The Vegetable War

Gardening, as research will tell you, can be very relaxing and spiritual. If you own your own home, you can set aside a part of your very own property for your garden. You will decide what to plant. You will decide how many items to plant. You will be working with your hands. You will be working outdoors in the fresh air. At the end of all your hard work, if you are lucky, you will have produced a harvest of vegetables that belong to you!! You can make a creative salad. You can bake the vegetables, stir fry them, boil them or even give them away. They are yours to do with as you wish! Why? The vegetables were planted on your land and they belong to you!!!!!

It is important to understand that there can be no gardening at a condo, unless the owners decide that a portion of the land should be set aside for gardening. This is because the land at a condo, unlike a house, doesn't belong to the owners. It is communal property. The owners must bring this plan to the condo board. The board will vote and decide whether the condo needs a garden. If the board decides in the affirmative, then there are other considerations that the board will have to make. The board may specify what is to be planted, who gets a portion of the produce and how big a portion they are to receive. The board will also decide how much money is to be put in the budget for gardening. One must understand that this will be a decision made by the owners and brought to the board. It is NOT AN INDIVIDUAL DECISION!!!!!!!!!!

Barbara and Tony were on the Board. One day, Barbara decided that another way to save Tony's money was to plant a garden. This way he could have a nightly salad with his "nickels worth of pasta," for dinner every night.

Along with being crazy, Barbara is a liar. She told all the owners that she was planting a garden because she didn't work and needed something to do. She wanted to plant the garden at the pool because it was sunny there. We agreed because she told us that we were all were welcome to reap the benefits of the garden. Even the President agreed, but he would agree to anything if it was free. We could all share in the produce of the garden without the work. We agreed!!!! What a nice thing for an owner to do!!! Right?

Wrong! Barbara seemed to enjoy planting the vegetables. She wasn't creative, but there growing in the garden were tomatoes, cucumbers and lots of lettuce. As soon as these vegetables grew, Barbara would come to the pool daily and pick vegetables for her salad. Jeff was given tomatoes and he was delighted. He loved anything that was for free. But, Barbara only gave him the tomatoes to "buy him off". As President of the condo, he had to sign off on expenditures and Barbara and Tony, as you will see in another post, wanted to do many things with condo money.

The rest of us were not allowed to have any of the vegetables that were grown with our money, on our property. We were left to stare at the vegetables at the pool. When one of us dared to take a tomato, Barbara would come flying to the pool on her broom and yell, "PUT IT BACK!!!" So much for a garden that we all shared.

Quietly, in the dark of night, because the garden belonged to all of us, we would sneak down to the pool and grab a vegetable. Can you imagine how crazy we all looked? Many of us had come from expensive restaurants where we had expensive dinners and here we were, VEGETABLE THIEVES!!!

Barbara knew about this even if she didn't know who took the vegetables. She took her revenge out in many ways as you will see in other posts.

Pearl solved the problem in the only way that a nutcase like Rhonnie can. She began to grow tomatoes and herbs on the porch. Now, when we sat outside, our view was of tomatoes, weeds and broken ceramic pieces.