This is not saying that I won't renew, but if I don't, these are the reasons why. Basically, if you are thinking that getting a community garden plot, these would be the arguments against it.
One reason would be money, but that is not a huge reason. The $35 that I would pay for the space includes water, and that is pretty reasonable. Still, I do have the use of my own yard for free.
For many people a reasonable question is convenience. That is less of an issue for me, as I can walk there very easily and have had periods where I was there daily. If you will need to drive to your plot, or even if it's a longer walk, you should be realistic about not just whether you can get there on a regular basis, but if you will.
Mainly, though, if I don't renew it will be because of people.
I have not found litter near my garden very often. While some people do ridiculous things with the combination lock, like having it face inward, or only changing one number so that someone trying to crack the combination would be able to do so very easily, I have never been unable to get in or seen signs of someone who did not have a plot getting in, so it does seem to work out. There have been two things that have really irritated me.
One was one person trimming my tomatoes without asking. No, our plots were not adjacent, and they were not overgrown to the point where they would be encroaching on anyone else's plants. She was just trying to be helpful, and I found it to be a huge violation of personal space. This is a learning experience for me, and I may do some things wrong, but that is my prerogative. Also, there can be reasonable differences of opinion on how to do some things. I told her not to do it again, quite firmly. If I ever caught her doing so again, I was going to report her, but it did not appear to come up. Still, that was a souring experience.
There are other ways in which people are inconsiderate. My plot was really only close to one water spot, which had two faucets. I had gotten into a habit of using the same one, so every time I watered I would connect to that tap, water, and then disconnect. Then someone in another plot started leaving a large hose attached to that tap.
That did irritate me, but okay, there is another one there, and I can be flexible. Then the same people started leaving a hose attached to the other tap as well. Again, these are the only taps that are anywhere near my plot. Every time I went to water, I had to decide whether to undo one of theirs (and these were big hoses where that was kind of a chore) or to move one of theirs to use it for watering my own, or how to work that out. It's just rude. Actually, the time the one knob came off in my hand was while I was trying to remove a hose that someone had left attached.
Perhaps I am overly irritable; I can't rule that out. But basically if I decide not to do the community garden next year, it will be because of how annoying and inconsiderate people can be. If these people sound annoying to you as well, then it is something to think about.
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