Total loss

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MissS
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Total loss

#1

Post: # 30737Unread post MissS
Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:07 am

I got a 30x30 plot at my community garden this year. It was a virgin plot that had never been used before so after it was tilled it was packed with weeds sprouting everywhere. It is the 1st plot at the entrance of the gardens and across the driveway is a forest preserve/park.

I fenced my plot to keep out the deer and put wood chips down over the whole area to help keep down the massive amounts of weeds that were sprouting. I planted 37 tomato plants to save seed from for swaps, lettuce, pole beans, eggplant, peppers, brocolli, cauliflower and beets. I battled flea beetles with a vengeance, fertilized, and sprayed for disease. Little critters such as chipmunks and mice ate all of the lower first tomatoes. I could only save the halves that they left behind and use them for seed. Now that the plants are ripening their fruits higher up, I finally started to harvest some fruits and saving seed.

Well a big pest came into the garden and took every tomato, bean and beet. Not only that, they harvested my wheelbarrow too. They left a hole in my fence and the deer came through and ate the tops off of many of my plants. How they navigated with all of the cages I don't know.

This morning I received an email from the Gardens stating that many of the gardens had had crops stolen as well as their equipment. Some of the gardens are perennial and someone even dug up plants. One woman breeds daylilies and some of her prized plants are gone.

I realize that these a desperate times and that someone might come to the gardens to find food, but this was a huge amount of food. Gosh I have 37 tomato plants without a tomato with a little blush in site. That's a lot of tomatoes. A whole row of beets and another of beans. Then go down to the other plots and they must have taken a truckload of food from our gardens.

Needless to say that I was devastated to see everything gone. And then while I was picking another half eaten tomato for seed I felt something on my hand, it was this little guy.
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He just reminded me to 'chill' and to 'hold on'. I'm really very grateful that he was there right then and there.
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~ Patti ~

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Labradors
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Re: Total loss

#2

Post: # 30739Unread post Labradors
Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:15 am

Cute little garden helper.

So sorry about your huge loss. How awful that someone would plunder all the gardens like that :(. All I can suggest is that you grow green-when-ripes next year, if you even bother with a community garden again. So sad :(.

Linda

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karstopography
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Re: Total loss

#3

Post: # 30740Unread post karstopography
Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:28 am

Yea, that’s pretty terrible. Good on you for keeping a ‘chill’ attitude. No sense getting down about something like that beyond your control.

Sounds more like organized crime than someone trying to get a little food for the table. Based on the details shared, the perpetrators had to have something substantial to cart all that greenery and vegetables off with and some knowledge on how they might fence the stolen perennial plants, produce and day lilies.

Bet if someone was truly hungry, most of y’all would have gladly shared your produce with them, without the middle of the night thievery being necessary. People that do this don’t or shouldn’t get a pass in good times or bad. No excuses. I don’t know much about the number and nature of community gardens, but I would blast out some warning to other community gardens providing there are many others that they may be the next targets. These things usually aren’t one and done, but a pattern that will be repeated until the perps get caught or their no longer are any gardens to be victimized.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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ddsack
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Re: Total loss

#4

Post: # 30742Unread post ddsack
Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:50 am

That is horrible. What kind of human being is that selfish and feels entitled to steal not only the crops, but also people's labor all season and tools as well.

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KathyDC
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Re: Total loss

#5

Post: # 30743Unread post KathyDC
Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:15 am

I'm so sorry. I would be just devastated.

Not that it helps, but our community garden has had food theft issues, too. It's just incredibly sad, all that hard work down the drain. And you could rationalize a little bit of it -- if someone truly is so hungry that they need to steal a few tomatoes or a melon here or there, then at least they have something to eat -- but that scale of theft is really hard to rationalize, and especially the tools.

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Growing Coastal
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Re: Total loss

#6

Post: # 30744Unread post Growing Coastal
Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:20 am

Oh my goodness Patti. How devastating!
I keep saying that 2020 sucks! Yesterday I gave a lot of tomatoes to a friend who also had all of her husband's garden tomatoes stolen two Sundays ago while they were out. In that case it seems as if it has to be someone in the nighbourhood to know that they were out. Their country garden is out front of their house by the road fully visible to passers by. The tomatoes were doing really well this year after he had gotten a watering system going right and cleared away all the high grass and weeds from the plants so rats could have no hiding place. That revealed the fruit to whomever took it all.

Both of you could use some sort of camera on your gardens! Horrible that this is what things have come to these days.

EdieJ
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Re: Total loss

#7

Post: # 30747Unread post EdieJ
Thu Sep 17, 2020 9:41 am

I feel terrible for you and your fellow gardeners. There truly is NO excuse for thievery. I would recommend a few well-hidden trail cams, if you can get some of the other folks to go in on them. They wouldn't keep anybody out but you might be able to identify the thugs for prosecution. On that scale I'm sure the $ amount of loss would make it a true felony. But I'm glad that you had a sympathetic friend there with you.
North Central AL (mountains)
Zone 7

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Sue_CT
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Re: Total loss

#8

Post: # 30752Unread post Sue_CT
Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:27 am

That is aweful! I would bring a ladder and see if you can install a trail cam high enough up that they can't reach it as well. Maybe with some help from others with gardens there. There is no excuse for that kind of theft, it has nothing to do with being hungry. Such a shame. I am sorry you had this happen!

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Dawn
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Re: Total loss

#9

Post: # 30755Unread post Dawn
Thu Sep 17, 2020 11:02 am

Oh, that frog, I have tadpoles and froglets , I think the same kind!
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Sorry about your garden, I've had minor garden thieves when I had community gardens (they taught me to pick at first blush), but not like that. Will they fence the whole thing? Not that it'll stop everyone who wants to break in, but it stops some.
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Dawn
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Central Washington State (it's a desert here)

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ponyexpress
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Re: Total loss

#10

Post: # 30760Unread post ponyexpress
Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:33 pm

MissS wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2020 8:07 am I got a 30x30 plot at my community garden this year. It was a virgin plot that had never been used before so after it was tilled it was packed with weeds sprouting everywhere.
Horrible that this happened to you and fellow community gardeners. We're fortunate that this sort of thing has not happened in mine. Possibly because it's hidden from the main road and that there's enough traffic from other gardeners and dog walkers.

I did get some bad news for me. Learned that I have to give up my second plot since there are some people on the wait list. Dang, there goes my mini farm & crop rotation plans. It's a bit more painful in that it was a huge weed farm and I did a lot of work this year to get it to where it is now.

I guess I'll have to go back to squatter gardening which is around June you determine which plot is abandoned and take it over. Seems that the pandemic has caused renewed interest in gardening. We'll see if this holds.

On the positive side, this means I should have more time to finish work on my garden shed project. Was going to resume it this summer but with lumber prices doubled, I decided to wait.

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pondgardener
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Re: Total loss

#11

Post: # 30765Unread post pondgardener
Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:26 pm

[mention]MissS[/mention], anymore what has happened seems to be the norm rather than the exception. Too bad you can't set up one of those jungle nets that would snare the 2 legged thieves and suspend them in the air until the local authorities could whisk them off. Or even better, setting up a catapult that would sling the unwanted visitor over the fence like I have seen some people make for removing squirrels.
It's not what you gather, but what you scatter, that tells what kind of life you have lived.

EdieJ
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Re: Total loss

#12

Post: # 30768Unread post EdieJ
Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:32 pm

The more I ponder this, the madder I get. If it were me, I would be installing a solar charger and electric fence, rules or no rules. You can get signs that warn and if they ignore, that's on them.
North Central AL (mountains)
Zone 7

OhioGardener
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Re: Total loss

#13

Post: # 30771Unread post OhioGardener
Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:50 pm

How terrible! There are no words... Do you think it could have been someone involved with the garden? It would take an awful long time for someone to pick that much produce even with already knowing the layout and it sounds like they may have known the daylilies are valuable.
Debbie

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pepperhead212
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Re: Total loss

#14

Post: # 30774Unread post pepperhead212
Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:23 pm

So sorry to hear this Patti. I was going to say that I can't believe someone would do something like that, but actually, I can believe it. And it seems to me that it would have to be someone familiar with it, with help, to get it done that quickly. Maybe the idiot will post something about it online, bragging about it, or selling.
Woodbury, NJ zone 7a/7b

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MissS
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Re: Total loss

#15

Post: # 30776Unread post MissS
Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:32 pm

It could have been anyone and greed was obviously their motive. The funny thing about this is, is that the gardens are on the property of our county work-release jail. Due to Covid there are not any prisoners there this year. (Yeah, don't get me going on that one with schools and bars open but not the jails.) Since this is on the jails property you would think that there would be cameras on the grounds but I guess that since it is a work-release facility that they don't do that. The people that did this belong in that jail made to get a job and pay their rent.

When I was at the garden today there were already a few people that have taken their fences down and abandoned their plots for the year. I can't say that I blame them. The gardens close for the season on Oct. 18th. That does not give the crops a lot of time to recover and start to produce again. I do have some larger greenies still on the plants but not many that's for sure, so I will go once a week or so to see if they will ripen for me. I am done working the plot. No more weeding or plant care.

The county will be putting up some sort of sign at the entrance to deter people but it is just a sign. I drove around and looked hard at everyone's plots and there are still some that have lots of produce on their plants. It looks like it's the first few plots that took the hardest hit. I do hope that the offenders do not come back for more. I doubt that any of us will be putting up cameras.

Sadly my loss will be affecting the MMMM in a big way. I try very hard to support this event by sponsoring people and sending in lots of extra seed for Gary to use as Bonus gifts. There were still varieties of tomatoes that I did not harvest any seed from and others I only have 1-2 tomatoes fermented so far. So for those of you participating in the MMMM please help out by sponsoring a newbie or sending in extra packs of seed to fill up Gary's seed pantry. I just won't have the ability to do what I wanted to do and this makes me very very sad. (For those of you that I have already told that I will sponsor you, please do not worry. I have you covered. I have already processed some seed and still have cups fermenting away. There will be enough seed to see you through this amazing event).

For now I need to ponder how to grow some tomatoes next year. Sigh
~ Patti ~

Clkeiper
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Re: Total loss

#16

Post: # 30777Unread post Clkeiper
Thu Sep 17, 2020 2:36 pm

wow! this is absolutely disgusting and SAD! I am so sorry for every one of you gardeners. I participate in a community garden as a mentor and have planted extra plants in the empty plots just to use up the spaces so I am not worried if they get eaten off or even stolen because I wan't using them for me BUT it is meant to be harvested for the foodbank so I am so disgusted to see this happen to anyone.

Barb_FL
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Re: Total loss

#17

Post: # 30781Unread post Barb_FL
Thu Sep 17, 2020 3:08 pm

I'm sorry about your garden. It's one thing to battle with the weather, disease, bugs, but that is just criminal.

MsCowpea
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Re: Total loss

#18

Post: # 30787Unread post MsCowpea
Thu Sep 17, 2020 4:21 pm

That truly is awful. With a garden you put in so much work, hope, and anticipation and to have that taken away by theft is heartbreaking.

It is one thing to steal small amount of food if you are desperate I guess
but a wheelbarrow ??? and prized daylillies???

Check on Craigslist and see if anybody tries to sell the wheelbarrow and plants. Not much you could do though but at least you know who the culprit is.

Where I live someone got their two stolen miniature donkeys back when they were listed on Craigslist by the thieves.

I am sorry if I have you mixed up with someone else but Are you the individual with the stunning yard but HOA won’t allow vegetable
gardening? Wonder if you canvassed every homeowner and got signatures to
support a change in the rules and mention that your vegetables and property were stolen as you can’t garden in your own yard if they would relent?

Regardless, I second the hidden cameras and would also warn any other community gardens. So sorry.
"When we kill off the natural enemies of a pest we inherit their work."
Carl Huffaker

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bower
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Re: Total loss

#19

Post: # 30806Unread post bower
Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:38 pm

Wow... that is so sad. :evil:
Only your little frog knows who did it. :(
AgCan Zone 5a/USDA zone 4
temperate marine climate
yearly precip 61 inches/1550 mm

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MissS
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Re: Total loss

#20

Post: # 30808Unread post MissS
Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:47 pm

Bower wrote: Thu Sep 17, 2020 7:38 pm Wow... that is so sad. :evil:
Only your little frog knows who did it. :(
I forgot to ask him.
~ Patti ~

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