The growin' o' the veggies shall now commence! I'm in my third year as a gardener at Troy Community Gardens. Before that, I've held community garden plots in Sun Prairie and De Forest for many years, in addition to my own home gardens. I always dreamed about the day I'd move back to Madison, where I grew up, and have a plot at Troy. It is pretty much the whole enchilada in the community garden world. You can Google Community Groundworks to read about all their amazing works, which I won't go into here, for brevity's sake. It's an impressive list. Personally, my actual experience gardening here has been good. Not perfect, but good. Although rototilling is available, it's generally believed to not be a great thing to do to your soil structure, so I've never done it. Every year, I regret that decision. The soil is heavy clay and has more deep rooted aggressive weeds than I have ever seen anywhere. It's exhausting to keep up with, although each year I've been able to gain a little more headway. From large grasses to pigweed to dandelions to Creeping Charlie to thistles to very invasive skunky mint, it's a lot. My garden yields here have been smaller overall than any other garden I've ever had. Certain things, like peas and cucumbers, just don't do well for me here at all. Other things do great, like flowers of every kind. Every year there is a different challenge, from rodents overrunning the place in drought years to swarms of flea beetles every spring. But that's garden life, in general. My main concern is that the organic standard and rules are not consistently upheld. I've seen people liberally dusting their crops with pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, all of which are banned in the contract we all sign. When I have complained to management about this, I'm told "it's the language barrier, they don't understand". Well, someone needs to make them understand, right? I find this very frustrating and discouraging. Another thing that I don't like is that, weed growth being what it is there, they insist that you bag up and cart away all weeds pulled and dispose of them elsewhere. Where are we supposed to discard them? Everywhere else I've community-gardened has had a weed pile off at one end of the property. Weeds are heavy, VERY heavy, and bagging and putting them in a landfill is not the answer. Most people like me who live in apartments cannot just start a discarded weeds pile at their homes, either. I also don't like that people are allowed to, and often do, smoke while gardening. This pretty much ruins the experience for nonsmokers who appreciate clean air. Among the many pluses of Troy Gardens is a nice supply of shovels and other garden implements neatly kept for all to use; ample water supply (although they don't turn it on until late May, which is problematic for putting in early crops like spinach and potatoes); the ability to plant perennials like asparagus, and no fall cutoff date for removing everything from your plot. You can garden year round if you build the proper cold frames, etc. out there. They are also very open minded as far as what you can put in your garden. Many people build huts and other interesting structures. Also, most other gardeners are friendly and helpful. I've made some good friends there, and we share tasks, advice, and garden bounty at times. read more

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