Extra Thread – Girrick Gardener 1

We are now in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic but before it started spreading out from China I found myself wondering about food security. It was February, I was on a train headed south and using the opportunity to write a short story for a competition. https://www.cymerafestival.co.uk/short-fiction-competition

The remit was to imagine Scotland in 2030. I had three false starts before finding what I wanted to write. It is a serious story but written in a comic way. You can read it here:

I found myself writing about a micro community that was growing food and I named it after my own home. That got me thinking and when I got back to Scotland I decided to begin what I’d been writing about and see what happens….

I have a garden full of flowers and vegetable beds and trees and a pond. There’s really no more room for food growing BUT several of my neighbours don’t use their gardens ……

So…….

I went to see one of them and the people he rents from. I explained my worry about food shortages in the future …

And ….

They were very happy to allow me to plant vegetables. They haven’t read my story yet but maybe they’ll read it here.