Agritopia Community Gardens — Local services in Gilbert

My kids and I had a terrible and disappointing experience today at Agritopia Community Garden, with Cyndi Michaels, the community garden coordinator. I had requested to get on the wait list for a plot at the ACG less than a week ago, and was notified that a plot was available. My kids were very excited that they were going to be able to learn gardening and grow vegetables and other things.

Cyndi asked me to look over the terms of the lease and to make sure that I was comfortable with the requirements and that I could commit to them, which I did. I had no issues or concerns with the lease terms and so Cyndi and I scheduled to meet this morning at ACG to look at the available plots and discuss things further.

Immediately upon meeting with Cyndi, we were met with a barrage of negativity. We are new to gardening, and she let me know, SEVERAL TIMES, that they really preferred to lease plots to experienced gardeners. The basics of the lease terms (year-round gardening, keeping your plot and surrounding area well-kept, keeping the community sink and shack clean, visiting your plot a minimum of once a week), were presented in an incredibly negative fashion. Rather than common sense rules, she presented them as major obstacles that she OBVIOUSLY felt that we could not possibly keep up with.

The conversation repeated itself over and over with every question. She asked if I knew anything about WXY, which as a hopefully gardener, I do not. “Oh, we REALLY prefer to lease to people that have experience with WXY. I’ll have to discuss it with leadership.”, was her mantra, over and over. She probably said that phrase at least 15 times.

Cyndi also told me over and over that I should really think about whether we were really ready to commit to paying the $550 lease fee, as that’s a lot of money, and if we violated the lease terms, we wouldn’t be refunded any of it back. I was already aware of this information, as I’d read the lease terms, and obviously had no issues with the cost, or that there are no refunds. But for some reason, she was overly (and needlessly) concerned about my financial situation.

Despite being notified that we were next on the waitlist for a plot less than three days ago, Cyndi also insinuated that she had expected that I come to that “meeting “, with full plans on how I was going to set up my plot and a full list of what we where going to grow. There was, of course, no mention of that “requirement” in the lease or in any of her emails, of course, but the fact that I didn’t show up with plot blueprints triggered another round of, “Oh, we REALLY prefer to lease to people that are fully prepared. I’ll have to discuss it with leadership.” Ma’am, even if I was an experienced gardener, which is NOT a requirement, according to their own lease, I highly doubt I could have showed up with full plot plans on 2.5 days.

After about 20 minutes of her constant negativity, I came to the realization that Cyndi Michaels strongly felt that we weren’t worthy of one of Agritopia’s sacred garden plots, and that all the things that she was going to have to discuss with “leadership”, was her way of getting rid of us. I told her that she obviously didn’t want us there and so we would leave. Me in tears as the completely ridiculous and insulting way we were treated, and my children because they had been so excited about gardening, and it was NOT going to happen.

Be warned! Beginners need not apply, only professional gardeners. No actual community seems to exist, unless maybe you meet their elite gardening profile. So ACG and Cyndi Michaels, if you ONLY went experienced gardeners at your precious garden, I highly recommend that you make that a condition of your lease terms, in order to not waste people’s time. Make it a requirement to present your lengthy gardening resume, since that’s what you want. It would have saved me time, embarrassment, frustration, just, and having to explain to my tearful kids that we are not good enough for you...

Nice place to bring family or out of town visitors, especially if you are going to Joe's Farm Grill to eat. Or there is also an all natural/organic, non-gmo cafe here (my younger brother is a hard-core vegan, the poor, confused guy haha!! That was for you, li'l Bro!) and a wood-fired pizza restaurant too! Nice that you can choose to eat inside or out among the mature cottonwood trees and other flora. Have never had a negative...

Busy for mothers day but the line for food moved quick. The burger "served pink" came chard/burnt. The toppings I ordered on the burger that were on the receipt did not come. I was too hungry to have the burger replaced which was my fault. They brought on the toppings quickly after I complained about them. I am sure they would have replaced the burger had I...