Topic: Confessions in a Garden Centre

[Jitterbug]

I think Dan can safely rename this site 'Kleptomaniac's Anonymous' ;D ::)

I have also tasted a grape or two but then I generally buy them - if they're decent ;D  If you go to a farmers market there are always tasters!!  So why not the bigger chain stores.

When it comes to plants - my dad (who infected me with this dreadful gardening disease), always says that 'stolen plants' always grown better than bought ones!" Now before everyone gasps with shock - he means a little piece of plant or a seed head here and there never hurt anyone.  In fact I have known him to raid the dumpsters and get some fantastic plants that others have tossed.  I've also been known to 'find'  the odd piece here or there when out walking the dog!  (and they do grow better) ;D ;D

Hi, my name is Jitterbug and I'm a Kleptomaniac....... ;D

[wahaj]

hehe true. i actually saw someone having their roof done today and they were throwing away old blue slate in their skip. if it's still there tommorow i'll ask them if i can take some to make a path in my garden.

[angle shades]

we went past a house a couple of years ago,skip outside with a beautiful rose bush in flower in it :o :o, we asked, they said yes, and we carried it home :)

It's  flowered ever since :)/shades x

[grawrc]

I think the asking is crucial.

[Hyacinth]

The Orchid House at Singapore Botanic Gardens would stop you lot in your tracks :o Because it's the home of such a wide and rare collection of orchids the CCTV cameras are focussed on every plant & the walkways are heavily patrolled.

Tasting food in shops & markets? Of course! Thank the lord the days of having to have whatever the stallkeeper wanted to offload from the back of the display are well gone 8)

[wahaj]

this thread was for you all to shout at me about what i'm like! not to tell me you're all the same!

[Mrs Ava]

I can not tell a lie, it was I.   :-\  I can't do it - never have been able to.  If I am working and wanna take a cutting from something, I always ask.  If I accidently break or chop of the wrong branch, I can't bin it, I have to take it home and try to propogate it.  I do try before I buy on the deli counter, but I don't buy much fruit or veg so never have there.  I am ravaged with guilt at the thought of taking something without asking.  In our local garden centre, the old plant pots are free to take....but I still ask.  I could never shoplift or steal.  I travelled to the West End on the tube (oh the lovely Northern Line) for nearly 10 years, and I saw my own fair share of pickpockets and tealeafs and I didn't like it then, and don't like it now.  Honest Em, that's me!  ;D

My sis when little filler her sweetie bag at the pick and mix counter, and whilst she was waiting for me to fill mine, she ate all of hers!  She decided to go round again!!!! :o  My darlings Nan had an especially sharp thumb nail especially for the taking of cuttings when out walking.  ;D

Rant over.......sloping off to bed now....cream crackered!

[wahaj]

I can not tell a lie, it was I.   :-\  I can't do it - never have been able to.  If I am working and wanna take a cutting from something, I always ask.  If I accidently break or chop of the wrong branch, I can't bin it, I have to take it home and try to propogate it.  I do try before I buy on the deli counter, but I don't buy much fruit or veg so never have there.  I am ravaged with guilt at the thought of taking something without asking.  In our local garden centre, the old plant pots are free to take....but I still ask.  I could never shoplift or steal.  I travelled to the West End on the tube (oh the lovely Northern Line) for nearly 10 years, and I saw my own fair share of pickpockets and tealeafs and I didn't like it then, and don't like it now.  Honest Em, that's me!  ;D

My sis when little filler her sweetie bag at the pick and mix counter, and whilst she was waiting for me to fill mine, she ate all of hers!  She decided to go round again!!!! :o  My darlings Nan had an especially sharp thumb nail especially for the taking of cuttings when out walking.  ;D

Rant over.......sloping off to bed now....cream crackered!

lol my boyfriend's the same. he said the only time he stole something was a fruit off a stall but then felt really bad so he walked back up to put it back...but then the stall person saw him and told him off as he thought he was stealing.

[weedbusta]

When it comes to plants - my dad (who infected me with this dreadful gardening disease), always says that 'stolen plants' always grown better than bought ones!" Now before everyone gasps with shock - he means a little piece of plant or a seed head here and there never hurt anyone. 

my mum said the same thing about heathers, and that they'd only grow well if they were 'stolen' or given to you as a present.

i'm obviously missing out on lots of 'free' plants, but i'm with EJ, B&Q didn't charge me for a box of christmas lights when i was pregnant with my second son, my husband grinned all the way to the car thinking 'mad pregnant wife just spent over £100 on decorations but at least i've saved £25.' i took them back in and paid for them. maybe i'm unlucky, maybe superstitious, but anytime i've done something 'dodgy' it comes right back and slaps me in the face. i'm away to the shed to tell you why.!!

[Garden Manager]

My current wheelbarrow was a 'freebie' from a well known DIY store. We'd gone iot to look for one and get some other stuff as well (as you do). We found the weeelbarrow we wanted (at a good price I might add), and decided to use it to carry some of the other stuff we were getting. Get to the till to pay, cashier does all the barcode zapping, etc pay by credit acard and away. it wasnt  until backin the car on the way home, looking through the bill that we realised we hadnt been charged for the wheelbarrow!

Clearly the cashier (weekend schoolie type) hadnt though to check the barrow for a barcode or had thought it was a trolley!. We hadnt tried to deceive or anything, the cashier just didnt do their job properly.

It was a nice barrow too. Tip bar on front, pneumatic tyre, the onl problem was the colour - a nice bright orange!

[Shas]

I'm with EJ on the shops bit, but I do admit to the odd bit of 'borrowing on a permanent basis' of cuttings etc. (Could never nick the whole plant though).

Funny lot, us gardeners.  Most of us will happily walk out of B&Q with a cutting in our pockets, but wouldn't take a pickling onion from anyone else's plot!

[wahaj]

i guess it's knowing that a garden centre is making it's millions on plants that have been grown on machines and packed and thrown on the shelves without any love or care. and if they don't sell...they'll probably get kicked around and then get thrown away. so in a way that's how i justify taking seeds from them.

i'd never do it to any allotmenteer....because so much time and effort by a single person has been put into it. it's hindering someone's personal achievement....where as a garden centre would probably not even notice.

[redimp]

I always as for a taster when I come across a real ale I haven't tried.  But I am dead honest me.  To bloody honest most of the time - tis that that gets me into trouble - apart from software and book copyright theft that is. :-[

[Hyacinth]

Clang, there's a pub in Greenwich Village, NY, which sells real ales which is MECCA to a real ale lover - they sell about 30+ different ales & give you a taster ('bout half-a-pint?) of each and every one you want.....we needed to be surgically detached from the place ;D

[Emagggie]

Just packing my ruckie for our start of Ridgeway hike, now missing my little secatuers.(confiscated at airport,forgot they were tucked in back of bag).
But we shall feast from the hedgerows and any other place that looks likely with no conscience at all. ;D  I shall also take little poly bags for seed collecting too.Don't like to miss an opportunity.

[OllieC]

now missing my little secatuers.(confiscated at airport,forgot they were tucked in back of bag).

LOL - I can see the headline, "terrorist hijacks plane by threatening to do some pruning!". My 83 year old aunt had her tweezers confiscated recently. "83 year old granny says land or I'll do your eyebrows".

[Squashfan]

My friend from the US and I had a grand old time wandering around Oxford, nicking seeds last year! Haven't seen much out of them tho - the wages of sin??? :P

[Emagggie]

Oooooh I'm hoping for great things Squashfan,but will I remember a) whats what, b) to take them out of my trouser pocket before they hit the washing machine. ;D ;D

[wahaj]

i bought a leopard lily plant from b&q for 10p today! 10p!!!!!!!! and it's perfectly fine! no wilting.....or anything.....

felt like a steal to me!

[Robert_Brenchley]

My friend from the US and I had a grand old time wandering around Oxford, nicking seeds last year! Haven't seen much out of them tho - the wages of sin??? :P

Where did you go, the Botanical Gardens? Just don't bother nicking Oxford Ragwort seed!