Gardeners Fear Losing Unlikely Plot of Ground
David Winseman has fought on behalf of a teachers union, fought to protect the environment and now he’s fighting again--battling the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to keep his garden plots.
Under a 1975 agreement with the city, Winseman, 58, and about 50 members of the Arleta Garden Club grow vegetables and fruit on two acres of land beneath the DWP’s power lines along Canterbury Avenue between Wentworth and Chase streets. They’re obligated to keep the land free of trash and weeds and are allowed to use the land without charge.
But now the feisty group of gardeners, who see the farming as a way of socializing as well as a way to grow food, are kicking up dirt over what they say is a DWP attempt to shove them off the land.
The DWP wants the gardeners, most of whom are elderly, to pick up trash and cut grass and weeds along a 5-foot-wide parkway, which is a strip of property between the fenced gardens and the street. But gardeners worry about being required to toil long hours to uproot the parkway’s 3-foot-high weeds, which they say they don’t have the equipment to handle.
The DWP also wants to prohibit planting within 50 feet of transmission towers, instead of the current 25-foot corridor, to accommodate maintenance workers. The gardening club says that would cause some of their members to lose their plots.
DWP spokeswoman Mindy Berman called the community garden a good program but said the department is re-evaluating the club’s license because of increasing maintenance costs and complaints about trash in the parkway. She said the DWP wants the garden club to maintain the parkway, as commercial lessees do.
Much of the DWP’s 1,500 miles of right of way in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties is leased for commercial agricultural purposes, storage, parking and trucking operations. The Arleta community garden is one of four under DWP’s lines in the two counties.
The dispute has club President Phil Lopez thinking of hanging up his spade and drinking beer in front of the television. Lopez, 73, sometimes rises with the sun to till, plant and weed for his health.
“Half of us gardeners are going to pull out” over the controversy, he said. “I’ve got high blood pressure. That’s why I spend so much time here. I can’t get out there and really work my butt off. The weeds get up knee high and a lawn mower can’t take care of that. I’m not going to take care of city property--no way. I’ll go home and dry up.”
Donald Chu, 74, who has grown vegetables under the power lines for a decade, threatened to go to court. He is among those who would lose their garden plots under the proposed DWP rule changes. “When it comes to the right thing, I’m no chicken,” he said.
A DWP official plans to meet with the garden club March 10 to discuss the dispute. The department has pledged to maintain the parkway until next year and has offered replacement land for lost plots.
Winseman is hoping that people with green thumbs can continue to grow beets, cabbages, onions, boysenberries and pineapples, giving the excess away to friends, family and neighbors.
“We save considerably by putting fresh and good vegetables on the table, vegetables that are not sprayed with insecticides and lots of chemicals,” Winseman said proudly. “We’re doing something for our community. Our vegetables are good, better than you can get in the markets.”
