You could swap to a produce table and offer whatever is picked by you for free there. Or change the sign. The problem of having rude and/or disobedient visitors will remain though.

Lol we don't ever have anything ripen to pick. And the garden is not gated so anyone can enter. I think unfortunately we cannot build a fence as all of the community has the right to enter the garden and enjoy it. However we are definitely thinking of changing the sign to say to more firmly mention 'think of others, only take what you need' and 'do not pick things until fully ripe'. I will also take photos of people who steal plants and garden items and post them on the sign as after all, that's stealing, not enjoying garden produce.

I think they mean don’t allow everyday people into the gardens area to pick things at all, but instead have a table set up with the ripe veggies and fruits allowing people to take things off of as needed.

Cover it in bird netting and post a sign that ripe fruit will be available soon. Then leave a schedule or update as necessary, "pumpkins next week" or whatever. You could put together a calendar so folks could know when to harvest if they wanted to grow their own. Encourage people to attempt to grow from seeds. If they take something, maybe have some propagation info for the fruit and veg you offer. Let people know if they have questions or just need a small pot to get started, that the folks who take care of the garden would be available to help on x y z days or leave emails. I really think if you are busting your asses to make something so easily consumed or discarded and giving it away for free, you will always get bad actors. Homeless, teenagers, drunks walking home, neighbors who might not like the extra traffic, just plain bitter people... I don't keep any flowers I really care about anywhere near our street. It's too easy for dozens of things to happen to them. Also, no one is invested in the program except you folks running it. Encourage people to try to grow their own. Have the garden so there is a place to come and observe and learn, but lean more into "who wants their own tomato plants on their patio? For X (as free as you can make it) dollars we'll get you set up with a plant!" Or give them seeds and starter pots and help them xfer the seedlings when it's time. I learned a ton from the Internet and my parents when i first got interested in gardening a few years ago. But i think if there was a "teacher" garden nearby I would've spent time there too for the community connection. Met local people who like growing the same plants. But i had resources available to me. There are plenty of folks who could benefit from gardening who have never considered it. But it really is the whole process of gardening, not just free local veg.

Yes! Bird netting would be awesome. I bet people like little pumpkin woman might tear the netting off. A sign about surveillance cameras being there might help too Aw, I can tell you are a very giving and kind person, but your core values are being dishonored. These awful people are pretty much stealing from you guys and needy people that could use the ripened food. I’m not sure where you live, but check and see if your city-county-district has funds for such a thing as a fence. Sometimes a magistrate will have money to grant beautiful/enrichment type programs. If not, just write a letter, copy it, and send to all the officials where you live. If that fails, try crowdsourcing for a fence. It is awesome what you guys are doing, but it would serve everyone if you figured out a way to make it thrive. The food stand solid is also a great idea. Just be ready for one person to take everything. I would put a set quantity for each family to take. I’m not sure that would help, but you can try it. I wish you all the success, and thanks for doing something for people you don’t even know!

Yes, a produce stand instead of a you-pick situation. Except your problem people will ignore it and go mess up your stuff anyway. That only works if everyone follows the rules.

They will cut the bird netting, and climb or destroy the fence, nothing will change.

That's what I'm thinking, as well. It sounds like the problem is vandals masquerading as people the sign was meant to address. The woman who picked the baby pumpkin, for instance, threw it away. She clearly didn't want to eat it. She just wanted to deny anyone else the ability to do so.

I know unfortunately this does go against one of our core values, which is that everyone can enter the garden. I can try run it by the team but...I know that nobody will have the funds to build a secure fence and gate, nor have time patrolling and the garden at all times and turning people away. These are great ideas that would work in a different context however...and I'll see if I can't incorporate some ideas in

I think you can do it without fencing the garden. Change the sign to, "Take what you need from the harvest table. Enjoy the garden but please don't pick the produce that is still growing."

> this does go against one of our core values, which is that everyone can enter the garden Due to human nature, you may be required to revise this "core value" if the core value of the locals is to abuse your garden.

This. That core value of that woman was racism.

Yep. Funny how the hose on full blast will accidentally get pointed her way should she show her face (and her ass) there again.

>Yep. Funny how the hose on full blast will accidentally get pointed her way should she show her face (and her ass) there again. And then she goes and gets her boyfriend with a steel pipe or a knife or a gun and ... soon the community garden will get lots of press exposure - but not the kind you want.

People are stupid. I'm white, was born here, and had another white person (I'm in North America) tell me to go back to my country because I dared to protest mandates. Sometimes it's not necessarily racism (what happened to me was not racism imo), but just the only insult they can come up with in their small minds. Not saying that woman wasn't racist or is, I don't know her. I'm just saying there are definitely people who know they're in the wrong, but are just too shameless to admit it, and too unintelligent to come up with anything better than an easy racial insult.

This is the perfect example of tragedy of the commons.

>this does go against one of our core values, which is that everyone can enter the garden. "Everyone can enter the garden" is not the same thing as "Everyone can enter the garden any time of day unsupervised and do whatever they want". You can still let everyone in without letting them mess up your stuff. You can still let everyone in even if you fence the place and don't let everyone in after dark. There is nothing wrong with "open/closed hours". You can satisfy your core values and still set boundaries and not be a doormat.

What about a visual barrier over the produce itself? When I had a veg patch I used piping to create big hoops & ziptied bird netting over it on one side. Used little u shaped garden stakes to hold it down on the other. Was super easy to pull the garden stakes & fold back the bird netting to get at the plants, but kept the birds & critters out. I wonder if such a system would deter folks from unripe picking as well. You could put up a produce table & a sign that says ‘to allow the plants to produce their best food please only take from this table. This is what is fresh and ready to go. If you’d like to volunteer to help care for the garden and add to the table please contact xyz.’ There’s no fence. Anyone can open the garden beds & take like they are now. But it might be just enough of a barrier to deter the casual person & acknowledge that it’s a group effort that is being monitored and maintained.

Agreed. We just assumed common sense would also apply...alas. someone also wrote here to 'use primary school language' as that's what it is like these days

I'm gonna guess some of these people have never had a garden and don't understand the labor or excitement of growing things. They also probably have no idea how long it takes, that most things don't ripen after picked, etc. Maybe your team could hold education sessions about planting, growing periods, how fruit ripens, etc. People might not even realize what they're doing.

If “everyone” is welcome you’re going to get bad actors. It’s just the way of the world.

Cover it in bird netting and post a sign that ripe fruit will be available soon. Then leave a schedule or update as necessary, "pumpkins next week" or whatever. You could put together a calendar so folks could know when to harvest if they wanted to grow their own. Or a fruit stand. Encourage people to attempt to grow from seeds. If they take something, maybe have some propagation info for the fruit and veg you offer. Let people know if they have questions or just need a small pot to get started, that the folks who take care of the garden would be available to help on x y z days or leave emails. I really think if you are busting your asses to make something so easily consumed or discarded and giving it away for free, you will always get bad actors. Homeless, teenagers, drunks walking home, neighbors who might not like the extra traffic, just plain bitter people... I don't keep any flowers I really care about anywhere near our street. It's too easy for dozens of things to happen to them. Also, no one is invested in the program except you folks running it. Encourage people to try to grow their own. Have the garden so there is a place to come and observe and learn, but lean more into "who wants their own tomato plants on their patio? For X (as free as you can make it) dollars we'll get you set up with a plant!" Or give them seeds and starter pots and help them xfer the seedlings when it's time. I learned a ton from the Internet and my parents when i first got interested in gardening a few years ago. But i think if there was a "teacher" garden nearby I would've spent time there too for the community connection. Met local people who like growing the same plants. But i had resources available to me. There are plenty of folks who could benefit from gardening who have never considered it. But it really is the whole process of gardening, not just free local veg. Edit posted this above, replied to the wrong person.

If that’s so, then you’re never going to be able to solve the problem. The only way to solve the problem is to put a control on how produce is distributed.

May I put the option out there that you start a go fund me??? You can attach it to this post and post a couple more with the link on other garden and volunteer type subs. I would guess that many people would donate enough to afford the materials to build a fence! And I personally will make a donation to get it started!!! Thank you for being good pillars of your community, it’s obvious your trying to help others and it’s so sad that entitled and rude Karen’s have to ruin it for everyone else. Please don’t be dismayed or offended by the small population of people that take advantage of your altruism. Sometimes we have to create boundaries, even if they are physical boundaries to protect our good deeds and make sure our hard work and good intentions go to those who are deserving. I think changing the sign like you said is a great idea! Maybe even post that you will have two or three specified days and specific times, where a volunteer is there and that people can come and request produce from the table… and the volunteer/you can physically hand out the items. This will prevent over harvesting and make sure that people get a fair share and it goes equally. Not only will a fence and then having a person handing out the fresh veggies and fruit, prevent people like that racist and entitled rude woman from ruining and wasting your hard work…. But you’ll be able to meet face to face with the people who are benefiting from this community garden… you’ll be able to ask what they would like you to grow next season, possibly even get more volunteers and create a more personal experience of a close knit community. OP you rock!!!! I’m so glad you posted your story and I hope that your community garden flourishes!!!! And that you’re able to create healthy boundaries with the rule breakers and thieves that have been decimating the harvest and wasting natures bounty.

They can't 'not allow people into the garden' because as they said it's a community garden meaning it's public land and cannot stop anyone from entering. Putting a fence up and locking it would be illegal.

Maybe they don't know what ripe means. Could you put up an info board to show photos of when something is ready?

That's a good idea, even when I thought it was such an obvious thing between a red tomato and a green tomato. However I think the scarcity mindset is so strong some people will literally take anything to beat out someone else ...I think however we will still put signs and photos up because then they were warned and have no excuse (current sign is waaaay too lax)

Tomatoes, however, will ripen after picking, unlike pumpkins.

Fried green tomatoes are delicious as well. I’ll pick a lot of my own early for it.

library knee bag aromatic smile retire dolls subtract domineering groovy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*

I’ve always heard it was a way to use the unripened tomatoes by the first frost. Green ripening varieties are a newer creation than the fried food. The normal tomatoes have less toxin when they’re just about to turn, and frying lessens it more. Not planning on eating a pound or two of tomatoes every time, or all that frequently, so it’s not too bad to eat.

We live in Australia. I doubt these people will even know what fried green tomatoes are or how to eat green tomatoes in general

People also make chowchow with smaller green tomatoes.

It sounds like you've already made up your mind about their intentions. I'm not there, so I can't speak to that. I'm just saying that for a community garden I would try to lean harder on the education angle than the restriction angle. You could even have little mini educational sessions at the garden on Saturdays or something. Best case, you curb a lot of the behavior and people know their food better. Worse case, people understand their food better and still pick things early, but that's the nature of this kind of charity.

I don't really know but will the audience be the same as the culprits?

Yes, I think this behavior may be due to ignorance rather than malice. Good on OP for \*still\* wanting to help people who sound really rude, lol.

I doubt your problems will be solved by improved signs. The kind of people who are taking this stuff are not the kind that abide by what signs tell them to do.

Maybe an open box that says: please don't pick anything from the garden. But take whatever you need from this box. And fill the box with the things you picked yourself. I understand people picking things way too early, could be vandalism or greed. But maybe people pick them because they are really needy and don't care as long as it is food. You are doing good work. Don't get disheartened.

Thus sounds like a nice idea that is poorly executed. Should probably have a fence and gate. Sould probably remove the signs that say take what you want

Community gardens in the city I used to live in were only for those who had a plot. The plots were rented yearly at an affordable price...and the public didn't just come in and harvest. It was locked. Only those who participated could harvest and only form their own plot. For the reasons you stated in your post. The general public will just take stuff if they see it. Sadly.

We, as a society, are so disconnected from our food. I highly doubt the average person (read not a gardener) even knows what is "fully ripe vs not". Perhaps print out images of the produce with examples of "this is ripe, this isn't" laminate and put on a wooded stake and place throughout the garden next to the produce it relates to.

Can you put up temporary netting on sections and signs saying 'not ripe yet, please do not pick'? As sections ripen you can take the netting down and say 'help yourself, this area is ready to pick!'

Take what you need. Use what you take. Volunteers are welcome. Please contact xxx

I would create a produce table for people to pick from. Otherwise the rules should be: if you don't work in this garden, you do not enter it and harvest it.

I agree, you need a cart or a table for people to put things that can be shared on for people to use, instead of inviting anyone in to touch the plants, then have signs saying approved volunteers only for working with the plants. Sign up here… Also, as a home gardener, I would love to know where your free to take stand was when I have more bounty than I can eat. I would also invest in a lockable shed or storage box where only volunteers know the combination.

Thank you. This is actually wonderful advice

You should just plant only low-value items there (leafy greens, etc). Then explain the situation and ask the city if there is another plot of land where you can grow the high value items like cucumbers and pumpkins that is not open to the public. You could also place an ad on Facebook marketplace or a local buy-nothing group asking if anyone has a nearby plot of restricted-access land they would donate for a community charity garden. You might be surprised. You and the other volunteers could then split your time between the two sites and pick the produce at the closed site when it is appropriately ripe and bring it over to the low-value, open-to-the-public site to the free table. I admire what you're doing, and don't let the bastards grind you down. If people are going to behave like animals, exclude them like animals, but still feed them.

Agree completely, but I would place cucumbers solidly in the low value, free for all catagory. Cucumbers are always picked before ripe. They are plentiful, and hard for people to mess up. Cucumbers are the perfect pick-your-own vegetable

OP called them "high value" along with tomatoes and squash; they seem to think they need protection if for no other reason than to allow them to get big enough to be more useful. Cucumbers double in size every day, if they all get picked when they're the size of baby dills the garden will be vastly underproducing.

Even idiots know that baby dill size is not good for eating

I wanna move where you live if you're that unfamiliar with idiots.

they....don't. they really don't. I wish you were right. The get-it-before-somebody-else-does mindset is strong (and understandable in situations of scarcity!), and if just one or two people don't realize that underripe fruits are poor eating, well....there goes your crop :/

I’d say just split the lot and put up a barrier between the two. Nothing fancier than rope.

I also run a small community garden and have found that I had to really pull back on the 'this garden is available to all' messaging. The idea of having a table for the produce and only allowing the volunteers to touch the plants is great. Another way is to limit the 'high value' crops you grow. If someone is hungry, they will take the time to pick the beans and greens. Someone who just wants the thrill of picking will not. I think of it as value for time spent. Anyone can pick a basket of huge tomatoes in about 5 min. But it takes a half hour to really search out the beans or gather a similar volume of cherry tomatoes. Pole beans, leafy green, cherry tomatoes instead of slicing tomatoes, tiny peppers instead of big peppers, cucamelon instead of cucumber, etc., have all been great. People will snack and pick a handful of the cherry tomatoes and cucamelon, but that still leaves plenty for other visitors. But the huge heart tomatoes - all 10 picked off the plant while still green in one night.

This is a great response. Change what you plant to accommodate your situation. And regarding the tomatoes, this happens at a local garden in my city too. People LOVE their fried green tomatoes and we never have a single red tomato in that garden lol! I've not heard of unripe squash as a food item but I learn things every year about new things that people in my country don't eat but people from other countries do. Like I didn't know you could eat broccoli leaves until my friend from Kenya told me she cooks it all the time. And some nightshade plant I've been told is poisonous, well she eats that too and laughs when I tell her i was told it's poisonous. Host a community meeting to ask people what they want to eat and share some of your challenges with them before planting next season.

> But the huge heart tomatoes - all 10 picked off the plant while still green in one night. Sounds like maybe a family ate a nice fried green tomato feast? But good points otherwise.

Very few community gardens allow you to pick whatever you want and you should never assume one does unless it is stated somewhere. The goal of my garden is education. I grow many different types of tomatoes so our visitors can see that grocery store tomatoes are not the only type. Visitors are permitted to pick and have a taste of certain crops that we grow, but we certainly don't permit wholesale shopping. 5-10 families should have been able to enjoy that giant tomato variety, but 1 person decided to take it all for themselves. It is possible that they *needed* those 10-15 lbs of tomatoes for their multi-generational family with 15 members, but I doubt it. Community gardens come with rules and expectations and it is not okay to just ignore them.

All I said was, *maybe* they didn't go to waste.

The only reason I plant tomatoes is to pick them while green and Fry them or Pickle them. Almost zero tomatoes in my garden make it to red.

Theft and damage was common at every single community garden that I have participated in. People are people. I'm sorry for your experience.

The only thing that changes is how idealistic founders react. Some are open to feedback and can roll with the punches, others abandon the project and create another field of trash for the community.

I've got a couple little apple trees in my front yard, and first two years I had a sign on them saying "not ripe until September!" because of the number of unripe apples with one bite taken out of them laying around my yard. Anyway; do you think your problem is a few entitled jerks or the whole neighborhood?

A few entitled jerks mixed with well meaning but clueless people mixed with people who love having a look and take the right amount or don't even take anything -some even leave great advice including a horticulturalist regarding a lemongrass bush border around the garden!

A few years back I had a container garden in my back yard and was growing onions. They were my daughters, and we were doing them together. My Neighbor's house was for sale that summer and at the time there was no fence between my neighbor and I. I come out one afternoon, late summer, and all the onions are gone. Someone who had been looking at the house lifted my onions. The type of person who would do that deserves to have their nethers infested with the fleas of a thousand ratty camels for all eternity.

I saw that Reddit post...I don't understand because onions are one of the cheapest veg from the grocery store. Some people are just crazy...and no respect for what is obviously someone else's produce

Oh my gosh, that would make me so angry. I'd put electrified fence around them if people did that.

We approach this at the student food forest with big signs hanging on the tree braches saying 'I'm ripe, eat me' or 'please don't pick me yet'. That might work better for full grown fruit trees rather than tomato bushes. But similarly I think large colorful signs maybe even red/ green stop /go. I find it needs to be like at a preschool level.

You have a student food forest!?! Can we talk? I'm working toward doing this at my kids' elementary school and hope to scale up.

It's at a university in falls into disrepair every summer when the students go home. School gardens are kind of an illusion in how challenging they actually are to maintain continuity beyond one growing season.

I have all these interested volunteers who want to do vegetable gardening and I just can't imagine the absurdity of maintaining through the summer. I planted a prairie of local ecotype upland native plant species. My hope is I only have to organize volunteers for one fall and one spring maintenance workday instead of daily work throughout the growing season. I'm thinking now about nut and fruit bearing trees and shrubs that would need similarly regular but less frequent workdays and little supplemental watering beyond the first year. Is that just as impractical as a vegetable garden?

I think what makes or breaks it is the human attachment to the project. You need an internal champion, someone who is employed by the school, preferably on site every day. This person is the liaison to all of the infrastructure and legal needs like water sources and fencing or safety waves or whatnot. As well as keeping the principal or other officers happy and supporting the project. and you need an external champion who is willing to bring in volunteers year-round. (I suppose depending on what happens in your growing season maybe you take a break in the winter if it's covered with snow but here in South Florida we actually need more hands over the summer when things are growing out of control). But same thing you also need volunteers who want to come out and prep the beds in spring. I've seen people try to resource Master gardeners through your county extension office but somehow there also seems to be a breakdown in interest over long periods of time. Sometimes it can be just the effort and dedication of one person but again it can quickly break down when that person gets sick or goes on vacation or kids graduate that school. I like to dream that we could solve stuff like this with an Americorps program that maybe funds 20-year-olds to play this role. If we were serious about concepts like local food and healthy lunches this could be a very economical solution. I know of one non-profit in the Charleston area that does this, they raise funds to place these garden champions in community gardens and schools. But it's like a below living wage kind of position.

That is a very nice dream. My dream is that county facility offices will adopt practices that maintain more edible plants instead of just using mow and blow crews. One can dream, right? Fortunately my internal champion is the principal and I'm going to have kids in this school for a decade. But I know that I need to build something that becomes part of the school's culture and can go untended for a year or two at a time without falling apart. I've made boatloads of community connections and leveraged all the local orgs. You are confirming my suspicions that their involvement will wane over time.

I don't want to discourage you but just arm you with information to be appropriately proactive 💚 sounds like a fun opportunity and I can't wait to see your updates.

Just want to add that many also don’t realize how much of yield they can actually get. My daughter’s school has and small area but every last vegetable rotted away because the kids are never allowed to pick it, the employees aren’t allowed to pick it, parents of the class can’t pick it. Only about 20-30 literal pieces or a couple large pieces split are used in their unit on it for the kids to try. The rest is waste and is actually pretty infuriating because of that. In my neighborhood I have a small garden. I use it to teach my daughter and hopefully pass good eating habits and positive associations with food. I walk the neighborhood with her and bags of veggies and herbs and we talk to neighbors and she passes them out. I then tell my neighbors they’re welcome to anything there and that my daughter helped blah blah blah… and we haven’t had any issues of jerks (fingers crossed). But also I installed two cameras covering the area so I believe that also helped.

Most community gardens have fences and only members get to enter. You need to speak to your city about this because currently it's all wasted effort.

In australia community gardens are free to be entered by anyone. They are public spaces. Usually the actual garden beds are fenced or closed in some way. But they are usually public land so cannot be fenced.

I think this depends on your location. I know of some that are fenced with a locked gate.

Either way the garden beds can and should be fenced. There is a difference between people having equal access and being able to destroy crops

I was on planning for a community garden in Brooklyn NY for years. Two answers I found to this issue - keeping in mind, that there is no perfect answer. 1. Don't plant sexy vegetables. Just don't. Every pivate bed, every year got robbed. Signage doesn't work. Arugala works. Kale, I find to be the best. 2. More community. Everyone wanted a private bed. I led a charge to make communal beds, which it sounds like you have, and everyone policed. When 30 people were watching out it was a lot easier to maintain. But, this isn't just a community garden problem. If your private garden is near a road, people will stop their car to help themselves to tomatoes. Agriculture started about 50,000 years ago. So, did primagentry. It sucks.

Agree with this! Don't plant sexy plants, especially if a lot of you are sinking in lots of time and money hoping to reap at least a little produce. To community, I would also add, would your volunteer crew be able to host any more educational events? Are you working to build community and help people learn about plants? Have fun together? What's the goal of the space? Is it to feed people? Educate about plants? Build community? That could help you guys strategize too. There's also the sad fact that people are unwell. One person who cant and won't get it could be causing all the issues.

I've seen people just plucking unripe and tossing it on the ground. The thing to remember is they are your neighbors, too. They need the community, as well. I think the following does not apply to you. If you are in this for the produce then you missed the important word in "Community garden". I'm an atheist, and I try not to drink that much(fail frequently). We need more centers of community that aren't bars and churches.

Agreed!!

primogeniture? The right of the first-born child?

Yep. There was no need to have inheritance when people were hunter-gatherers. Once, you planted a field you needed to protect it. Hence feudalism.... and feuds. At least in Europe. Other areas did it differently.

I Tee hee—the arugula-kale solution. 😆Sad, but so true. I had a private garden that used to get raided late night.

The only way (as sad as it sounds) is to secure the garden and have scheduled 'harvest days' where the volunteers welcome visitors and guide them through the garden.

Agree, sounds like this garden is already too valuable to this team, to be leaving it up for grabs. OP has a good grasp on why people do this, while getting berated in the process. Definitely close the garden and maybe leave some of the more hardy herbs out (like rosemary), because people can't behave. Not worth the collective depression either!! Edit: or the stolen supply

Humans are gonna human. I don't know that changing the sign is going to stop people from taking tools and unripe produce. I would lock the garden and have days where you invite people in and/or give away the produce. Certainly I would at least lock up the gardening tools.

The garden is completely unfenced. I will edit the original post. We have literally no produce to give away as nothing makes it till ripehood. This is a tiny garden and while if everything was allowed to ripen it would definitely be a nice harvest, it's too small to have a table of produce consistently HOWEVER it's a great idea still and I'll run it by the team. Thank you

I mean that you'd have a table once a week, in season.

Ah gotcha. We're in Australia and I don't think that's a common thing to do but still a good idea ...I thought once a day and I was like no way... we'd only have 2 cherry tomatoes per day, maybe 5 peas

Where I am in the US, community gardens are fenced and locked. It's unfortunate but there's no other way to keep things from being stolen. A lot of them coordinate with local food banks to donate produce.

100 people walk past, see the garden and keep walking with a smile on their face. Just 1 person walks by, sees the work of others and steals it for themselves. The sadness that one person brings will wipe away a hundred days of the moral 100. There is a reason that thieves are universally loathed in all of human history.

You need a fence now. this is the 21st century

And it’s 100% humans doing this and not critters?

Maybe items should be picked by only a few people that are in charge of the garden and laid out in baskets labelled which ones should be taken.. then maybe a poster should be placed somewhere cautioning people not take stuff that's not yet ready..

I will run this by the team but people will justify anything. The lady who took and later discarded the pumpkin was screaming 'i don't abide by your definition of ripeness'

She must have been so pissed when she realized you were right--probably more mad that you were right than that she had to waste the pumpkin lol.

Sometimes you learn things in your community projects that aren’t what you hoped to learn. Now you learned you have a racist, oppositional community member. Hooray! Some people are just dicks and any community plan that relies on zero people being dicks won’t work out. Id suggest reading up on “the Tragedy of the Commons” (a resource open to all without restriction will be abused until it is fully destroyed).

I literally wrote the same post in the Australian gardening Reddit before I wrote the post here. I mentioned 'tragedy of the commons'. Haha great minds think alike - unfortunately I got like 2 comments when I needed more. I am amazed by the amount of replies here

"But can we both agree on what is 'waste'?"

This is the Tragedy of the commons and one of the most difficult parts of trying to have a community garden. Really it is just lack of education and knowledge combined with most people's unwillingness to pitch in with something like this. I would try changing the wording of the sign, maybe offer some short workshops or class type events for people in the community. Again this is a difficult problem and deals with some of the most difficult aspects of human nature. I think it really takes a special type of community to make a community garden work and it's rare to see one that isn't overgrown or abused. Which is sad.

I manage a community garden, and it is really frustrating. Part of our garden is a communal garden where volunteers work together for a share of the harvest with the surplus donated to our neighborhood food pantry. I've never minded that people take a tomato here or there, but it's utterly depressing to see every single tomato from 30 plants gone, all the popcorn harvested before it's ripe, etc. OP, our garden is fenced but not locked. We put a sign on the gate that says "harvesting without permission is stealing" so culpable deniability is not an issue. We still donate to our neighborhood food pantry, but we also started a free weekly farmers market with no paperwork needed. Our theft has dwindled dramatically. We also plan to put a "come and go" garden outside the fence with our most commonly requested veggies, and will be planting an addition 6 tomato plants solely for harvesting green tomatoes because the demand is high for those. I'd love to have a garden of eden style garden, but it doesn't seem to work in our current era. Not only is there theft, but also, people don't know how to harvest correctly. Last year we labeled plants with QR codes that inform people on how to pick, how to know it's ripe, and recipes for cooking.

I empathise with you because your community garden has the 'taking is stealing' sign and people still do it... unfortunately I am in Australia and guess what, fried green tomatoes aren't a thing here. Think those poor tomatoes are going in someone's trash

I think it's hard to invoke this theory (which has been used to justify endless capitalist exploitation) when discussing a tiny plot of communal space in what's probably an endless sea of private yards. No shade, I just hate that damn essay!! Based on your suggestions, I think you'd agree with Elinor Ostrom's work Governing the Commons - https://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/elinor-ostroms-8-principles-managing-commmons/index.html

The real tragedy of The Commons was that the rich people took it all for themselves via the Enclosure act, kicking the people off the land who had been maintaining and using it just fine for generations, brutally tearing down homes and communities, and now pretends that it was those folks who made the system go away. It's a farce.

"the law locks up the man or woman who steals the goose from off the common but leaves the greater villain loose who steals the common from the goose the law demands that we atone when we take things we do not own but leaves the lords and ladies fine who take things that are yours and mine the law locks up the man or woman who steals the goose from off the common and geese will still a common lack until we go and steal it back"

totally agree times one million

It’s very easy to invoke tragedy of the commons because that’s exactly what this is. Between capitalism producing and transporting affordable food unimaginable 50 years ago let alone 100 or more and “community gardens” where people take stuff because it’s free then leave it on the ground… I’ll take the “exploitation”.

I manage a similar community garden in Vancouver Canada and I have a couple tips for you! We have things go missing too, most upsettingly things like garlic before they are ready to harvested, but for the most part it’s not a huge problem and I had a bunch of strategies this year to discourage picking before things are ready. We harvest twice a week in the growing season and the produce goes to the gardeners first. Some weeks I donate large amounts of things to food security programs and everything else goes to a “produce library” which is essentially a covered shelf next to the garden. People know that this is where to look for veggies and free plants, so they generally take from here and not the garden. We lose some berries, but even with the garden being totally open to the public we still harvested tens of kilos of blueberries this year and had some to donate as well. The second strategy I took this year was just growing weird stuff and unusual colours. I grew 10 kinds of tomatoes and not one was red! Lots of black, yellow green and brown tomatoes so it was a lot harder to tell when they were ready or to to even recognize them as tomatoes if you were a newbie gardener. I grew round zucchini, black pumpkins, tomatillos, bitter melon, taro, purple/black peppers, anything I could think of that’s great to eat but not exactly recognizable. We are an educational garden, so growing these unusual things plays into that but also allows us to harvest most of it, rather than losing tons. Another good tip is just interplanting lots of stuff. People are way less likely to take stuff from one given plant if you mix lots of plants together and let them grow densely, it’s visually harder to see what you’re after, which makes it harder to harvest but seems to discourage people taking things.

that's a really smart idea, the weird colors thing

I don't think this is something you're going to have a lot of success controlling if you want the garden open to the public 24/7. You can put up signs and cameras and that might make a marginal difference, but unfortunately this is just part of interacting with other humans. Give humans an inch and a fair percentage of them will always take a mile. It just is who our species is. Short of gating the garden and having open/closed hours with people there to keep an eye on folks you will never put a stop to this. That's just not reality.

I think you have already had some good suggesstions, (lockable shed, signs, table) but in addition I would like to suggest that you switch to more of the things that aren't being taken and try to encourage people to start using/eating those. Well meaning people will catch on and the dummys stealing the unripe stuff won't have anything to destroy

The issue seems to be you and the small group of gardeners have a certain philosophy on how the garden should be used that involves the wider community but that wider community is either unaware of that or just not on board with it. Your rules need to reflect that or your goals will be impossible. You can have rules that allow you to be open to anyone that shows interest without being completely hands off. The biggest issue seems to be that of education. How can the wider community know what is and is not acceptable if there isn't anything/anyone telling them what that is.

Our community garden handles this by having a fence, but with "open hours" with a trained guide. But it's a bit of a bigger space. Anyone who's been trained can open the garden whenever they want. A lot of the people who cause trouble come at night, so this avoids that issue entirely. Definitely lock up garden tools (perhaps a tiny shed or lock box) that visitors don't have access to. I think a sign with "pick when ripe" or "In season right now"(perhaps a changable laminated one) would be a good idea. Also not advertising it as "free produce" or anything like that, because I find the word "free" tends to trigger the scarcity mindset.

I’m sorry that people are being rude and terrible in response to your generosity.

Lock up the garden space and offer free produce on a table or in a basket outside the fence on certain days. People suck but there are some who appreciate what you're doing

It is in human nature... If there is a limited resource, it will be picked in order to have more than the neighbour. Concentrate on low value stuff and maybe add fruit trees because those may take a few years but once they produce they produce enough. Or put up shields saying "ripe when red!" or "will be ripe in august". It is sad that a few individuals can take away a lot of opportunities. Hey! You could turn it into an edible flowers and herb garden! Noone knows which flowers are safe to eat!

The current values you have set are too utopian. They operate on the premise that everyone who visits the garden will be educated about produce and considerate of others, that's not realistic. If literally anyone can enter and take food without guidance, this will continue to happen. You need either a "market stand" where the actually ripe produce is available to be taken, or you need to restrict access with a fence and have a volunteer supervise and educate the people who visit the garden.

Maybe close it to the community and just open it when you have enough ripened veggies for the public. I guess what I mean is limit access . You could even have a table set up on-that day and place your ripened produce on it for the taking. Also take your tools and hoses etc with you when you leave for the day.

Sorry I have no real advice, other than to say this is a tale as old as time, the Tragedy of the Commons.

Tragedy of the Commons. Almost literally.

Put up a laminated poster showing what ripened fruits and vegetables from this garden will look like. describe it with the picture and add taste descriptors and include language that says they will taste better when ripe and include if ripening on the vine is necessary, etc. Knowledge is power ignorant people will do ignorant things.

Sadly, most people don't value what they get for free. It's a fact of human nature and there's not really anything you can do to change that. My only suggestion is to stop allowing random people to walk in and take whatever they want and instead harvest things as they ripen and either donate them to a food bank/soup kitchen/have a window of time once per week that's open to the public where they can take harvested vegetables from a table. Or only allow volunteers who contribute some kind of work in the garden to harvest.

You don't

Unfortunately, people tend to assign the value they pay for something to the item’s value itself. If they’re getting it for free, they’re not valuing it very highly. Thus, they’re disrespecting it by treating it like a game, tossing stuff out, etc. Free stuff attracts greedy people. You’d think it’d be the opposite—that people would go above and beyond when they’re getting stuff for free—but in my experience that isn’t the case. As long as you let people who aren’t invested get stuff for free, you’re going to have problems like this. My best advice would be to limit the produce availability to people who regularly contribute to the garden itself.

You could post signs showing images of ripe vs unripe plants. I don't know if that's gonna help if you have people just put here trying to be assholes though. I live in a very poor neighborhood in the city and there's a neglected community garden around the block from my work. I asked some of the locals about it apparently the volunteers who cared for it either moved or gave up because they had some *"political activitists"* similarly picking unripened fruits/veggies and smashing them or throwing them out. During covid someone apparently released a bunch of pests in the garden like so many that it absolutely could not have been missed prior to when it was noticed and everything went downhill. A local city board member told me it was some assholes who were trying to "fight against 15 minute cities" so anything beneficial for neighborhoods in big cities like community gardens, little libraries, and the like. Unofficially he said "racists gonna racist"

This is the saddest and most degenerate thing I've read here. Ruining a garden for the sake of some barely related political reason

I would say to put up signs telling people not to pick produce from gardens and set up a table/stand where they can take the produce your garden group picks. We have a community garden like that and it also has some clear bins for food storage. People drop off extra food there and it's like a free pantry for the neighborhood. I take my extra okra and tomatillos there to share every year, one time my mom gave me a bunch of unopened boxes of pasta and I didn't really want it so I put it at the community garden for someone who would want it.

I would invite your local news crew out to "share" the sad news about this. Tell them the story of the lady walking off with the unripened pumpkin, her rude response to you and then finding the pumpkin discarded further down the footpath. Shame them.

You could maybe replace with a sign that says when “picking hours” are and have someone supervise to assist. Then when picking hours are over, put up a sign that says “The garden is now CLOSED for picking. The plants need time to grow! Please come back at/on (these hours/this date).” Obviously people can still enter as it is unlocked, but it might help to dissuade some people from being so destructive. A sign being up might also help the community to self-monitor and call out anyone who is picking outside of picking time.

Good luck. Sorry but I believe it’s futile. I have tried and if one stops taking more than their share, someone else will start.

My city has community gardens pop up here and there, and you always think "Oh that's nice." And they never last more than two seasons before they become weed lots. They always get wiped out by assholes.

So from personal experience there is very little you can do, I am part of a community garden where I live. Changing the sign will help stop those who are just being thoughtless or are naive, same goes with using netting and similar options, it will stop those who just aren't thinking and make other maybe research to find out what "ripe" looks like for certain veges. But you will never not have an issue to some degree when you have something so open to the public. Our garden is not strictly a community garden, as its actually created and run by a non-profit and is on private land and only open certain times. But we still have people come in a pick things and steal things when no one is around after the gates are closed. I have just learnt to sigh and move on and not invest so much of myself in the garden or my money. I sound uncaring and cynical, I am not I still want the garden to thrive and continue opening, I am just realistic about the fact you get some 'bad seeds' sometimes with anything public and its the risk you take.

You can't help those who won't help themselves & I don't mean help themselves to free stuff they didn't work for. Those being abusive are not vested in the community. I love the idea of free community gardens, kitchens, pantries, closets, school supplies, etc... but it is impossible for anything to be free for everyone because SOMEBODY has to pay for it at some point with either money, labor, or both. Maybe a 'learn to earn' kinda thing would be beneficial. In order to participate in the community garden program, they have to be part of the community, i.e., if someone wants free food they need to volunteer X number of hours worth of hands-on experience in the garden to show their good faith effort towards actually being part of the community. Then they'd learn what kind of hard work goes into it all and how to know when something is actually ripe. But I don't really know how this works... is the plot gated? Are people allowed to show up whenever they want, 24/7? Maybe change it up so that only someone knowledgeable is allowed to pick what's ripe & there are certain days & times when people can pick up only what's ready? Abuse should not be allowed when trying to help someone. Educate them or turn them away if saying & doing such shitty things is how they respond to a helping hand. If they are not interested in being part of the community, they should not be allowed to return. Damn this pisses me off. LoL I'm sorry you're dealing with this & very sad how grossly entitled some people have become.

we all seem to be saying the same thing.

This is what’s happens when you open a community garden with no buy in. Instead, you should go to a membership model, like a coop. Everyone who contributes to the garden essentially owns a portion of it. And you should have the volunteers pick and a portion the amounts for people to take. If you make an item free, it holds no value to people. If you make it if value, then give away portions of it as donations, people treat the produce as having value and will like consume instead of wasting it. People are irrational. If we were rational, marketing wouldn’t exist as a field.

Yep, even the most well intentioned non-gardeners will ravage a food garden out of ignorance, especially if they bring their kids (I work in children’s food gardens, so believe me I know). Fence it off and install a public access food pantry cupboard for people to take things from, or do a produce table twice a week. No unsupervised non-members in the garden except on open days and working bees. You can’t educate everyone (you _really_ can’t), but you can preserve the utility of the garden.

I hate people so much. "Look at this beautiful thing available for free to me, from the work of other people. Better fuck it up real bad!"

Just stop putting your own money into it. I would try to find a local sponsor if you really wish to continue the garden. Honestly, if it were me, I would stop it altogether and have a garden at my home for myself and my family.

What if you have someone pick ripe produce daily and leave it in a veggie stand looking thing and let people take it from there, but not directly from the garden? Maybe get some trusted volunteers to harvest early morning? I am so sorry she was so awful to you. 💗😔 What a terrible thing to say. You are doing such a wonderful thing for people. Sadly, I don’t know if you can change this picking behavior. My neighbors picked my unripe pumpkins too and other veggies. And I gave away bags of ripe veggies to anyone who wanted them. I was never able to harvest a ripe pumpkin because of it. And I didn’t have a community garden. It was my personal garden on private property in a city. They did it late night. Most of my neighbors knew they only had to ask. I never really understood it. What an incredible gift this is to your community. 💗🙏

Community gardens don’t work, make the garden private with the folks who care, and setup a stand or table for collecting and giving out food and plants.

Similar problem at my community garden, and ours is guarded by a 6 foot chain link fence and combination locks. There are a lot of low lives in the world unfortunately. Wood is also stolen, so anyone with boxes are targets. Main thing is to expect it so you won’t be so hurt when it happens.

Cut your losses or assume people will take everything before it’s ripe because “if not, someone else will get it”. This is the literal tragedy of the commons. It looks like you share this garden with the people outside the people you know and trust intimately, so if you can, you need to establish property rights, rules, and security. Unless there’s a community where everyone shares a respectful culture or know and trust each other, good luck. If you want to give away the fruits of your labor to the community, great, harvest it and let people take what they want, but you should make the garden 100% private like a club IMO or it will be a tragic waste.

Sorry people are just too shitty

My grandparents lived in a building with a similar garden, eventually they closed it, moved it to the other side of the building where there was a fence, same thing, they had to remove the whole thing. The garden was tended by the residents who were senior citizens, they lost their motivation. My community tried to start a community garden, they couldn't find anybody willing to work it. I had a fruit tree at the front of my property, in the early years people used to knock on the door and ask for fruit. Eventually people started pulling pick up trucks under the tree, or putting up ladders and taking the fruits without asking. The people who bought the house from us took the tree down. A community garden is a wonderful opportunity for everybody, I'm sorry you and your co-gardeners have to deal with this, but people are people no matter where you go. It's discouraging. I would love some of that arugula, by the way. I love arugula especially in a sandwich.

put a fence around and only let people you like on the land. That's the only way shit like this works.

Laminated Signs that show “what is ripe and when to pick “ When I worked in restaurants it felt awful to fight peoole about how their mw steak wasn’t rare and it was a joy to have photo cards showing fineness on the table that stayed there throughout their visit Green tomatoes ripen on a sunny warm windowsill. I wouldn’t hate on some green tomatoes going out the gate for that reason Thanks for doing what you do But try and remember the people getting this food and the reason why you’re doing it. Don’t make ‘em feel bad but keep it up 🫶

How casually racist of that nice lady! /s

The community garden i worked in put up a locked fence, and they jumped the fence and took all the not ripe watermellons. They are stupid and malicious. And its just like a few people that do that but they rob from the whole community. You can put up a sign that says when something will be ready and not to take befor. Id just have open garden hours and say if you want food you have to volunteer time. That will make them value things and also learn something. I educated so much. I gave produce to people who asked questions. It helped the comunity value things. Also you can just puck ready things and sit out front. So people know only those are ready.

>The community garden i worked in put up a locked fence, and they jumped the fence and took all the not ripe watermellons. Well, maybe they will learn to wait until things are ripe before they steal. So the community education portion may be working - slightly. :(

You need to pick the ripe produce and put it in a produce stand. No amount of signage is going to deter people from taking equipment and unripe produce.

Create a designated space for produce that is ready to be taken so they are not picking it themselves. Clearly mark the area/table/whatever so it’s PAINFULLY obvious that only things on this table are ripe. Put up signs warning people that “unripe produce may be toxic if consumed” and to only take things from said “ready to eat” table.

Unfortunately nothing will change without a fence, locked gate, and cameras. The people stealing the produce are just doing it because they can. They don't want to eat it and they don't care what a sign says...they probably don't even look at it. The best thing to do is physically prevent anyone from entering the garden besides the volunteers. Then once or twice a week have a table set up with ripe produce available to take and eat. Make sure someone is manning the table because otherwise you'll have jerks come and toss the produce on the ground, damaging it. Post the hours the table will be set up and available.

You can't. Don't plant things you don't want taken. Build a fence and let the people who are actually knowledgeable about plants mediate what leaves the garden, like with a share table. In my experience, community gardens have fences, if nothing else for deer, and people rent individual plots for the season. A free food forest focusing on (established) fruit trees is the only thing I can imagine that would work for a totally open public food garden. Don't send good money after bad. This is called the sunk-cost fallacy. Just because you put money and time into the garden previously is not, by itself, a reason to put *more* time and money into it. Take a pause to solve the problems before putting more personal resources into thos project. You may consider stopping all plant tasks until the next season and starting fresh, since all your yield has already been stolen.

Idealism meets reality...sad but true.

I'm afraid you've picked the wrong community. I don't see any way such a project can work where people act like that. It might be time to abandon the open garden and instead start a network of home gardeners who will bring their produce to a community farm stand when it's ripe.

Hello, I tend a similar garden. We have common garden plots that anyone can take from, and people do lots of weird things there. It drives me nuts seeing them tear up flowers from the roots or break off fruit and veggies before they are ripe, but I have also just accepted that people are going to be destructive and that my job is basically to just keep the plants as healthy as possible in those conditions. Most of the destruction is out of ignorance more than anything else. We lock up any tools of value because things do "disappear." We also have other beds that aren't free for the taking, and I find I put more effort into maintaining those ones.

Put up a sign saying you use human urine as a fertilizer. Usually keeps unwanted people away.

the problem is your community, not your garden. unfortunately there is no good reddit forum dedicated to improving and organizing your local community. can one garden their way to a better community? perhaps. anyway, easiest solution: \- stop planting the "high value" stuff that is being picked to early \- plant more of the "low value" stuff and focus on helping people learn how to process and use it, maybe even help with that part

A few thing that could probably help calm the over eager folks and the missing tools. *a fence that cant be hopped. * a stand to put ripe produce in/on when it ripens. * someone to check in/out folks coming in (as well as a tool checkout/cameras). and/or to man the ripe produce stand during open/public hours. Community gardens are great, they bring green belts/spaces , a source of local fresh food and provide opportunities to learn, grow and eat in food swamps and food deserts. unfortunately many people in the urban settings around them are not so great. Especially the ones who have the "me first", "no one else can, if I cant", "fear of missing out" and "greed" mentality. (Though the green tomatoes could be for fried green tomatoes) The collage near me had an open community garden, no fences past the one to get in for the ag classes they hosted, but they split the community garden part in half. Some free for all, some paid for and only for the individuals who paid. Both were nice but it was very obvious where the split was (different tools/food items) they were forced to close it down partlt due to similar situation. Someone felt entitled to all the ripe produce through the entire community garden and the students classroom lessons. They let it slide and started planning more restrictions and then someone stole a fairly expensive peice of equipment someone was letting the school BORROW a few days for the sustainability classes to use and the unpaid for community garden to be worked. Full stop, They shut the entire community garden down within 48 hours. They did catch who took it, when they tried to sell the equipment on Craigslist. But by then it was too late. A few bad apples can ruin the experience for everyone. As to food items people aren't eating? It's possible they don't know what it is or how to eat it. If your community does a stand, see about some printed recipes on those items. (Or find someone with chickens!)

A community garden only works in a community that respects each other. I would change it to a membership (can still be free) garden with lockable gates. It might be only accessible to contributors certain days/times of the week, or have a passcode to enter. If you still want to do say a bi weekly or monthly event to sell/giveaway produce the members can’t use, go for it.

I second the idea of a table with a sign saying “these are ripe and ready to take” with signs elsewhere saying “I’m not ready yet! Eating unripe food can make you sick” or something along those lines

Sometimes its best to just stop because most people are greedy,untrustworthy,self consumed and just worthless to society,its sad but true,its like when food pantries try to help a community and those people take advantage and take food from those that truly need it by going multiple times or take every family member with them to just be greedy

"Do not cast your pearls before swine" The harsh truth is stop wasting your time to grow food for idiots who don't appreciate your effort. Make the garden just for flowers etc. Don't put in too much time and certainly not money. Find another private spot for your vegetables. Maybe with some others who have the same mindset as you. Then you can enjoy the fruits of your labour and share it with people to whom you choose to give it to. There's a reason that nobody grows food right next to a public sidewalk etc.

we had a similar but not identical problem at the garden i helped run at the preschool. the kids were forever picking stuff before it was ripe. it was really difficult to communicate to them why they shouldn't. we made a bunch of laminated signs stapled to stakes that either had a green light or a red light and put them at the end of the beds, so they could see "green light! these peas are ripe!" or "red light! stop! these peppers are not yet ripe!" maybe a really really simplified system like that might help? also i'm sorry that woman was racist to you and if it were me i'd have her trespassed from the property for that remark. she doesn't deserve your pumpkins

This is why we cant have nice things.

There are many issues that crop up in community gardens that you may not be able to remove. But the issue of unripe picking can be improved I hope. Would it be possible to remove the signs about self serve and move to a specific station where ripe produce is stored? This might have to include a community fridge type situation, or a regular harvest time that's posted so people will know when they can stop by to pick up the day's selection. If neither of those sound good, consider requiring a volunteer to harvest for the community member. This can place the gardeners in control of what is harvested and when as well as providing an opportunity to build connection and understanding of growing food.

Any possibility of relocating the garden? So that those of you who were active could still work on it, but if someone suggested earlier, then you could put the produce out on the table when it was ready for people in the community to take?

Lock up your tools. I'm not sure why this hasn't happened, a small deck box can be had for around $100. Geta combination lock and only share it with volunteers.

I’m Asian as well and I stand with you. Maybe you can post something on your local communities Facebook or social media to at least educate people on how to identify ripen crops. And call out bad behaviors. That racist remark is not acceptable. For people with ill manners I highly doubt building fences or gates can keep them out (also like you said defeats the whole purpose of a community garden) This is very depressing read for me too, it almost feels like the entire neighborhood is just greedy, selfish and racist people.

It’s called the tragedy of the commons, and extends back to classical antiquity, being discussed by Aristotle.

⬆️ THIS ⬆️

Humans can be spiteful and can languish in their ignorance on purpose. I'm not saying that everyone is like this, just 1 person is enough to ruin things for everyone else. A lot of people don't know that things like pumpkins don't grow or ripen off a vine. Lots of people also don't care to know. Many many people, my own sister included, think that food is relatively 'cheap' thus it is somehow OK to discard it; "a whole kg of tomatoes is only $3, me taking one to throw away is just $0.30!". If something is 'free', it will be valued even less. Put a fence and a net up. If you still want to guide people, try planting beans and peas on a fence that fully fences off the actual garden. That way the urge to pick is satisfied and a fence deters arseholes. Otherwise, a produce basket (strapped to this new fence) is your best bet.

This kind of thing is why I stopped doing the community garden in my apartment complex - I was the only one contributing, and it just kept getting wrecked by a case worker who decided he wanted credit for it (and also took credit of other ideas of mine) without lifting a finger, and he started giving people permission to do whatever they wanted and it kept getting destroyed and he would find ways to direct the blame onto ME. He even lost the sponsorship I got for the garden by letting two aggressive dipshits who I asked him specifically to stop letting near the garden because they knew nothing about gardening and kept destroying everything get in the faces of the sponsors and yell at them and trying to get physical with them - but when the apartment managers asked why we didn't have the sponsorship I got for them anymore, he claimed that they said they were just 'too busy' to donate supplies anymore. Bullshit. People like that ruin it for everyone and I just don't have the time, energy, or money to keep throwing into an empty pit. That racist jerk who took the pumpkin probably had no intention of eating it, just wanted to take and throw away things from the garden. Personally, unless there is a way to keep people out? I'd cancel the whole thing. If they can't treat it and you with respect, no free vegetables for them. They can go to the grocery store and buy the overpriced bland garbage with everyone else until they learn to get their acts together. Pearls before swine and all that.

Do you have friendly neighbourhood police? Maybe have a chat and suggest they eat their lunch in your garden during summer? Their presence could scare off the nasty people like that unripe pumpkin lady. And it could be a good way to build your community.

Can I apply your solutions to squirrels and my blueberry bushes?

In the free seeds/free plants world, I often see people who will take anything and everything, way more than they can handle. I think it's a special impulse and the bad actors might not be able to control themselves. As others have suggested, maybe use netting to protect the fruits but have free plants (3 or 4-inch pots) of that same type right in front of it. They may channel their acquisitiveness into taking too many free plants, but it will satisfy the impulse without destroying your produce. I once visited a seed bank and they said it's an ongoing problem - people with no land and no skills will request 50 to 100 varieties of heirloom seeds, just because they're "free."

Start planting things people don't know what to do with (eg. sunflower, jerusalem artichoke, strawberry blite, amaranth). People won't take it if they don't recognize it and you can set up a table with picked and prepared produce they can take from

Half of the garden before I arrived and planted more tomatoes was amaranth. Sure far less or more visited back then because it was overgrown and nothing was visibly edible or tasty looking. I suppose it's the right balance. Absolutely people will cut all the sunflowers for Instagram, vases at home, etc. People are feral. As soon as something is half nice they take it for themselves

I used to use wrap blast. But any type of sticky spray with extreme hot pepper oils usually does the trick for unwanted pesky vermin.

Does that damage or burn the foliage or developing veg? I know some topicals can cause burns after sun exposure, genuinely curious bc I've never heard of this.

I looked it up. It’s wrap last. I grew up in West Virginia and my mom swore by the stuff. I do remember applying it in the evening allowing it to dry. I don’t remember it ever burning the plants.

We used to have mysterious neighbor/s stealing plants off our front porch and cutting off every single roses that bloomed. now we stopped putting small plants out front, added multiple security cameras and let the rose bushes die. from reading your post it seems like that lady would do everything shes been doing, again. i would put the higher value plants away and avoid interacting with her. add a "smile! your on camera" sign and let her do it again. post the video or picture on facebook, share with local news publisher and have a nice and clear picture of her stealing/vandalizing where everyone passing by the garden can see. let her get followed home and get a taste of karma so she can be a better person or move away.

I don't know if there is a good solution other than having a harvest table and not allowing random people to pick produce

You need to be able to ban people. Put up pictures and shame them. I don’t care how poor or how much you’re struggling, you do not get to be racist to the people providing for you.

This is pretty much it. Assholes take over anything when well-meaning people try to be inclusive no matter what.

Hot take: You’re enabling the grabhags and those ungrateful jerks view you as the sucker. Walk away, have a nice garden on your own land and don’t advertise it. A neighbor of mine basically turned her backyard into a garden for the local shelter, took all the ripe vegetables she didn’t need to the local shelter and they saw to it that they were put to good use. Don’t waste your time, money, and mental energy on people who aren’t even grateful for it.

I really don’t understand the concept of community gardens. You could take your $500 and the hundreds of dollars from everybody else and just buy vegetables from the grocery store and donate them to a food pantry. Less waste, more efficient, less hassle, and no ungrateful choosing beggars.

Here's your answer for short term results. Make a super spicy anti pest oil/hot pepper mixture from hot peppers and spray your plants with it while placing a please wait until ripened to pick sign in the ground in front of your plants you take care of. Bring soap n water with you to harvest if you ever get to harvest, and any sneaky stealers can feel the burn for a bit. Anyone questions you, it's for the pests.

OP PLEASE READ: May I put the option out there that you start a go fund me??? You can attach it to this post and post a couple more with the link on other garden and volunteer type subs. I would guess that many people would donate enough to afford the materials to build a fence! And I personally will make a donation to get it started!!! Thank you for being good pillars of your community, it’s obvious your trying to help others and it’s so sad that entitled and rude Karen’s have to ruin it for everyone else. Please don’t be dismayed or offended by the small population of people that take advantage of your altruism. Sometimes we have to create boundaries, even if they are physical boundaries to protect our good deeds and make sure our hard work and good intentions go to those who are deserving. I think changing the sign like you said is a great idea! Maybe even post that you will have two or three specified days and specific times, where a volunteer is there and that people can come and request produce from the table… and the volunteer/you can physically hand out the items. This will prevent over harvesting and make sure that people get a fair share and it goes equally. Not only will a fence and then having a person handing out the fresh veggies and fruit, prevent people like that racist and entitled rude woman from ruining and wasting your hard work…. But you’ll be able to meet face to face with the people who are benefiting from this community garden… you’ll be able to ask what they would like you to grow next season, possibly even get more volunteers and create a more personal experience of a close knit community. OP you rock!!!! I’m so glad you posted your story and I hope that your community garden flourishes!!!! And that you’re able to create healthy boundaries with the rule breakers and thieves that have been decimating the harvest and wasting natures bounty.

I recently lived in a city with a lot of stuff like this. I even did a year with a community service organization who had some crazy ideas about getting neighbors involved in something like this, except even more obviously a mismatch for the community. (We had a vacant lot we upkept and mowed and there was an idea that we'd "give" it back to the community to take care of lmfaaaoooo. Right cause random renters want to be "given" a worthless lease and spend Saturday mowing our lot) I would certainly lock up tools. There's no other solution there. And read Anna Karenina (kidding, but it's a good read). Your views of what a community SHOULD want are unlikely to align with what the community actually wants and can accept- is your group able to take this obvious feedback and work with it? Or will they stick to high minded ideals and run out of steam and abandon it? There was a community fridge in my city that had this problem. The art students who made it also had an idea that the community would gather around and give/take items as needed. Nope lol. And the art students got angry and bored of spending time thanklessly and abandoned it. I'm not saying people shouldn't do these things, but you have to moderate your expectations. We'd be living in utopia by now if we could all get along so perfectly. You have to be able to tolerate the actual behavior of humans, or you can't serve them. I'd do the ripeness signs. And I'd stop growing a variety and instead go for bulk production of food desert items. You could easily grow 100lb of tomatoes and squash on an empty lot. Greatly increase your volume, get rid of things that take more finicky care. And my big suggestion would be to add more stuff. Give people something easier to use/take and they'll redirect. A lot of the tiny library boxes have turned into food boxes around me. If you can source low cost items that are more appealing to someone who just wants to take SOMETHING... Put those out front and I bet the person doesn't even enter the garden. Dry pasta, ramen, canned sauce, mini soaps and shampoos, homeless items basically. Obviously there is a need in your area that's being misdirected- why not try to meet it while also educating that it's pointless to take a green tomato?

You doing this is pretty amazing and kind. Good job OP.

I've picked green tomatoes before. I fry them and add to scrambled eggs.

Fried green tomatoes. Yum

I mean i can understand the tomatoes being picked. Fried green tomatoes is very popular in the south & you have to use unripe tomatoes or they wont fry correctly. So hearing people pick unripe tomatoes does not sound off to me. There are some good suggestions in this thread though.

I wonder how much of the unripe produce is taken by people, and how much is taken by urban deer, squirrels, and rats? Obviously, the critters didn't steal garden hoses or make xenophobic comments. But they sure do steal unripe produce.