Kitchen Garden Forum

Might have been too cold for me but the thieving gits were on the site last night. Only targeted the back 2 rows so assuming if they were doing the front row being directly along the main road the torch lights would have drawn attention. I was concerned at what I would find when my neighbour rang me, but compared to the other visitors we have had this one was well behaved.

Door wasn't forced open or ripped the hinges, but he took the time to unravel the plastic wire tie, door was left open along with the gates but nought taken & no damage & he never touched or entered the tunnel. They have him on CCTV apparently but not a good image. Unsure if anyone lost equipment as I went down late, but hopefully they have learned not to leave anything valuable from previous encounters. I closed all the gates on the nearby plots in passing & a bit disappointed others down earlier didn't do this as not entering their plots but protecting their crops from the bunnies & took all of 5 mins!

Glad you didn’t lose anything, or suffer any damage, Westi….probably looking for power tools…..must be a horrible feeling though.

Only twice a victim of crime, first time a van was stolen, got it back the next day luckily and another time some one broke into the boot of my car and stole a spare wheel and some tools, nothing of real consequence, but you feel violated, luckily I never found out who the miscreants were otherwise I might have ended up in trouble myself.

Well as it turns out I was lucky! When I went down today one of the committee was around that I had asked him to keep his ear out for anyone who had any timbers I could have to edge the asparagus beds & he popped in & had found some for me so we had a chat. Some sheds were just pushed over, loads in the 2nd row had their doors jimmied off & weird things like chairs, spirit levels, gas cookers etc were taken. He didn't say anyone lost anything expensive but we have had this before so hopefully everyone has learnt their lesson & all plots have parking outside so no need to leave expensive things down.

On the subject of edging I got lucky as well! The smallest timber yard in the world is on a plot on one of the dead end side rows! I got all the required timber all nicely grey painted tongue & groove & even had the right sizes so I didn't even have to saw anything! The plot holder is a retired builder & gets these from his ex work mates & skips & does it to just help out with shed repairs & others needs.

We have shed rats coming one a fortnight on average but not on a regular basis we’re we could catch them we have discussed cameras but decided our allotment is to big to cover it all it must be around 150 meters long I’m in the middle as they tend to get in at the bottom end they usually leave me alone

We have a huge few acre site as well, over 160 full sized plots. We are fenced along the front from 10' recycled non climb railings from a kiddies play area, on the left side is the path that leads to the enclosure the council stores things with a huge metal spiked top gate & tall barbed wire runs down our side, the very prickly hedge row across the back - but the farmers field on the right hand side which is where they get through by entering plots whose owners clear the brambles & weeds & put up DIY flimsy fences. The committee currently receives any trashed big tall wire linked site fencing from building sites from the rental place down the road but these are usually claimed quickly by the chicken owners to give good secured encloses. I have noted that they are starting to install this fencing along this weak side chained together, however supply is erratic & they will need lots more.

We have wildlife cams in tricky corners on actual plots that caught the image, but have proper CCTV installed which is powered by 3 solar panels on the roof of the containers which serve as our shop. Unfortunately they forgot to turn this one on, so it is possible to get cameras. This was

Away from this my asparagus edging looks pretty posh & I filled them all up today; hence why I'm having a day off tomorrow!

Gosh, I feel so very sorry for you guys having to contend with thieving gits like this. It really is awful to be the victim of a crime and it does make you feel violated. If you can try to treat yourself to something nice even if it's just watching something good on the telly or reading a magazine. Try for some happy "me time" so it maybe doesn't all seem so bad.

It seems pretty hellish, though, that thefts are so common from allotments. I wonder if it's people with a criminal tendency or desperate people. What do you think?

it's not only equipment that gets stolen, we used to have produce pilfered fairly regularly. As we were on a locked site, it must have been another plotholder

One year, the strawberry thief must have been seen, as they left one shoe behind in their rush.

Our allotment is in the roughest part of our town which is pretty rough to start with ,the middle of last year they set fire to our communal shed and greenhouse both were burnt to the ground we re built the shed but the green house is still needed the one good thing that came out of it was the council provided the wagon and labour to clean the mess up

It used to be younger teenagers that visited but they are very quiet currently, probably found another outlet. This is the second break-in relatively close together, (different entries); the 1st one even took a shopping trolley so was pretty confident & he was way more destructive as it was just about every shed trashed & some were set fire to but none damaged too badly. They have found several wheel barrows up the hill yesterday at the bit where the farmer accesses his fields, so some folk won't need to replace theirs.

We also have visits when the traveller's come down for a beach break but they go for crops mostly & just target these, but if someone is silly leaving tools out they will take those, but not actively look. The other bad time is when the pumpkins are ready which is silly as about 1/2 mile up the hill is a pick your own with several acres of pumpkins, a lot sneaking out over the fence so no need to even enter the grounds & the CCTV there is just around the shop area & the road in not the entire area.

I have had my crops nicked by a neighbour, just quietly told her not to enter my plot again or I would report her, silly woman just went to others plots & as I had discussed what I had done with her they were aware. I was so pleased when she was evicted as a terrible neighbour.

Hard frost again this morning, I was thinking of doing some work in the greenhouse, it can wait for another week or so.

It’s looking like the night time temperatures are still going to be low next week but, I have just sown a few things and put them in the propagator….will see what happens.

As well as chillies & peppers, I've lettuce and leek seeds in the dining room window, fingers crossed!

I sowed, lettuce, rocket, parsley, coriander, cabbage and cauliflower.
Just been hoeing a bit more over the allotment, and you don’t get many years, when you can do that in February….

I've done a bit of light pruning removing dead bits from Roses and Blackberries, but will stop as I don't want more frost damage.