My faith in community gardens is crushed.

[Morgan Wilson]

So a few weeks ago I got a call from Ben at Beardsley telling me that a plot had become available. I suppose for some reason they thought the person had abandoned it. Jeff, one of the Americorp workers let me choose between a plot near the playground and one a bit away from the playground that was getting a new fence put around it. I chose that one. Good fences keep good neighbors (haha j/k).

A friend, myself and my son went to weed it a couple weeks ago and then this past Saturday I went and planted the veggie plants the CAC had given me through their green thumb program. I thought it odd that there were two tomato plants there already but figured maybe someone had a couple extra and just threw them in there.

I went today to water them and started chatting with the two guys on either side of me (one was Saul that crazy picture takin' guy) and looked down as I referred to my plants and noticed I did not recognize any of the plants as mine. Not a single one ( I had planted 9 tomatoes, some peppers, a zuchinni, a squash and a cucumber). I had bought the latter 3 at the farmers market and the squash had a ton of buds on it). The gentlemen to the right of my plot then tossed me what he said he'd found lots of in his plots....a shriveled up tomato plant with a sad bit of dry potting soil on the roots. It was kind of startling.

Why would anyone kill nearly 20 of someone else's vegetable plants?? Even if there was just a misunderstanding and you did not abandon your plot, why not clear it up with someone before killing the plants that someone else may have invested in? Did I pluck out the tomatoes I found there? No.

I found out that the person I am sharing the plot with had planted her things at about 1 today. I think the crime must have occured before that because my rows started in the corner she put her things. But the mystery tomatoes still remain, so perhaps the culprit is the planter of the mystery tomatoes!!

(I imagine peeling off someone's mask now..."And I would have gotten away with it if it wasnt' for you pesky kids!!!")

[JaNell Golden]

And of course, there's still the other plants that I thought were yours, but aren't. Somebody's just moved right in, haven't they? They pulled your plants, left pulled weeds all over the plot, and trashed up the plot next to ours, too.
Who IS this jerk?

[JaNell Golden]

I was there 11-1 while Ben and the kids were finishing the fence. It infuriates me that someone feels free to ruin someone else's work for whatever reason. When I asked Ben about the extra tomato plants that you'd found, he said "guess they're yours". Both you and I left those plants in case whoever mistakenly planted them in our plot came back. Why couldn't that person have extended the same courtesy to us - asking Ben about strange plants in "their" plot, and leaving the plants alone until it was all figured out?