LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Posted on 22 May 2014 by LeslieM

RE: Community gardens

Dear Editor: The Deerfield Beach city commission voted to explore community gardens.

All they need to do is look at history. The Pilgrims had a community garden for their first couple of years and they almost starved to death. The Soviet Union and China had communal gardening and they failed. The reason is that in every society there are many slackers who don’t show up for the work, but want some of the food at harvest time.

Apparently, the city has experimented with communal gardening in Constitution Park and failed. For years I have been taking my 94-yearold mother for walks in Constitution Park. They have a fenced-in garden area with two papaya plants in one corner and the rest is weeds.

The bad news is that the commission stated that this be one of the first items considered for the budget.

As far as I can tell, only one person has asked for this.

If a group of people commit to doing the work, the city could offer some land for their use, but if they make this a budget item, those tomatoes that we can buy for 99 cents a lb. will end up costing the tax payers $100 a lb.

Robert Lloyd

Deerfield Beach

Editor’s note: St. Paul’s United Methodist, at 244 SE 2 Ave., Deerfield Beach, FL 33441 (the same street as City Hall, just south of Hillsboro Boulevard) was offering community garden plots a few years back. 954- 427-9407.

The Fruitful Field, neighboring Deerfield on the acreage around Parkway United Methodist, 100 NE 44 St., Pompano Beach, FL 33064 offers a spectacular model of how a community garden can benefit a whole community, as the fresh produce grown supplements area food banks.

www.thefruitfulfield.org.

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