Lament for gardens
lost
No
digging for potatoes, no stringing of the beans,
No
more hoeing between the rows of winter greens.
Vegetable
gardening today has lost its peaceful appeal
As
many other pursuits, our precious time try to steal.
The
gardens those past generations lovingly did tend,
Now
find their vegetable growing days are coming to an end,
As
gardeners find bricks and mortar are better crops to sow
The
produce quickly helping their bank balances to grow.
Allotments
that in the past helped feed the nation
Are
disappearing under urban regeneration
Replaced
by densely built houses, lacking spaces green
Bringing for the planners, problems as yet
unseen.
Lawns
for block-paving are being changed
The
bricks into patterns skilfully arranged.
Little
thought being given to heavy down-pours of rain
Or
into where the excess water is going to drain.
What
is the future for this once green and pleasant land?
Will
houses and gardens ever again stand hand in hand?
Or
will the concrete and brick jungles continue to grow?
Leaving no-where for our children, their
vegetable seeds to sow.
Geoffrey W. Brown.
...Responses to conservation issues
