For the second year in a row, my gooseberries have been thieved. Fruit cage net slashed.
really really sorry to hear that.
Anne
It does indeed! So disheartening when something like that happens.
sorry to hear about the theft weve had a few thefts this year on our plot, last year someone took every pear off my tree, earlier this week we had a visit from the council who have now agreed to put up security fencing and a bigger gate, they wont stop the thieves but they may deter some of them.
It used to drive me to despair when thieves and vandals hit our plots
Sir Henry of Rawlinson End (aka Viv Stanshall) had the answer.
Inject a marrow with regular doses of a strong laxative-then when the so and sos pinch it it will give them the gip for weeks ;D
How annoying for you, I sympathise wholeheartedly. (Someone nicked my pears last year too). Especially annoying when the thieves take things that aren't even ripe yet because they are too thick to know the difference.
Hope you get the rest of your crops without interference, and that your gooseberry bushes were spiney enough to cause a few lacerations.
It's always shocking when something like this happens, shocking that there are some people who can reach that low in their barrel of grimness and still sleep at night. It's all to easy to let those mean spirited folk leave you feeling disheartened and downbeat, I hope you won't let that happen, there's too much digging to be done !
Keep your pecker up, see what you can do to increase the security of your plot, call a meeting, just do something but whatever you do, don't let the thieving **** grind you down.
Sorry to hear this, lets hope they spiked themselves picking them...
Thanks everyone. Pretty sure this is an inside job and got a fair idea of who it might be but no proof. There is a history of gooseberry and pear thefts on our site. I looked at them on Friday and decided that another couple of sunny days would just get them properly ripe :( I'm putting a sign at the front of my plot tomorrow that will read:
"TO THE THIEF, WHO FOR THE SECOND YEAR RUNNING, CUT MY NETS AND STOLE MY GOOSEBERRIES OVER THE WEEKEND:
THE GOOSEBERRIES HAD BEEN SPRAYED WITH A PARTICULARLY NASTY INSECTICIDE TO KILL THE SAWFLIES AND NEEDED TO BE LEFT ON THE BUSHES FOR ANOTHER 7 DAYS TO BECOME SAFE TO EAT. ENJOY!
so sorry to hear this ceres, don't it p*ss you off?
(I noticed today that someone has nicked a whole row of my garlic)
chin up, matey!!
why do people have to take what is not theirs or destroy it, if they were starving you could understand it but would your first choice be gooseberries if you were???
im sorry to hear of your plight i had some mindless vandalism lately and although i really want to rip the culprits head off im a strong believer in what goes around comes around, sit back and watch the space honey
:( :( :( We are lucky that we haven't had anything (touch wood) taken from our plots. I would be raving mad if anything was!
We have a gooseberry thief as well, my gooseberries were stolen for the 4th year in a row.....they were not ripe but the only picked one bush to start with so when I found some had gone i picked all the big ones off the other bushes. The next day the remaining fruit was gone. So we had one gooseberry crumble.....off 6 bushes! :'(
I was going to put a sprayed sign on in advance but i forgot.
My husband wants me to build a 'bear pit' for next year!
Between yesterday morning and this evening someone stole five bieta - they were quite small, and looked like lettuce. Hope they thought they were lettuce.
I fear there will be a lot more thieving now, allotments and veg growing has had so much publicity the lightfingered have it made really.
>:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
Most pilfering is done by other lottie holders... they have more opportunity.. It's just catching the B*stards at it... which reminds me two youths were looking at my neighbours plot on Friday... I've been away all weekend, hope nothing has gone walkies... :-\
It just defies belief, doesn't it? If you're going to steal fruit , why gooseberries when there's a strawberry bed with loads of ripe berries and blackcurrant bushes dripping with fruit?
That's another odd thing to be stolen asbean. These are people with allotment plots so why don't they just grow the things they want rather than stealing them from the rest of us. Grrrr. >:(
I'm liking Kea's idea of a bear pit!
How awful Ceres.Someone pinched one cucumber last year and I was gutted.
I was so lucky today.
Went to the plot.Left and went to next village to get some petrol.Eek no handbag.Radley bag,worth a couple of hundred quid containing cards and cashhad been left on my bench on the lottie.Rushed back and it was still sitting where I had left it...........so lucky.
Whew! Close shave betula. It's the heat addling our brains I think!
Ceres, so sorry love to hear that a rotten thief had been at work, hope they
got/get, the trots for a week.
Not good news at all. Most of our plot holders have built their own fence to protect their plots in recent years. Apparently, one plot holder helps himself to the outer brassica leaves from other plots to feed his hens. I have just got materials to build mine as I do not have a fence at present, all open-plan :( :(
ironically about two days after my husband suggested a bear pit (with sharp stakes in the bottom!) the town council had a deep hole dug right in front of my allotment gate for the end of the new water supply...a bit sooner and i could have borrowed it.
Yes like you Ceres i wonder why the strawberries and blackcurrants were ignored...both are easier to pick.
I think someone was picking my asparagus earlier in the season.
Wish they made a cheap battery operated cctv/video camera!
Last week Radio Leicester did two whole days about allotment gardening with one lady coming on and telling the whole of Leicestershire about how someone nicked her spuds, also last week I caught some youth on the allotments at 0950 thinking he was taking a short cut to school Bo--oc-s he was out to nick some strawberries which are in abundance on our allotments, I wish people would think twice about what they say before giving the rest of them food for thought or should I say 'Food to nick, ;)'
How frustrating ceres, hope your sign has a positive effect!
1066
Next year I'm thinking of concocting some thing to spray onto my gooseberries so they don't look nice!
I'm always sorry to hear of all the thieving that goes on at allotments and thankfully I'm luck that's not a problem i face with my vege garden.
Quote from: Kea on June 29, 2009, 11:38:21
Next year I'm thinking of concocting some thing to spray onto my gooseberries so they don't look nice!
how about a really strong solution of red or blue or even purple food colouring sprayed on the fruit with an added sign warning the fruit has been sprayed with pesticides. you will know they are safe but anyone else will assume they are poisenos.
another deterrant if your fellow plot holders know you practice organic methods it might be necessary to debunk that by walking around frequently with a spray can spraying coloured water willie nillie to make potential thieves think twice about stealling our produce.
What a rotten thing to happen. I'd like to chop their hands off. I'm trying to get the council to let us put fences up to give us (hopefully) a bit more protection against this sort of thing. Just hope who ever did this gets a bad case of the trots.
People will nick the oddest stuff.
I had a really nice Clematis that went and a lovely lemon thyme that vanished.
Recently on our site someone got in, nicked a wheelbarrow and filled it up with squash and other more expensive veg and walked out with it all.
What' worse is that there is nothing you can do except to keep an eye out.
Quote from: thifasmom on June 29, 2009, 12:16:10
I'm always sorry to hear of all the thieving that goes on at allotments and thankfully I'm luck that's not a problem i face with my vege garden.
Quote from: Kea on June 29, 2009, 11:38:21
Next year I'm thinking of concocting some thing to spray onto my gooseberries so they don't look nice!
how about a really strong solution of red or blue or even purple food colouring sprayed on the fruit with an added sign warning the fruit has been sprayed with pesticides. you will know they are safe but anyone else will assume they are poisenos.
another deterrant if your fellow plot holders know you practice organic methods it might be necessary to debunk that by walking around frequently with a spray can spraying coloured water willie nillie to make potential thieves think twice about stealling our produce.
Yes i had thought of food colouring just need to come up with something to make it stick...was going to do that this year but was too late. Food colouring in a weak mix of vege gel maybe I'll have to test it out ready for next year.
Hows about a big sign for em.
THIEVES WILL BE COMPOSTED
;D ;D ;D
I wouldnt begrudge (or even notice) the odd thing if it was obvious I had a glut, but slashing a net to get some fruit, especially if its an inside job, is taking the p***.
If there are fat strawbs or courgettes in full view of the public, I think its human nature to want to eat them.. especially if its on a route back from the pub and its dark! I'm amazed that there are still allotments with no fences, I would rather pay a bit more to get some decent security.
On our site I havent heard of any veg thefts but there is a large spiky fence and occasionally kids climb it for a dare, and set fire to sheds :(
When I'm down the lotty I like to have my mobile with me just in case I do need to ring plod if I'm ever lucky enough to catch the thieving scum in the act, ;)
Sorry to hear that someone has taken your gooseberries, it is very upsetting :(. We had our strawberries taken a couple of weeks ago. Whoever it was, took off the net, removed the strawberries throwing the unripe ones down , and the replaced and repegged the net in some places. Now we tend to try and harvest regularly so we get the enjoyment of our peas and potatoes etc. As already has been said, why can't people leave others produce alone? Hope the rest of the season is kind to you :)
A few years ago I had nearly my entire squash/pumpkin crop nicked, it was just before Halloween.
It was a huge haul and some of the pumpkins would have needed two to lift.
I was so gutted.
I know its not quite the same but just before we had about 2 weeks very hot weather end of May beginning of June an older gentleman on our site used up his, his neighbours, his son in laws and the communal water butts. It was 8 full butts in total. All to make sure that when he went on holiday for 2 weeks his potatoes and onions didn't die. What ticks me off is that everyone knew it was him because his plot neighbour saw him doing it (his house backs onto the site, more importantly his plot because he has chickens on it as well) and nobody challenged him and also the fact that we rely on our water butts 100% because we have no stand pipes. Thank god for him that he didn't take any of my water from my 3 butts or there would have been serious repercussions.
Whoever it was and if it was another plot holder probably already had strawbs and currants but no goosegogs. My rhubarb was pilfered and yet the whole site has great big areas of the stuff.Thank goodness with this rain I now have some more to pull(thats if its still there when I get there)
I think I would be devastated if someone nicked my stuff - especially as I am always happy to give away surplus fruit, veg and seedlings the same as most plotholders I know.
Must be awful if you believe its a fellow plot holder as well. Again like most if someone is short of something on our site, they generally ask and offer a trade of something else for it.
I have read this topic with interest and it saddens me to think that other allotment holders will take the fruits and veggies that they have watched someone else toil over. I would have thought that everyone would look out for each other on an allotment, I have come to realise that that is not so. :( As it is, my 'plot' is my front garden (to which another 2 beds and a herbaceous flower border are being added today), so I am lucky in the sense that I sleep, eat and live on my plot. I am also lucky that the house is never left unattended and with 2 german shepherds/rottweilers roaming the garden (which is completely fenced in from the front path) I hope this is enough to prevent any would be thief from venturing too close to my fruit and veg.
I feel for each and every one of you that have lost your harvests to theft, sometimes it is easier to accept that the birds, mice, whatever other animal has taken them for food than it is your allotment neighbours - in fact I would rather the birds, mice take them than have another human pinch them - I often can't believe the nature of people sometimes, it's a disgrace!
Just hope that what goes around comes around.
Many years ago I was a humble civil servant who had some plots-next door was a YTS scheme, they were in my patch so I was the yes or no over their funding(but I declared a vested interest and that`s not the point)
One night their huge polytunnel was slashed to ribbons,I went over to chat to the supervisor and a few of the lads there
The upshot was one young lad said
"we know who it was and he won`t **********************ing be doing it again"
Not that I could condone such behaviour you understand ;)