Rather than outside in the breezy March sunshine, the annual spring meeting for our community garden was held on Zoom yesterday morning. To be honest, it's never been my favorite part of gardening there: so often the presentation and approval of the budget and bylaws devolves into a bit of a scolding session, and this meeting was no exception.
Particularly unpleasant was when, while discussing a bit of controversial rule-smithing, the membership chair unmuted, and brandishing the waiting list for plots, assured us all that if we didn't care to conform to expectations, 150 of our fellow citizens would jump at the chance to get their gardens planted by May 15. (Now June 1-- score one for the democratic process!)
Later in the call, the question of "brown space" came up. Were our gardens supposed to be at least 30 percent clear of growth or no more than 30 percent unplanted?
"It's at least," one of the chief gardeners confirmed. "We made the rule 17 years ago because of the cicadas. Well, really it was the rats. There were so many cicadas for them to eat, that the rat population in the garden exploded, and they were everywhere. If there was no brown space, a plot would be infested with rats burrowing and breeding under the plants."
Silent gasps of alarm lit up the digital gallery of gardeners, myself included, because this is the year that Brood X will emerge again, just as soon as the soil warms up to 65 degrees. And if a pandemic and billions of cicadas weren't enough, the thought of battling hoards of rats, too, was more than a little daunting.
Eeek - Cicadas and rats? No wonder the title of this post - so many plagues upon us. Your description of the threat tactics used to ensure conformity is so disheartening - but well-written. Keep us posted on the ground temp - I'm curious to see how bad Brood X will be.
ReplyDeleteOh my. I can not like rats. Perhaps you all should invest in a garden cat.
ReplyDeleteToo many rules and too many plagues! Keep us posted on how you construct your space and how you keep the pests away.
ReplyDeleteOh, I almost forgot. Finally, something interesting is going to happen around here.
ReplyDeleteSomehow it never occurred to me that rats eat insects, including cicadas. Or that filling a garden with plants would make it easier for rats to hide out in the garden. Thanks for the gardening lessons. And I endorse Mary's suggestion that you have a garden cat.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, as a co-gardener, I attended a couple of those meetings in stand-up, in person mode. I remember the annual scolding most vividly of all. So unnecessary! HMU if you get in a time crunch, with nephew off on other adventures.
ReplyDeleteI had naively pictured your community garden as a place of nothing but pure, communal bliss with a lot of hat-tipping and smiling nods. I guess you gotta have some rules.
ReplyDelete