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posted May 1, 2006
Community garden vandalism at the Riverdale Meadow Community Garden
behind the City Adult Learning Centre near the Danforth and Broadview
From Kyla Dixon-Muir, April 22:
The garden was very seriously vandalized on Easter Sunday night. I had been there until dinner time, and when I went back on Monday afternoon I was truly horrified and distraught over what I discovered. Not a thing was left untouched: the damage was rampant, wilful, and malicious. (This occurred just days before I was to be leading a Workshop at Grassroots on Danforth about ColdFrames, and we were to be hosting a tour to allow attendees to see them (well, what's left of them) in action...
To make a very long story short, over a period of days of cleanup we found two pieces of evidence and were able to connect with some of the perpetrators. Turns out some kids in from a nearby city, visiting their aunt, went out late to take the dog for a walk. Instead of going to Withrow Park, they hooked up with local kids in Riverdale Park, and ran amok. Saddest part is the visitor kids are very disenfranchised: three all with different fathers, and a mother who died of leukemia in November after a prolonged illness. I still don't know who the local kids are, and probably never will, but with the support of the aunt, who lives just blocks from me, these three young offenders were put face to face with the 'victims' of their nasty behaviour.
This was an enormous stretch for me personally, having had a very troubled life of my own which involved massive amounts of extreme (and inappropriate) punishment. I swerved dangerously between wanting to smash them and the whole community with the same shovels which they had taken to the garden, and, on the other hand, experiencing such grief of my own that it was almost paralyzing. George, who gets very protective of me when I'm in trouble, has been unable to muster what it would take to come face to face with the kids himself, worried that he would unleash the same intensities on them that they expressed on the garden. I'm sorry that the kids did not get to see a big strong man who gardens, having met only the 'old ladies', with whom it must be hard to relate.
I met with the kids at their aunt's home, showed them articles on the garden, showed them videotape of the work I'd been doing to build my ColdFrames and nurture the plants through the winter, then showed them a videotape of the destruction as seen by daylight. I cried as we watched it. Then we went to the garden, they saw what was left (after many, many, hours of cleanup) of the damage; they applied garden forks and spades to some of the plots; and then were invited to sample a range of plants to discover just what wonders from the soil there are even this early in the spring. They left with wonderful salad greens for their dinner to drive the point home about what delicious joy and nourishment the garden brings to people. That night their aunt made them bring a load of bricks to the garden as a donation, and there are more to come.
The next day, Friday, I used some community connections to get them involved with kids their own age who were doing good for the land. Jackman Public School was holding a really big Earth Day event of recycling for the whole community, and the planting of their amazing array of spring gardens. When I explained to the parents and teachers what had happened at the our garden, they really went the whole distance for me, trying to teach these kids some positive lessons. We truly hope it was done in such a manner that they got the points of valuing the land, and saw this as an opportunity to 'make good', not to be punished, and by working alongside other children in action to nurture the earth positively at the time of Earth Day. I did my best to drive home the point that they should not mistake our kindness as weakness. (They were hauled in to the police station, too, as I had no choice but to report such extensive destruction.) Perhaps seeing kindness in action by people experiencing grief will teach them, in some small way, how to channel their own feelings more appropriately.
I hope to follow through even more by getting these kids connected with a community garden in their own home town, so they can understand this not just as an isolated incident, but as a continent-wide phenomenon, and a way to use their energies positively.
This incident, sadly may finally be the impetus we need to get city officials to cough up some money to put more secure fencing around this very isolated garden. It's something we've been appealing for for two years. These kids' unfortunately misdirected expression of deep and intense feelings may be get the city to back our un-funded and un-staffed garden on the edge of the valley.
If you know anyone who has spare tools (garden forks, spades, etc,) that is our biggest need at the moment, (as well as empty plant pots). One of the things the kids did was play some sort of 'golf' or 'baseball' using our spades as 'bats' and all the plants we had just potted up for our fundraising sale as 'balls'. I still have a lot of work to do on repotting. I'll be at the garden a lot, even in the rain, to try and get on top of this: our Spring Fundraising Sale, 17 - 19 May is looming, and the plants just have to be ready.
Kyla Dixon-Muir