RE: Locks on garden gates

H* A*

Friends,

We are an urban garden in mid-Manhattan surrounded on 3 sides with tenement
buildings and on the street side with a keyed 8 foot tall cast iron fence.
We have a public lawn and garden area up front and a second fence between
this area and the 108 individual plots in the back garden. This area has a 7
foot tall fence and is keyed as well. We have an open lean to in the back
for some tools, but the bulk of the tools are ,again, under lock and key.
At closing, we affix a chain and padlock on our front gate which is removed
in the early morning. We currently have over 2000 keyholders for our front
garden area. If you believe that it might be helpful, please check out our
website: http://www.clintoncommunitygarden for ideas on governance and
garden rules. The American Community Gardening Association website has links
to many other garden sites with posted rules and procedures.

A  higher fence seems to be the way to go. It would be better if the parents
of these children taught them to respect the garden, but until they do - if
they ever do - higher fencing with some sort of obstacle to climbing at the
top seems to be the way to go.

Happy gardening,

Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	letsgrow@srv.net [SMTP:letsgrow@srv.net]
> Sent:	Tuesday, August 29, 2000 1:45 PM
> To:	community_garden@mallorn.com
> Subject:	[cg] Locks on garden gates
> 
> We have two 30+ plot community gardens here in southeastern Idaho. One of
> them is situated in an area with many small apartments and quite a few
> unsupervised young children. Tha gardeners are complaining that even
> though
> we fenced the garden this summer  (4' chain link to be planted with grapes
> and other vining perennials) it is not sufficient to keep the children out
> and they are taking veggies or just pulling up things and leaving them. It
> is not a big problem but certainly an irritant to the gardeners who have
> proposed putting locks on all the garden gates. The suggestion was made
> that
> the gardeners approach the parents of the relatively small group of small
> 'offenders' but they feel that since the apartment population is so
> transient they would constantly be policing the situation. The gardeners
> have tried talking to the children and telling them that the gardens
> belong
> to the people who work them and that if they ask the individual gardeners
> most would probably be happy too share but that it makes the gardners mad
> when they just come and take stuff - no effect on the problem so far.  I
> am
> hoping that other gardens/gardenrs who have experienced similar problems
> may
> have come up with creative solutions that might avoid the need for a
> 'lock-out'.  Any feedback  would be appreciated as the Board is trying to
> help the gardeners come up with the best possible solution.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> Kristi Appelhans
> President
> Idaho Falls Community Garden Association 
> (208) 522 3244
> letsgrow@srv.net
> www.srv.net/~klack/com_gard.htm
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> community_garden maillist  -  community_garden@mallorn.com
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