The thieves came late one night, quickly loading 10 painted and decorated garden beds onto the back of a truck before fleeing the Race Street Community Garden.
In Fairmount, thieves recently swiped two large composting bins from the neighborhood garden. At a North Richland Hills garden, vandals ripped a perfectly ripe pumpkin off the vine before smashing it nearby.As the number of community gardens across Tarrant County has soared, so has the number of thefts, from tomatoes and melons tended for months to pricey tools and equipment. No official numbers are kept on the number of thefts, but advocates say pilfered produce can be an unfortunate part of community gardening."You spend night after night working in 105 degrees, and then someone takes your hard work," said Terri McIlraith, who is helping to organize the Race Street garden in Fort Worth's Riverside neighborhood. "We were bummed, but we won't let this stop us."Community gardens allow gardeners to rent a plot and share the costs of equipment, water and overall improvements. Typically housed in vacant lots, many gardens avoid constructing large fences, either for financial or philosophical reasons.At Fort Worth's South Side Church of Christ community garden, growers did not build a fence because they wanted to make the garden accessible to the community, said Mac McAlister, who coordinates the project.A cantaloupe would occasionally go missing, inciting irritation among members. But this summer, thieves broke into a padlocked shed and looted hundreds of dollars in tools, including wheelbarrows, garden hoses and shovels."It could not have come at a worse time. The garden was really picking up steam," McAlister said. "It put a black cloud over our project."One recent morning, members of Texas Christian University's Wesley Foundation garden noticed their lawn mower was missing. At first, they thought someone had borrowed it, said Megan Davidson, director of the Wesley Foundation. But it never turned up.At the Race Street garden, families and gardeners spent several weeks painting and decorating the garden beds, which were four-by-eight feet and built from repurposed and donated wood. The beds were being stored on a slab near the garden waiting to be installed. Neighbors reported seeing a truck pull up to the garden late one night.Members are now seeking donations for new beds."We weren't just painting and decorating garden beds," McIlraith said. "We were building our community."Vandals struck the North Richland Hills Common Ground Community Garden, which has 70 plots and picnic benches. Dianne Spradling, garden coordinator, recalled arriving one morning to find shattered glass in an information kiosk. And last year, vandals smashed a gardener's pumpkin.The owner of the pumpkin was not pleased, she said, but the woman kept her sense of humor, outlining the pumpkin with sidewalk chalk to resemble a murder scene.Several area gardens are discussing ways they can better protect their properties, said Katey Rudd, who coordinates community gardens for the Tarrant Area Food Bank.Participants are working to educate their neighbors about the gardens and the value they bring to the community. South Side Church of Christ is building a thick wall of vines, greens and plants around its garden. Some groups have discussed planting small neighborhood crops outside the garden, with produce free to the public.At the Fairmount garden in Fort Worth, thieves ripped off some cantaloupes last year. And this summer, they stole two compost bins. Susan Harper, who is gardening three Fairmount plots this summer, considers the recent thefts unusual."Community gardens typically don't have a lot of problems with thefts," Harper said. "Most people who participate in a community garden would happily hand over excess produce to anyone who asks."Sarah Bahari, 817-390-7056Twitter: @sarahbfwHave more to add? News tip? Tell us
