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.