The elusive community garden.

So close, yet so far…

There is a community garden by my apartment.  Like, a stone's throw away.  (If you are very good at throwing stones, anyways.) Naturally, I want to join it.  Have since day 1.  And naturally, despite the typically ever-inclusive culture around here, this community garden is an exception.  It's surrounded by a fence and three times I've seen some of its members ambling about (all elder gentleman with various gardening supplies) and every time I approach to inquire about membership I get some version of the following: "we don't just let anyone in here off the streets" (that's a direct translated quote of one exchange) to which I gingerly reply with some version of: "well yes I'm on the street at this moment but I live right there - see! - and I love to garden and would love to at least learn about the membership process for this garden, as I understand that it is public, would that be ok?" (since this quote is me speaking, we can assume it's not-so-directly or clearly translated when said in Spanish, but we can also assume my best efforts and intentions).  To which the reply generally goes "wellll, yes it is public, and yes you can maybe apply with the city/county/neighborhood (unclear) but - look, see! - there's a much bigger garden over there on Avenida Europa, maybe you can go there" and the elderly gentleman goes back to whatever he was doing.  All this to say my efforts thus far have been unsuccessful (well, I suppose it depends on how you define success...but I would define it as finding the membership process for this supposedly public, open membership neighborhood garden sometime while I'm still in my thirties, no offense to the older gentlemen). I will keep you posted.