I have to admit that I have been less than thrilled about this new house. It is nice enough, the community has good amenities, and we’ll have a nice (very small) lot on a cul-de-sac. But, my dream was some acreage with trees, a garden, and some chickens. That is not going to happen in Arlington Ridge.
Last night I was Googling a map to see the various routes from Alliance Coach to the development when I decided to study the park that adjoins it. I looked at pictures that people have posted on Google maps and saw what looked like community gardens. I told Andy we had to go check out that park today.
Here is the map. The park is 318 acres and used to be an experimental agricultural station operated by the University of Florida. There are more walking trails than we will ever need. We parked near the playground and started our walk around the perimeter from there. We had not seen a map of the park and didn’t really know where we were going.
There are plenty of wildflowers for me to learn.
The trail varied through scrub, forest, and field.
This long boardwalk crossed a wide (but not deep) ravine.
We had not idea how long the trail was at this point. We just kept walking.
Eventually, we came to a road and I could see the community gardens. As we walked around, we found a kiosk with a park map on it and realized that we were on a road that cut across the center of the park. We decided to cut the walk short and cross to the other side.
This is a delightful observation platform overlooking some wetlands. It has benches in the shade and we had a nice breeze.
This was one of many flowers I had not seen before.
The multi-use trail and the river trail run somewhat parallel. This is one of the connector paths. We opted to switch to the river trail at that point.
It is not much of a river and does not appear to be flowing.
The path along the river is delightful with many huge and gnarly trees.
I was thrilled to discover the park and envision many future walks there. When we settle down and are not traveling too much, I will get a garden plot. I have never had a community garden. Do people steal your tomatoes?
Dinata Misovec 
No, people don’t steal your tomatoes! At least they don’t at the Portland, ME community gardens where friends garden. More likely to have people give you some!
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It is good to get a number of comments saying that community gardeners respect each other’s plots.
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What a beautiful park 😊 We used to have an allotment when the children were young and we didn’t have a garden of our own to grow vegetables. People are really kind, offering advice when needed. No, people never stole other people’s produce!
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Yes, I am delighted to discover the park. It is nice that it is two (or three) parks in one. The largest area is natural, native plants. Then, there is the agricultural activity. And, the area closest to the highway is for recreation, with picnic pavilion, playground, ball fields, and dog park. I think I might enjoy having neighbor gardeners, especially since I don’t know about gardening in Florida.
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I have several beds at our community garden. People are pretty good about not taking produce. Last year there was a bed full of tomatoes that were going to rot, and I got permission to harvest the green tomatoes and canned 13 pts of green tomato chow chow that we are enjoying. What does make me crazy is that people let good produce go to waste.
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It makes me wonder what happened to the person who did not harvest them. I can’t imagine not eating or canning the produce after growing it. I’m glad you were able to save it!
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In the midwest, people wouldn’t steal your tomatoes but you might find your garden piled up with extra zuchinis…
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Oh, the curse of overly abundant zucchini plants! I used to pile them on the reception desk at the front door of our building at work. They would disappear before the end of the day.
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Your tomatoes should be safe!
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Yes, I bet gardeners are good people.
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You seem to be making the best of things by focussing on details and intangibles – an artistic impulse, I’d suggest …
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I’m pretty sure I am not artistic!!
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