Collectivism in "community gardens"

[Harmon Seaver]

On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 08:00:46PM -0700, Tim May wrote:
> 
> I said I saw the same thing in Berkeley and Santa Cruz. Both are said 
> to be "progressive" communities, but in both places the so-called 
> community garden areas are essentially for hoboes and deadbeats to 
> scratch at.
> 
> Why would a "clean and sober" person (I'll call them this instead of 
> "gentrified") want to go dig in the dirt where the dogs have crapped, 
> where the addicts have shot up, and where their best tomatoes and 
> zuchinis and whatnot get filched by the bums and addicts?

    Sounds like a very poorly administered community garden. The only big city
gardens I've seen were in Portland, OR, and they were fenced and gated and
locked at night. The gardens themselves looked very productive and well
tended. As are all the ones I've ever seen in smaller communities. And as are
the ones in NYC that Tyler's reported on. For a short while I was on a list of
community garden administrators, I can post the address if you like, perhaps you
could get feedback on these particular gardens being the way they are. From that
traffic on that list, what you are seeing is not at all the norm. 


> 
> Real people find garden space to plant in.
> 
> My general point remains: why "argue" with the city government about 
> when you can access your communal, collective property, or what you can 
> spray on it, or which vegetables are said to be "conflict vegetables" 
> (seeds from some zone the U.N. has declared un-P.C.) (*), when you can 
> simply find a 5 x 9 plot of land, or lease it, and not have to ask 
> permission?

   5x9? Why the hell would I bother with a 5x9 plot? The plots in the local
gardens here are 20x40 and I had two of them, and even that isn't really at all
sufficient. We used to have one garden of 100'x100' down by the house, then
another 50x80 up above the house mainly for potatoes and berries, things the
deer wouldn't eat, plus my wife's flower gardens. 
   The problem with finding other garden plots around here would be that most of
the land is either being farmed or subdivided and built on. Even if you were
able to find a small corner of a farm field to lease, it would be heavily
chemicalized. Actually, some of the local Hmongs have joined together and bought
farmland so they can have bigger gardens. 
   5x9 -- geez, I garden more space than that on my porch roof in containers. 
Anyway, I think the community garden concept is a pretty good one. It gives city
people a chance to grow play in the dirt, and also an opportunity to meet and
talk to people who like gardening, see how they do things, etc. It's been really
interesting seeing how the Hmongs do stuff, and fun trying to communicate with
some of the older ones. And in fact it was my wife working with some of the
Hmongs who got the administrators to stop using chemicals on the plots - since
the vast majority of gardeners *are* Hmong, the powers that be finally gave in
when the Hmongs said they wanted to garden in their traditional way. 

-- 
Harmon Seaver	
CyberShamanix
http://www.cybershamanix.com