Petty Vandalism

Greetings gardeners,

Although I wear the hat of the Fenstigator from time to time (Such as at the uber-party this saturday) in this post I am approaching everyone as a gardener who's been having a problem with his plot as of late.

Since I have been gardening here, I have added numerous features to my garden, namely a pond, lots of colorful glassware, a picnic table built from scrapwood, and a civil engineering sign of my mother's that I modified. Aside from the mammalian pests roaming around and mipping at my produce, gardening here has been quite fun and tasty. (fenstigation hat on: Vee shall prevail! hat off) However, in the past approximately six months there have been several cases of petty vandalism going on in my garden.

The wind often blows hard out in the gardens, and so things that could very likely have been due to the wind, such as things slipping into the pond, and one glass item breaking, are to be expected. However, the things that I will list here cannot be attributed to mere wind and rabbits.

First, one of my glass items, a pale green cone over a foot long, was smashed to bits in the fall of 2005. This was no act of wind, I had to get on my hands and knees and carefully pick all the pulverized smitherines of glass out of my onion patch. I have shown the fragments to Annie, a former garden coordinator whom you all know. I still have two of these cones left, fortunately.

Next, two of my glass items have gone missing. One was a very unique swirly piece of glass that looked like the tail of a brown whale coming up out of the ground. I bought it for about $15 at L-street furniture downtown. The second piece of glass to have gone missing was one of two green flasks that I bought off of the internet. It has since turned up at the Yolo SPCA thirft store, and so now it will be returned to my garden shortly. As a side note, I had to pay for it again as the SPCA would not give it back to me free. Oh well, its all for the animals.

And finally, about a week ago I was treated to all the bricks surrounding my pond being kicked into the pond. While fishing them out, I have found that the pond has become half full of rocks as well and all the fish are gone. I will have to clean it out Two piece of evidence were recovered from the scene: One was an old kitchen paring knife, and the other was a small water pistol. The acts themselves already bespeak juvenile attitudes, but the water pistol might confirm that it was indeed perpetrated by kids. I left both items on my table, and the water pistol has since disappeared.

Since it is easy to notice these sort of things in one's own garden, and not others, I have no idea whether these cases are specific to my plots or if this is happening everywhere. Has anyone else had things done to, or taken from their plots?

I would like to ask just a few things of my fellow gardeners. The first is, please email me at karl AT inoculatedmind DOT com if you have any information about any of these events. I have the knife in my possession - if anyone has seen someone playing with an old short knife and/or the water pistol, do let me know.

The second request is that everyone keep a watchful eye when they are in the gardens for people that may be messing around with other people's gardens. Get to know your neighbors, come and say hi! By forming social networks we can not only detect people that are not actual gardeners, I think having a friendly relationship might deter any sour-minded gardeners from wrecking the work of others.

Third, there are some kids that I and other gardeners have seen regularly hanging out at the gardens. I would not presume that they did anything to my garden, but it is a possibility. Does anyone know who they are? I know that other gardeners have seen them take food from people's plots, but they have been informed of their

I have been given a couple of ideas as to how I can address or prevent these little cases of vandalism against my plot, but they haven't satisfied me. Any ideas? Note that only the glassware and pond have received damage.

Also, about the future of my own plot, which has looked kind of ratty in the past, it's getting a makeover and I will also be adding a little mailbox with 3x5 cards in case anyone wants to drop a note!
Thanks,
Karl J. Mogel