Vandals in the Garden

THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER is heaven for a productive vegetable
garden. Tomatoes slowly change from green to red, zucchinis stretch
their impressive bulk, and corn ripens on the stalk. There is bounty in
every row. Such was the case at the Earl Boyles Community Garden before
vandals struck in the night, on Tuesday, August 11, destroying a
season’s worth of hard work, and more importantly, a needed source of
food.

The Earl Boyles Garden is just one of 32 community gardens around
the city. The program, which began in 1975, has long helped feed
Portlanders from a wide variety of social and ethnic backgrounds. Many
people rely on the gardens to provide fresh produce for their families.
But for those tending plots in the small garden at Earl Boyles Park at
SE 112th and Boise, much of that produce has been lost.

Amber Clark has been working the same plot in the garden for two
years. She became involved through an Earl Boyles Elementary
after-school program that offers children and their families the
opportunity to learn how to garden. The program offers guidance and
support to participants as they plant in the spring, tend the garden
through the year, and harvest vegetables to supplement their diet.
Clark’s family shares the plot with four others.

“This was all full and green,” she says sweeping her hand across a
barren square of dirt. “Now this is what’s left.”

She walks around the perimeter of the plot, naming all of the
vegetables that were already producing, but are now gone. “We had a
whole row of tomato plants here. We had zucchini here, cucumbers here.
Some bush beans.” She points to a thick, four-inch stub sticking out of
the ground. “That used to be an artichoke that was as tall as you,” she
says.

“We didn’t know anything about gardening,” Clark says. “But we
learned. It got my kids interested.” Her family planned on getting
their own plot in the garden at a cost of $75 and a $10 deposit. The
paperwork was ready. Now Clark says her family isn’t so sure, citing
the cost of starts and plants wasted to vandals.

The destruction in the garden was random and vicious, with some
plots hit harder than others. Structures were especially targeted, and
the remains of trellises litter the grounds.

Robert Haley stands at the edge of his father’s plot, looking
dismayed. It’s one of the more devastated areas of the garden. He’s
helped his father, who uses a wheelchair, to plant and tend the plot.
His nephew has also pitched in.

“He was hoping to grow a pumpkin,” Haley says, patting his nephew on
the head. “But they just cut them right off.”

The plot feeds Haley, his father and his nephew. Haley was looking
forward to canning tomatoes for winter. He tells me that the vandalism
has been an ongoing problem.

“I told them they should put a camera up so people could watch
online and call the police if they see anything,” he says.

The problem is that when the latest and most destructive vandalism
occurred, people did see something, but they are allegedly too
intimidated to speak to the police.

Gardener Alice Chavez has difficulty understanding that. She’s been
gardening at Earl Boyles for three years, tending a plot with her
partially disabled son. She’s heard that the vandals were a group of
kids and one adult.

“I don’t know who sees all these things and doesn’t do anything
about it,” she says.

Her garden plot was spared the brunt of the attack but she still
lost tomato plants and peppers. “It doesn’t look bad,” she says. “But
it’s the idea and principle of it. Once you’ve watered the seeds and
planted, it’s an investment.”

And it’s the destruction of that investment that saddens her. She’s
been working in the community to help develop Earl Boyles Park for
years. Without saying much more, she walks along the plots, sighing
heavily before riding off on her bicycle with a basket of five salvaged
tomatoes and a broken bottle.

On Saturday, August 22, the Community Gardens program will be
holding a work party at the Boyles Community Garden (SE 108th &
Francis) beggining at 10 am. All are invited to come and help repair
the garden. It is asked that people come to work, or bring vegetable
donations, tools, and starts to help the garden get back on track. Call
the Community Gardens program at 823-1612 to find out how you can help
or volunteer for a community garden in your neighborhood.