Io the members of Menlo Park’s City Council I have read your directives regarding gardeners and while I agree that if they work in teams, or use tools belonging to the homeowner, the virus could be transmitted. However, there is a flip side I’d like to explore. I am one of many retired seniors still living in my own home. I have grown food in my organic garden for years, and even at 84, can pretty much maintain my raised beds. However, it is now time to spray my apple trees for the moths responsible for wormy apples, a procedure I can’t perform. In the fall I expect to have the same bumper crop of wonderful apples, which I not only share with friends, family and neighbors, but also I make delicious apple sauce, which I freeze and eat throughout the year. I have enough from 2019 to last until the new crop is in. As I read The Chronicle regarding possible food shortages, I want to be sure I am part of the solution, not part of the problem. In fact, it might behoove the council to encourage more people to do back yard gardening, as we did during WWII. We called them Victory Gardens. I would like to ask my gardener to come spray my trees for me. We will maintain out 10 feet. In fact, I will speak to him from my phone in the house to his phone in my back yard. He will use a sprayer I never touch. I will pay him virtually—no cash changing hands. I ask myself and you--- Where is the problem? Is a one-size-fits-all rule really necessary? Does my situation come under the definition maintaining the health and safety of my household? What if while he is working alone in my back yard he pulls some weeds, putting them in my compost. Is that a bad thing? Will it put my health in jeopardy? I think not. Have we moved beyond the realm of common sense? Perhaps that’s worth consideration. In the meantime, the spraying of my trees is time sensitive. If it waits much longer it will be too late. Sincerely, Margo McAuliffe East. Creek Drive Received on Mon Apr 13 2020 - 20:53:37 PDT
