Hi all, My name is Linda Sliter, the Community Garden Manager, at Garden City Harvest in Missoula, MT. Garden City Harvest's mission is to build community through agriculture by growing produce with and for people with low-incomes, offering education and training in ecologically conscious agriculture, and using our sites for the personal restoration of youth and adults. We have a community garden program with seven total community gardens offering over 300 community garden plots. We've encountered veggie theft at almost every community garden have tried many approaches to reducing veggie theft.
Our most innovative approach was to create a Community Food Security Plot at the Northside Community Garden -- a garden that doesn't have a fence and is always open to the public. The Community Food Security Plot is section of the garden where it is okay for non-gardeners to harvest. Gardeners are encouraged to direct/re-direct community members to harvest from this place instead of people's gardens. We try to plant fruits and veggies that are likely to get stolen from a gardener's plot like tomatoes, pumpkins (people like to smash), carrots, etc. We post signs that say 'ready to harvest,' 'I'm still growing,' etc. -- it's interactive, educational and promotes community involvement in the garden. While we still see veggie theft and vandalism, we like this approach vs. prohibiting access to the garden. Here's a link to a blog I wrote on preventing veggie theft<http://www.gardencityharvest.org/?p=2003&option=com_wordpress&Itemid=264>. Hope this is helpful and please let me know if you come up with something that works at your community gardens! ~Linda -- *Linda Sliter* Community Garden Manager Garden City Harvest 406.239.8236 [email protected] *grow. feed. inspire* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20130909/cfc37f1b/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
