Wow you are very determined to have stayed through all that abuse. I was a member of a community garden for 3 years and it was run very well-- even in the best of situations things like theft, and accidental damamge can occur. I would absolutely confront the manager of the garden. Perhaps not with a laundry list of complaints -- but a list of "I feel" - I'm very frustrated, I care very much about..." think it out - even write out what you want to say-- with a purpose in mind. It seems to me like it would be wise to have areas of the garden which could be claimed by gardeners, where they could claim a plot and then the produce, work, etc would all be theirs-- you might suggest this be a fenced area or some other kind of barrier so that helpful community workers couldn't run mowers over the fencing or barriers, and then suggest - general areas - in which things like blueberry bushes, community projects or more pernnial projects could take place. You may need to offer some really solid suggestions to problems you see-- ie..I did all this work and now the ground I worked on-- is covered with glass. I have been a valued memeber of the garden for years and for me this represents alot of work, I need to know this won't happen again-- so here is what I suggest as a possible solution. At the beginning of every spring I would be happy to help to divide up this area into individual plots and be responsible for "renting" out each staked off area to interested parties-- we can each have our own area- with returning gardeners getting to put a claim on the area they cared for last year as a first preference. In exchange I would like for you to explain to the worker on site that this is not an area of the garden that he is responsible for-- but that once a year after the stakes are removed he may mow it to the control the weeds. Perhaps your manager is overwhelmed or burnt out and doesn't have the energy or time for enforcing common courtesy, or simply doesn't see the need-- but for your sanity -- surely that is neccessary. That may be the reason there are only two surviving gardeners on the plot..I tell you the first time someone plowed over my carrots or put broken glass in ground that I had worked -- I'd be gone.. and if a healthy discussion -- and offering to take over or assist with the situation didn't help it in some way-- I'd bug out, or at least back down on the amount of energy I expended there. Like I said -- I used to be part of a community garden and it worked fabulously-- there were no fences, but some basic rules. Here is what we did-- someone was responsible for getting names and dividing up plots-- also for getting the entire area tilled, every year. We each paid some small amount for this-- I think it was $20 or something-- that funded the tiller rental & water useage. Each plot was about 12x12. If it was your first year- you could have one plot, unless there were extras--there was usually a waiting list. After you had kept a plot for a year- you could ask to have more than one and veterans got first dibs on spaces & on extra plots. There was a letter that was sent out every year with a map of the plots- on the map was the persons first name and phone number-- this made everybody accountable-- your space, your responsibility, and your produce. If your plot wasn't weeded or cared for next year you didn't get a plot-- if someone had a problem with something in a neighbors plot or a question you could call them-- you knew it, they knew it and it helped. Everybody had the managers # and could call them too. It was also nice cause if you were out working saturday - you could say hi to bob or sue or joe and you at least knew their name. The small amount of money paid out in spring was a way of seeing who was interested enough to do it- and got some buy in and-- helped to cover some of the costs. Every fall everything was broken down and there was an end of the year potluck and work party, and every spring it was all put up again...it was somewhat limiting-- but it did make it easier and it ran very smoothly. Rules were clearly written out -- they used cheap wooden stakes and string to mark the plots, and it was a wonderful sense of community-- a joy. Rules and respect are essential in most things-- community gardens are no exception. Good luck to you!

Hi - I too am a 'newbie' to NC gardening and after living in/around Chicago for 50 years, this red clay has ALMOST done me in... I am convinced that whenI first moved here that FIRST I should have enrolled in 'pottery classes', invested in a Kiln and got rid of alot of this clay BEFORE I began bringing in mulch (14 square yds.) and top-soil (12 square yards of questionable 'dirt') and peat, more peat and MORE peat... ;-) It HAS been a very interesting 4 years since I have moved here. This is virgin soil that has NEVER been improved (I live in a mobile home park). I have even found a lot of arrowheads in the soil. Apparently people do NOT believe in 'improving' soil in trailer parks... ;-) I am the talk of the entire park for 'wasting' my time/$ on my yard, but I consider it MY home so I pay them no mind ;-) I even save all my coffee grounds to work into the soil. The three plants that seem to do very well for me (even in this red clay) are Irises, Daylilies and Cannas, but I too am having a lot of difficulty with GRASS. Or the 'lack' of grass. That 12 yds. of 'top soil' that I got turned into a nightmare as it contained a lot of dark grey/black CLAY!!! I have learned that I prefer RED clay over the dark clay. At least you can 'see' it ;-) What else(besides coffee grounds) can I just toss on to help break down this soil? Any help would be much appreciated. Do any of you have web pages/sites from your gardens as you worked on them? Links would be appreciated by me as I feel very much like a pioneer in this endeavor to 'get the best' of virgin/native soil... Here is a link that might be useful: 4th year of winning Red Clay war...

You have not said how steep your hill is. You can have very steep hills that do not erode without adding man made structures. The key is to keep every inch of the ground well covered with plants. Usually you will only see bare erosion spots if water is rushing down a specific point. You mentioned the down spouts, but it is not likely that they would cause the whole hill to erode. You might think about grading the flat back yard a bit so that all the water flows down to one point. Then at this one point, create a rock slide using larger rocks so that the water does not move the rocks. In effect you create a water fall but add enough large rocks so that it prevents erosion. the rocks don't have to be too big, just big enough and irregular enough so that they are stable. I have a slope on my property that is very steep - probably drops 10 ft for every 5 ft. It is made up of rock and soil covered with grass/weeds/golden rod. No errosion at all.

Thanks for the info. The slimy mud dried out mostly by the next day. When I stuck my finger a couple inches in the soil it just felt cool/damp but not wet so I'm assuming that means it's draining well? When I started the soil was dry like cement as you described. Now it's a more loose & workable. I live on a friend's property, they no longer have horses but do have llamas. She said their poop (which looks like lima beans) makes great fertilizer so I'll gently work some "Llama beans" into the soil in the next week or 2. Somebody pointed out that it sounded like I was "loving" the raspberries to death so I'm going to leave them alone for now and only water them every 2-3 days instead of daily. As far as the peppers go I had no idea about the frost thing. My friend planted her tomatoes the same time as I planted my peppers and her plants are growing no problem.... so maybe over watering is/was part of the problem too? I think I'll just dig up the dead plants and go buy a couple of new ones from Lowe's acclimate them over a whole week instead of only a day and then see how they do once planted. Luckily my strawberry & zucchini plants seem to be holding up ok so I guess that makes my garden only a 50% failure LOL