The good, the bad, and the wormy

 

When you are a gardener, you come across all types of garden pests. They are nasty, that’s why they call them pests.

So the other day when a friend and I decided to go for a walk, two nicely dressed  middle[ahem ]aged women, little did we know that we would have a upsetting encounter with a very aggressive worm.

Our destination was Dunsmuir community gardens in Crescent Beach, near White Rock.  Many people stroll through these picturesque gardens admiring the community plots.  With a huge waiting list it’s hard to get a plot, and some plots have remained with the same gardener for decades.

We quietly wandered, not touching anything, with me taking the occasional macro photo. There is no signage saying “private, or do not enter.” These are public garden plots owned by the City of Surrey.  Many people come and go without any hassle.

Then we encountered the “bad worm” who at first was fairly pleasant to us.  She described a huge celery like plant in her plot as the “Maggi plant” if you are of Dutch descent, you will instantly recognize the name Maggi as a aromatic seasoning, it’s delicious. She even offered us a leaf to crush and smell.

Flowerishous and I had wandered a little further, when the bad worm came back at us with a aggressive demeanor asking if we had a plot in the community gardens. Caught off guard I said no, I was a blogger, and was just taking a few pictures. 

That set her off on a tirade about the internet, photographers, and those who may look innocent, but are only out to steal the precious plants from the community gardeners.  My guess is that I shouldn’t have told her I was a blogger.  I never told her that I was going to publish anything, so I have no idea what she was objecting to. 

“You might be taking photos and putting them online for everyone to see,” snarled the nasty worm. If the worm had spent some time on the internet she might notice that there is a Flickr site, and a website specifically for this community garden, looks like I am not the only one who admires the beauty of this place.

All we were doing was innocently walking through and admiring the flowers, as so many others have done for decades.

We left, and as we went we checked with another long time extremely pleasant gardener who said there were no restrictions on who might venture into this little piece of paradise.

“And that this was a very bad year for garden pests.”

Sounds like one bad worm in a otherwise beautiful apple.

Don’t worry, they sprayed with a organic pesticide after we left.

Jen

 

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