Pilfered produce at Clark Street Community Garden have renters riled

By Kelly Terpstra, kterpstra@charlescitypress.com

A thief in the night or an unsuspecting vegetable lover run amok?

These are questions that currently don’t have answers, but have several Charles City residents riled up.

The Clark Street Community Garden was started in 2015 as a place for applicants to rent 4-by-16-foot beds to plant, grow and then harvest their bounty of vegetables.

That’s not how it’s working out this summer.

Someone or something is taking the vegetables without the owners’ consent.

The garden – located at the corner of Clark and Leland streets across from the frisbee golf course – has seen green beans, tomatoes, onions, peppers, carrots and beets stolen.

The problem has occurred periodically  for several years, but has gotten much worse this summer, according to Dennis Petersen, a member of the Charles City Parks and Rec Board.

“Last year I didn’t notice it, but last year was not a very good year for gardening,” said Petersen. “This year is completely opposite. Everything just looks great.”

Petersen and his wife put plenty of time, energy and money into working the soil to come up with an abundant harvest in their two rented beds that feature many different varieties of heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers. He said to come back and see their produce gone is very upsetting.

“Some of the peppers she grows, you can’t buy the seed in the United States,” said Petersen. “Some of the stuff they stole wasn’t even ripe. I suppose they thought, ‘they’re peppers, they’re green.” Well, the type of pepper we grow isn’t really ripe until it turns bright red. But they took them anyway.”

Social media has been aglow with several renters at the community garden who have brought attention to the problem online and stated their vegetables have been stolen. An entire patch of green beans was swiped from one plot and a cabbage patch was sheared off at the base by what appeared to be a knife, according to posts made on a Facebook site.

“It’s very frustrating because most of the gardeners, if they have surplus, would be more than willing to share,” said Petersen.

Petersen said part of the problem may be a misunderstanding of what the garden is. A sign identifies the site as the Clark Street Community Garden, and some people may think that means the produce grown there is available to the public.

“I think they’re working on new signage to try to explain that these are private gardens,” said Petersen, but he added, “My experience has been, if somebody’s going to go in there and steal, a sign isn’t going to stop them, probably.”

Adding to the possible confusion is just across Clark Street is a developing “edible arboretum” with small trees planted that will bear fruit in the future that will be available to the public to come and pick.

Petersen said he doesn’t know when the perpetrator or individuals are stealing the community garden produce, but he has talked to a couple of Charles City Police officers about the vanishing vegetables.

“They say they drive by frequently, (but) if you see somebody there, how do you know it’s not a gardener?” he said.

The area receives a lot of foot traffic, as it is just half a block down from the trail system along the riverfront. Clark Street also has plenty of cars driving by the garden day and night as well.

Some of the solutions suggested on social media include a locked fence with keys for the renters, or a trail camera to take pictures or video of perpetrators. Some people suggested two trail cams would be necessary — one to take pictures of people stealing vegetables, the other to take pictures of the person who steals the first trail cam.

Petersen didn’t know if a trail cam would work to record video of the area.

“It’s a high traffic area. You’re going to take a lot of pictures,” he said.

As with the trail cam, a fence would come with considerable cost and Petersen didn’t know how realistic it would be to construct one.

“It could be a matter of community education,” said Petersen. “I’m naive enough I’d like to think that’s what it is. I don’t think that’s what it is.”

Petersen and his wife are debating whether to purchase beds next year after two years of gardening in the community space. Several other renters who voiced their opinion online expressed similar sentiment.

“My fear is and we’re almost to this point, that we’re not going to rent again,” said Petersen. “The people that take the time to take care of their area – it makes you question whether you want to go back or not.”

The garden has 24 beds that rent for $15 each. Proceeds go to  Community Revitalization.

A large group of individuals and organizations helped start the community garden with an initial 12 beds four years ago. Grant money later added 12 additional beds.

“I want to see it be successful. I think it’s a great thing. It’s better than just a vacant lot sitting there, for heaven’s sake,” said Petersen.

He said that, depending on when frost hits, the gardening season could last until the end of this month. He’s especially hopeful that one of his pineapple tomatoes will survive and not go missing like many of the other vegetables that have been plucked by the unknown pillagers.

“If they steal that one I’m going to be hot,” said Petersen.