This man here is my guardian angel. He turned up at my gate one day and asked if I needed my trees cutting. He's 79 years old, lived through a dictatorship. He knows the score as to what's happening.

After trimming more than 10 trees, working all day without stopping, he asked if I wanted to enter an arrangement with him. He plants and helps me with my garden (full of veg), and he takes half the food. I pay the water and seeds, he comes once or twice a week to potter.

During lockdown he lost his job as a pot washer in a restaurant. He gets minimal from the state. He had to feed himself and his wife, and he knows, in the end, if you can grow your own food, you can atleast survive.

He's taught me how to germinate seeds, how to plant and when, how to harvest and dry. He has taught me the most important skill in life, to be self sufficient as much as possible.

He's planted every available space, we use no chemicals or artificial means. I have cabbage all year round, salads from spring to end of summer, potatoes, onions, leeks, peppers, beetroot, turnips, multiple varieties of beans and peas among others.

He lives in a small apartment, and has a similar arrangement with another family with a garden in the town I live. He understands what it means to survive.