Garden Organic, the UK’s leading organic growing charity, are great believers in allotments. They provide advice to growers and there are mentors. One, Mahesh, has a project in Suffolk called Grow Your Own’ that has 50 growers. Here is the story of one of them.

Victoria lives in a sheltered housing complex without any gardening space. She is a pensioner, with a very small, private income. For Victoria, allotment sites seemed too daunting as she had no car to transfer tools ñ had she had any ñ and the sites she saw were huge with weeds waist high. Mahesh gave Victoria tools, seeds and a small piece of land measuring one by three metres.

‘I took on an adjacent strip and then another. It was so easy with Mahesh’s help,’ Victoria said. ‘I used to try to buy organic vegetables but on a limited budget I can’t afford to do that. Now I don’t buy any vegetables at all because I can eat what I’m growing and what others grow and share with me. Financially this is a Godsend. It makes good sense and is a part of sustainable living as well.’ Victoria has recently trained as a mentor and helps Mahesh with further growers on the estate.

Mahesh’s project has developed to become part of a bigger organisation, the Sustainable Living Initiative. This aims to help people have a better understanding of the relationship between production and consumption.

Contact: Garden Organic Ryton,
Coventry, Warwickshire, CV8 3LG
Tel: +44 (0) 24 7630 3517
Website: www​.gardenorganic​.org​.uk

Mahesh Pant of Garden Organic
Photo: © Garden Organic