There are times I wish that I had a plot at our local community garden. One thing you miss out on when you garden alone is a sense of camaraderie. This is probably why I started my blog in the first place.
I recently read this rather interesting piece about the perils of gardening in a communal setting. Here's an excerpt:
Mr. Cruz was sitting on his stoop last summer when he noticed a couple of elderly women on hands and knees on the sidewalk clawing their way through the mesh to get at the chili peppers. They did not notice him swoop in for the bust. “Ladies, if you would only ask, I would gladly give you more than what you’re stealing,” he remembers telling them before he gave them a tour, and some peppers.
Can you imagine coming upon this scene! This brought back old memories of the neighborhood kids raiding my Dad's garden to steal baby eggplants to use as ammunition for their imagined urban turf war.
I will admit that I myself am guilty of such thievery. When I was in middle school, my friends and I spent one particularly hot summer roaming the streets of Northeast Philadelphia, creating a mental road map of all the neighborhood fruit trees. As the fruit ripened, we would converge onto the site like ninjas and raid the tree en masse in broad daylight. No chain-linked fence could keep us out; we were like the plague of hungry children. On the rare occasion we were caught, we'd scatter in all directions and later rendezvous at the park where we'd climb one of the giant pine trees, our hands and knees covered with sticky sap, and devour our haul under the shade of the massive canopy. I'm sure we pissed off a lot of neighbors that summer.
Dealing with groundhogs and field mice is one thing (I can buy a cage for that) but I don't know how I would handle thievery of the human sort, especially if the bandit is old enough to buy booze and cigarettes.
Pilfered Peppers in City Gardens; Tomatoes, Too - August 5, 2011, New York Times
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I joined our local community garden last year hoping for the exact same thing (not to mention a little extra space since we had just moved in.) I was hoping to meet people in the neighborhood, etc... It was a huge disappointment. Most of the people that gardened there were extreme snobs (not all) and most everyone was extremely anti-social. For me, it was a total let down. I left the community garden in the middle of the season this year and gave my plot to my neighbor. I hope that if you do join your community garden, you have a much more rewarding experience than I did.
ReplyDeleteAnd that is a pretty darn good story you posted! I can just picture those ladies crawling under the fence. LOL!
Neighborhood legend in my childhood hometown said that the old guy with the huge garden would chase young thieves away with a shotgun full of salt rock. I don't think he really had a gun, but his garden was safe from me.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was growing up in the Bronx, my brother and I would raid the local mulberry trees (then bushes). At least I think they were mulberries. A Park Ranger came by one day and said "Be careful, you need to know what you're picking." We told him we had been doing it for years. Man, they were yummy.
ReplyDeleteMy son now grazes our garden, legally. :)
I guess at this age (50) if I had a garden that someone could raid in a perfect world... I would be happy the children were stealing fruit and eating it and I would be happy to share with the elderly.. Please just leave some for me :-)
ReplyDeleteCute story. I had a couple in their 40's try to raid my garden a few years back. When I told them to leave they said no..so I told them I would get my gun(i don't have a gun)and they left...buggers
ReplyDeleteI agree that blogging gives us a great forum to share our love of the land and of growing fresh, wholesome food. I joined our Huntington Beach Community Garden and have found many new friends there. Great group of people. We commiserate on the raiding rabbits that plague our garden. So far no people have taken any of the produce that I'm aware of.
ReplyDeleteI am participating in a local "Giving Garden" - putting about 4 hours of volunteer time each week. The group of regulars that meet up and work on Saturday mornings has been the highlight of the whole experience. Growing food that goes to our local food bank has been a blessing too. The need is great right now.
ReplyDeleteI give away a ton of my food, but I would hate for people to steal it. I am urban but pretty protected in my little alleyway. Very few even know our road exists. I do have two cops that live along the road and see right into my garden. My next door neighbor I suppose could look pretty scary. He has a shaved head, tatoos, very muscular, and rides a motorcycle. He is actually pretty sweet, but someone random might not. He keeps an eye on the place too. He told me once when he thought there were some teenagers in the yard when we were gone. Our street has so few people on it that all the neighbors want to know who it is when a car goes down or someone walks up.
ReplyDeleteHmm, luckily I haven't had to deal with anyone stealing our garden goodies. Except for the dang rodents.
ReplyDeleteI loved the sign in the linked story! I'd be pretty irked if someone stole my stuff, be it my veggies or my car. Go grow your own stuff! I can see kids being a nuisance because they might not yet equate food with material things, but for adults, theft is theft. I agree with the quote in the article: ""It's a shame."
ReplyDeleteIn the post has been define the different types of garden in the post.Every garden is very fantastic and more interesting mostly people are very like in this garden and do entertainment in this garden.
ReplyDelete