand in their way, even if it meant staging a sit-in. The case was presented to the council and they were sympathetic and said they would look into it. Everybody was waiting anxiously to see what the council would do, when the matter was taken out of their hands. The supermarket chain had done some investigating and found out about the allotments and didn’t think it would do their reputation any good to destroy all the work the people had done over the years, not too mention the community spirit that existed amongst the people, both allotment holders and friends and neighbours, so they decided to pull out. The good thing was, even more people got interested in growing their own and more allotments sprung up around the existing ones, which made Percy, Jack and all the others very happy.

Percy had a new zest for life, he felt he had been a small part of something big and was so glad he had started his “little patch”all those years ago. As he said to Jack,”thats one up for the small people and one in the eye for the ‘big’ones.”

Written by :  Jean Leyshon