Vandalism

Vandalism is an affliction of just about every community garden at one time or another. There is no one handy answer on how to prevent it, but most community garden groups are able to control it after a while. Most vandalism occurs because of boredom, jealousy, and ignorance.

The immediate reaction of just about every fledgling community garden group, when confronted by that first raw evidence of vandalism, is to put up a fence. While this can sometimes be effective, depending upon the community, it can also incite even more destruction. Even if you put up an enormous fence, topped by razor wire, there will be some incredibly persistent individual who sees it as his life’s mission to get over (or under, or through) that fence. Besides, who wants to garden inside that sort of prison?

A situation in which a fence makes good sense is where the garden is likely to be a target of dogs or balls. In these cases, a four foot high fence is plenty. What’s more, with this type of fence you can take the opportunity to create a garden feature. Encourage a friendly competition among gardeners, neighbours, children, friends, to design individual wooden pickets for the fence. Fences can also be used to grow flowering vines, such as morning glories, or as supports for grapes, beans, cucumbers or other space-greedy climbers. Or come up with some other creative approach to fence building. It doesn’t need to be expensive, as professionally installed anti-vandal fences usually are.

The most successful anti-vandal strategy seems to be to invite the vandals to participate in the garden. You may be scoffed at, both by the vandals and by your fellow gardeners, but there are numerous examples of the success of this tactic from all over North America. The vandals, usually bored kids, often turn out to be the most active gardeners, as well as an excellent deterrent to other vandals.

If this strategy isn’t possible, the next most successful approach is to keep repairing the damage that they do. Hopefully, they’ll eventually get bored and move on. It can be quite heartbreaking to be confronted with the terrible evidence of their work, especially after your group has put its heart and soul into the gardens, but the best way to keep your spirits up is to quickly replace and repair, just as you would if the damage occurred because of a hail storm or other naturally occurring garden destroyer.

And finally, some vandalism isn’t purposely malicious, but happens because there are, unfortunately, too many homeless people who, in addition to being without shelter, do not have access to affordable, nutritious food. Community gardens located in areas of this kind of desperation can expect this kind of “vandalism”. It is far better to plant an extra plot or two and invite them to help themselves. Better still, invite them to join the garden. It is, after all, a community garden.

Here are a few common sense precautions to follow:

· Locate the garden in a highly visible area. Ask neighbours of the garden to keep their eye on it and reward them (from the garden) for their efforts.

· Know who belongs to the garden and who doesn’t. Exchange names and phone numbers. Pass out membership cards or buttons, or come up with some other method of easily and discreetly identifying gardeners.

· If the garden has a locked gate or storage bin, keep careful record of the keys. If you use a combination lock, remind the gardeners to keep the combination to themselves.

· Keep the garden well maintained to show that you care about the space

· Repair damage immediately to send a strong message that the gardeners are in control of the garden, not the vandals.

· Display a sign saying who the gardens are for and how to participate.

· Harvest produce daily during peak season. If some gardeners will be away during harvest time, arrange to have someone else harvest the plots. The less temptation, the better.

· If your garden seems to be beset by a nightly “harvester”, a discreet stakeout by two or more gardeners may be necessary to identify the culprit. But be careful! Don’t try to confront him or her on the spot. That is better left to daytime hours, and by the coordinator and another person in authority

· Plant more than you need and set aside a plot, near the entrance, for people who truly need the food and are not malicious vandals. Add a sign saying “If you need vegetables, please join our community garden. If you need food today, then please pick from this plot only.”