late into the garden

H* S*

    We were only allowed into the community gardens this year last 
weekend, May 25. The excuse was that the ground was too wet to plow 
until then. Normally here peas, potatoes, and cabbage family should be 
planted by May 1st. Obviously the people who are running this, county 
employees, are not gardeners. We don't want them to plow at all in the 
first place. At least 95% of the gardeners are Hmong, most of whom go in 
and till up their plots with hoes anyway, and the rest either have 
rototillers or can rent one.
     Is anyone else having to deal with such ignorance, and what are 
they doing about it? We've tried reasoning with the powers that be, even 
serve on the "guidance committee" to which they pay absolutely no heed.
Not only do they open the gardens too late, but they want to close them 
right after the first frost, totally ignoring the fact that many crops, 
especially root crops, keep right on growing, and shouldn't be harvested 
until much later. This is the first year, in fact, that we got them to 
stop applying chemical fertilizers, and allowing people to keep the same 
plot from year to year, however, it's very frustrating to build raised 
beds (what works best here in the heavy clay and what most Hmong do 
anyway) and then have them plowed away.
     I'm wanting to start writing letters to the editor, publicizing 
their stupidity, but my wife, who serves on the committee, wants to 
continue to try to reason with them -- but so far that fails to work. 
Has anyone been through this and know the answer?

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

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