With little publicity or fanfare, gardener Monty Don is proving the mental and physical benefits of gardening and hard work by helping a group of ex-offenders redefine themselves more positively.
A BBC news report, Digging out of drug abuse, says that two years into Monty’s pioneering project he and the ex-offenders are starting to see rewards.
The group is working a six-acre plot in Herefordshire, where they grow vegetable crops and rear poultry, sheep and pigs.
Monty is quoted as saying “This generation has been alienated from working on the land and the social, mental and physical well-being that comes from being in touch with it.
“It’s a long way from the deceit and self-loathing of drug addiction.”
It goes on to report Monty as saying: “You cannot cheat nature. You can’t lie to a pig that needs feeding or a plant that’s got to be grown. And if you produce good food, lovingly, with hard work, prepare it with care and share it with other people… the ritual of that gives self worth.”
That’s exactly why we do what we do up here. It’s extremely hard work and is very daunting at times, but the physical and mental rewards are enormous for us and for the people who are given or buy our surpluses.
It’s also why councils and governments should be preserving and expanding allotments and communal gardens around the country, not bulldozing them for Olympic villages, housing estates and industrial complexes.
The benefits would be immense as most people - not just ex-offenders - would not only feel better about themselves and each other, but could also make an impact on climate change by producing food for themselves and their neighbours instead of encouraging the global food industry that is so damaging to the environment.
I agree with the sentiments- the only way of stopping the concrete covering historic allotments is to encourage someone with the public front of Monty Don to lead a loud campaign which must embarrass the Government into changing its plans. The petition will do little with a driving force behind it.