LAKEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — The victory garden at Heritage Lakewood Belmar Park was vandalized and damaged recently.

Volunteers with the garden went on Tuesday morning as a part of their normal schedule of garden upkeep to find all of the plants had been cut, leaving nothing but shreds behind.

“We didn’t know what had happened until we really looked at it a little more closely, and we could see the plants had been cut instead of ripped out of the ground,” said Myla Ferguson, one of the volunteers.

Victory Garden prior to damages (Credit: Nell Nelson)
Victory Garden after damages (Credit: Nell Nelson)

A lot of work goes into the garden each year. Nell Nelson, the park’s volunteer coordinator, was upset to see this happening.

“They care. They come out when there is going to be hail to protect the seedlings. And so to show up on your regular day that you’re supposed to garden and see that all of your hard work has been destroyed is really devastating,” Nelson said.

They’re always looking for volunteers at Heritage Lakewood, both for the gardens and other tasks. Find more information on that here.

Regenerating the garden

With the efforts going back into the community, part of the harvest is going to the Action Center, a local food bank.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any cameras in the area of the garden, so they don’t have any leads on who could have done this. But they are already planning for next year and how they can use this damage to their advantage.

“We have put it to bed early for the season. We are following a regenerative agriculture approach where we leave the clippings on top to nurture the soil for next year, so at least related to the garden, that’s sort of the first step,” Nelson said.