RE:Garden Rules

Jim,
 
I can appreciate your awareness to the issue of having rules in a community garden but I guess what rubs me the wrong way is your use of the phrase "...control placed on community gardens" as though it is some "bad" thing.  Sometimes I think that people need to be reminded that there are different "types" of community gardens. Some are all volunteer programs that grow food for people in need and others are giving individuals a piece of land to grow for their own benefit. The dynamics of gardening by committee in an open space is far different than operating a garden where people are responsible for their own plots with-in a community environment.
 
There is a place for both and with each different garden program there are different needs to be meet. Guidelines are needed to direct individuals in what the "purpose" of that particular garden program is. 
 
To me community gardens are a safe place for individuals to learn. Yes mistakes can be made about irregular watering habits, and learning that gardening is more than the wonderful-concept-of-beauty and pulling weeds are a necessity. Gardens are a place for people to grow, and if they don't, then as in nature, they do not flourish. It's a sad day when you find a full-grown adult planting a tomato plant still encased in its four-inch plastic pot directly in the ground.  Community gardens are one of the few last forums where individuals can get in touch with the truth of nature and where a pure sense of "community" can still be experienced and they can call this little piece of earth their own but as in life there are rules and guidelines to follow.
 
Regards,
Deborah Mills
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