A Deptford family is set to lose the allotment she tended to for nearly 20 years prior to her death in January.
Danielle Russell is fighting to honour her mother Flora Russell’s dying wish and protect a vital lifeline for her nine-year-old autistic son, Rico, who has been at the allotment since he was a newborn.
She has launched a petition after being told she could not continue paying rent on the plot following her mother’s death.
Russell said: “The loss of my mum has hit him really badly.
“He was refusing to go out of the house but he was saying, ‘okay, I’ll go to the allotment’.
“Although it may just be an allotment for somebody, it’s more than an allotment to the family.”
The family has until next January before the allotment goes to the next person on the waiting list.
Before Flora died, she asked her daughter to make sure Rico continued to go to the allotment.
Rico, who has autism and ADHD, is currently unable to be in school and Russell believes the allotment has served as a form of education for her son.
From the moment he was born, he was at the allotment with his grandmother, and his favourite vegetables grown there are carrots and green peas.
She said: “I don’t necessarily know what his future is going to look like because they can’t manage his needs in education, so this is a life skill.
“He may work with fruit and vegetables, he may grow his own thing, he may do gardening.”
Russell has amassed more than 1,300 signatures on her petition to save the allotment, a cause she says will benefit not just their family but the community, and keep the culture of sharing alive in their neighbourhood.
She said: “I think there should be an option and it shouldn’t just be disregarded and given to strangers when we are still local to the community as well.”
Flora Russell was a Deptford resident for over 50 years and was known for her generosity in the community.
Pepys Pharmacy’s Toseef Akhter said: “She was a lovely lady, she would often actually bring in vegetables that she grew in her allotment and give them to the staff.
“She was, overall, very kind, she was a very nice lady and very respectful of everyone here. I know she also did the same for a lot of other people.”
Akhter said Rico and his grandmother were very close and Russell should be able to keep the allotment, which he could see was very important for the youngster.
He said: “That seemed to benefit him quite a lot. I could see a difference in how he was growing up, and he was very calm, and I think he found it to be a place of sanctuary.”
Danielle is the youngest of Flora’s nine children, while she also had 22 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren, many of whom still live in the area.
She explained her mother was always out and about in her community, and everyone knew her for her fruit and vegetables.
Russell said: “She’d share them out. Everybody in the post office, the sweet shop, the pharmacy, the caretakers, neighbours, family, everyone sort of just knew her for this allotment.
“It’s also comforting because it is still a part of her, like the trees that she’s planting, they’re going to live on.
“She purchased that shed, she put the pictures up in the shed, that was like her second little home.
“She’d either be at home or at the allotment.”
She added the space was a learning tool for her son.
Russell said: “I think for somebody with SEN (special educational needs), there is not a lot for people, definitely not with children of SEN.
“The battle that I have as a parent of an SEN child is really, really hard.
“I’m battling to get him in any form of education right now.”
A spokesperson from Ambitious About Autism, a UK charity for autistic children, said: “Horticulture and gardening have a number of benefits for autistic people, helping to improve both their physical and mental wellbeing and develop important skills which can be used in their daily lives.
“It is well recognised that there are therapeutic benefits to being outside in nature, and this is something autistic people can really benefit from.”
When Russell told the allotment company her mother had died, she had assumed she could continue paying the rent herself.
Russell said: “They said, ‘you can only have it for a year’ and I said, ‘oh, no, it was her dying wish’.
“Which I also think would be even more traumatising, really, because it’s going to come up to the one year anniversary and then it’s like, oh, we’re now gonna have to give up the allotment.”
Russell reached out to Lewisham Council for help, and Councillors Will Cooper and Rudi Schmidt have since spoken with the allotment team to review her case.
Cooper said: “It appears that her mum did a lot of good work in the community and did a lot of work around feeding people and things like that from the allotment.”
However, Russell received a response from green space contract officer Peter Maynard to say it could not be inherited.
Maynard said: “This policy is in place to ensure that all individuals have a fair opportunity to access these valuable community resources.
“The demand for allotments in London is exceptionally high, and we have many individuals on our waiting list eager for the chance to cultivate their own plots.”
Anyone who wants to view the petition can visit the Change.org page.
Picture credits: Used with permission from petition page
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