Re: Fences / Gardening in Alaska & Further North

**A*@aol.com**

Wendy,

Was yours the Alaskan garden that went on this listserve for someone to park 
adjacent in a trailer and watch the place? If so, did you finally get your 
volunteer?

Also, could you tell us more, please,  about how you garden way up north, 
your growing season, what your garden community is like?

Many of us, in the lower 48, have visions of Sgt. Preston of the Yukon, the 
Iditerod and "Northern Exposure" to dissipate.  Your line, "  Good fences make 
good neighbors.  The gardeners are happy and the drug dealers and their 
children aren't bothered by ranting gardeners complaining about missing cabbages," 
sounds just like New York City. 

FYI: You may not be the most northern community garden that we've heard from. 
If you go  to the links page of the ACGA website  <A 
HREF="http://www.communitygarden.org/";>American Community Gardening Association</A> 
(http://www.communitygarden.org/links/index.html#Gardens)  you'll see that 
your garden is second from the top in alphabetic order, but if you scroll down, 
to Canada, there is an amazing web page for the Inuvik Community Greenhouse in 
the Canadian Northern Territories. 

Best wishes,
Adam Honigman, 
Closer to the equator at the 
 <A HREF="http://www.clintoncommunitygarden.org/";>Clinton Community Garden</A>

<< Subj:     [cg] Fences
 Date:  5/23/03 12:59:16 AM Eastern Daylight Time
 From:  wintergarden@gci.net (Wintergarden)
 Sender:    community_garden-admin@mallorn.com
 To:    apneufeld@telus.net
 CC:    community_garden@mallorn.com

 Paul, I can sympathize with the fence dilemma.  The biggest troubles at our 
garden have been moose and vandalism.  There is nothing more discouraging than 
spending months growing a prize winning pumpkin or even worse, your family's 
food, only to arrive at your garden and see carrots and tomatoes thrown about 
and the pumpkin dashed to pieces.  I would much rather feed a mama moose than 
provide ammunition for a midnight tomato war.  We began to spend way too much 
energy on fighting off the moose and vandals.  Gardeners were getting so 
discouraged.  So we bit the bullet and built an 8 foot fence (moose can really 
jump!) with barb wire on top.  We cobbled together high gates and bought new 
locks.  It is a shame that we had to do this but we post the site coordinator's 
phone number on the gate and try to do a lot of Public Service Announcements so 
people know we are here and they can join us.  We also have a garden host,(our 
zucchini police!) similar to those camp ground hosts yo!
  u see in 
  motorhome and live at the garden.  Gardeners feel safer, their produce is 
much safer and we have fewer vandalism problems.  We tried many things before 
we got to this point.  We tried gardening with the children in the 
neighborhood, giving them a garden and some help and seeds and starts.  (They brought 
their friends who stole our produce and vandalized the tool shed).  We tried bear 
hides and skulls to scare away the moose and gross out the vandals, planted 
raspberries around the perimeter of the garden, solicited a volunteer host, 
joined the Volunteers in Policing.  The police even put us on their rounds but to 
no avail.  Good fences make good neighbors.  The gardeners are happy and the 
drug dealers and their children aren't bothered by ranting gardeners 
complaining about missing cabbages.   Good luck in your garden,  Wendy Anderson,  
Fairbanks Community Garden www.home.gci.net/~fairbankscommunitygarden >>

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