Good Neighbors

Hello my fellow gardeners, Most all community garden members are great, great, great neighbors. They are genuinely concerned about toxic chemicals, friendly, and happy to talk to you about what they’re growing, and how they are doing it. And I congratulate those of you who _work_ at being good neighbors as it does require work. And I would like to provide a couple of tips for maybe even being better neighbors. In my opinion a community garden is a small copy of homeowner neighborhoods.
A good neighbor doesn’t allow their behavior to impact their neighbor’s property in any way. While it may seem incredibly trivial to be worried about stepping quickly into another person’s garden plot to look at their beautiful flowers, or to allow the water you’re using to water to also spray into your neighbors plot. It should be. It is extra work to walk around with the hose to make sure to spray only into your plot but that is work to make a community.
Your neighbor may have very delicate seedlings planted in the ground and spraying with a hose (or looking at their flowers) tramples them. Maybe there are some who say that; “Well they shouldn’t have seedlings that delicate in their garden. They should start them in their own house or so.” But that is exactly the point of being a good neighbor. It is not our responsibility or right to say how others should garden on their plot. It is their plot and theirs _alone_ to do with as they want while they are a member. It is our responsibility to _work_ (even if it means 10 seconds longer and 4 ft to move the hose) at being good neighbors. The best to everyone. Bob