Grow Your Own Magazine

... I know many of you have suffered with vandals/thefts on your allotments, well it's happened to me too now. Got a phone call last night from our chairman to say some b*****ds had cut the lock to the site gate, ran amok over the plots and destroyed the scout hut at the end of the allotments. I went down for a quick look - huge clodhopper footprints allll over my beds, squashed plants, and the marigolds and chillis I'd lovingly tended at home and left on the plot in their pots to plant out at the weekend totally disappeared. So now I have no chilli plants and will be starting again with more marigold seeds at the weekend instead of planting out my lovely little babies. Sooooo annoyed and frustrated.

The gate has a new, temporary, lock on it but only the chairman has a key so the rest of us can't get our cars onto the site until a permanent new lock and lots of keys can be sorted out. Plus the scouts no longer have access to their hut, and if they did it isnt in a useable state with smashed windows and doors.

It's just soooo frustrating - I can't even be too angry, just very disheartened. What on earth did those responsible possibly gain except a few marigold and chilli plants they probably dont even know what to do with?! Sorry all, just wanted to get it off my chest - normal service now resumed!

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

Bad luck! What a horrid thing to have to deal with. Is it just possible that they threw your pots onto another plot? Might be worth a wander around and look.

Terry

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The weeks and the years are fine. It's the days I can't cope with!

Oh Moggsue, I'm so sorry to hear this hun. I admire your attitude though, pick yourself up, dust off and start again, good for you. xxx

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Imagination is everything, it is a preview of what is to become.

I too admire your attitude hun, I'd want to take blood!!

I am so sorry, it is heart-breaking with no possible gain to the 'sweet little chaps/ees' that carried out the deed

((hugs))
xx

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aka
Suzie

Not nice at all- but try not to be too despondent.

We had a similar thing on our previous allotments with gypsies for 3 consecutive summers- every night

hopefully it was a one off for you.

So sorry Moggsue, mindless young people with no respect.

just remember what goes round comes round..............
i have a surplus of chilli plants if you would like me to post them to you, they might survive the post, i could wrap them in bubble wrap....let me know

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The love of gardening is a seed once sown never dies ...

What a pain. At least the only vandalism I get in my garden is from the cat!!

Hope it is a one-off thing. good luck with the replacement plants.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

Sorry Moggssue, that's so deflating. At least it's still early in the growing season and you are able to recover.

Tracey

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Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Michael Pollan

So sorry to hear this.... I would be so angry and frustrated as well . I've been back in the UK for 10 years now and hardly a day goes by that I am not disgusted by something like that going on here........

This is heartbreaking, I'm so sorry to hear of things like this. Best Wishes BM

Gutted for you mogssue, like piskie I'd want blood, then after that I'd rub the chilli's in their eyes. Thankfully, you're not like me and you've been very dignified about it.

I have a number of chilli plants (too many for me) they're not very big, but they're bigger than seeds. You're not that far from me - let me know if you want any? Not a lot, but might help...

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Updated 30th November

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

Thanks all. I was furious at first last night, but then what's the point. I doubt the b*****ds will ever be found, so I won't let them beat me. The guy two plots down had his tomatos trampled on and broken, so much so that we don't think they'll recover. He also lost lettuce and cabbage to a good kicking. We're pulling together and giving each other surplus veg so we can keep going.

I did have a wander around to see if my pots had been thrown away somewhere but no sign at all. I can't imagine those who took them (she says being restrained and polite on a public forum ) wanting to plant and nurture them so why the hell bother? Its the futility of it all that gets me most.

Thanks for the offers of chilli plants - I'm not sure how they'd travel in the post though? I'll go buy some more seeds at the weekend and start alllll over again.

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

Poor Moggssue, we're building our own house, and have had two break-ins on the site. The second time they only took 12 bags of cement worth £40! The insurance excess doesn't warrant a claim, but it meant that we had to find another £40 to buy more cement with. I completely understand your anger and frustration. The local bobby said that we are now at 'high-priority' status - does that mean he gets his push-bike out instead of walking round next time it happens!!

They may just be waiting for some concrete evidence!


Sorry, it's my humourettes playing up again.

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Updated 30th November

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

'Good Grief!' (thats my Charlie Brown impression)

See, thats the sort of thing I mean - just WHAT is the point in stealing something like that? Surely the effort isnt worth the gain??

And Wayne - you keep those humourettes at it, a giggle is always appreciated and helpful!

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

There was a recent case locally where concrete was "fly tipped" onto an area. Maybe these numbskulls thought it would grow?

Bluebells now grow in wood where concrete was dumped - News - Bedfordshire on Sunday

Or they misunderstood what a concrete jungle is...

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Updated 30th November

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

I would imagine the yobs stole the potted plants to sell at the nearest boot fair.
I hope they go and it pees with rain and no punters show!

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The weeks and the years are fine. It's the days I can't cope with!

Hey - thats a point! There's a local car boot every Saturday morning - I might just pop along (with some burly blokes ) and see if my plants are there being sold ... what a good thought Terry thank you

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Life may not be the party we hoped for but since we're here we might as well dance

I wouldn't credit them with that much intelligence.

....but if you need burly blokes, there have been sightings around these parts of two chaps squeezed into a Nissan Micra that might be up for the task!

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A simple dude trying to grow veg.

http://haywayne.blogspot.com/ - Updated 30th November

http://tickers.baby-gaga.com/p/dev036pr___.png

How horrible Sue Well done for not letting it put you off.

I have a surfeit of chilli plants too - very happy to see if they'll survive the post. JLMK.

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http://thankyouforthedays.blogspot.com/

In the woods there grew a tree
And a fine fine tree was he

I sent a tomato plant through the post last year and I think it survived (T Peers can confirm if it lived to crop at all). Don't be too worried about plantlets, wrap their roots in damp kitchen paper and pop them in a ziplock freezer bag full of air, then in a box so they don't get squished.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk