Cassie, I feel your pain! I used to live in DC and had a tiny garden- my oasis! One day I got up to find that my biggest, prettiest begonia was missing! I was furious and heartbroken. Came to find out later that there was a crazy street guy who would wander around at night, taking plants from people's gardens then transplanting them into other people's gardens (which seems humorous to me now). Perhaps he's moved up to your neck of the woods? :)

I think jringa's ideas sound good, though. Treat it like just another garden pest! Best of luck!

Sunni

When we lived in a four-plex unit, we were the only unit to have a gated area of grass. (We were on the bottom.) So we bought some nice containers and potted camellias into it. I went to school and my boyfriend to work the next day. When we came home, our containers and plants were missing! We looked around and discovered that our neighbors upstairs took them. When we knocked on their door asking them why they took our plants, they said they wanted to beautify THEIR front door and said they didn't know the containers and plants belonged to us EVEN THOUGH they were in front of OUR front door in our GATED yard. Needless to say, we moved out of there. I still container garden but am careful what I leave out front visible to people walking by. I live in a nice area, but I don't trust anyone anymore. That's sad.

So sorry that happened to you!
Barbara

Isn't that just the pits? We just bought some apple trees from a very nice lady, and she was telling us that somebody went into her sales area one night when she wasn't there and dug up a bunch of her trees. That is just SO not cool. What is wrong with people anyway?!

Cassie,
You might want to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, saying that the walking onions were an experimental planting, and that anyone eating the onions or handling the plants should see a doctor immediately. Be vague about the consequences of ingestion/contamination, but hint that if whoever eats the onions expects to have children, they should be checked out immediately. At least you'll make the thieves think twice before lifting another plant!

haha love that idea! genius,

What is wrong with people is that we live in a society that has lost it's way and is run rampant with lawlessness...no morals, (anything goes and we are all supposed to accept it our we are labeled "intollerant", we have forced God out of every public place that used to welcome him, people have no conscience, there are no consequences for bad behavior, no parental discipline (no parents for many), people are only interested in their immediate gratification and care about no one but themselves.

cassieinmass,
I will have a few bubils of the catawissia walking onion in a few months that I can send you. Please email me at rgamewell2@charter.net

People are weird.

I lived in an urban area for a few years in a Victorian conversion with no outside space and had a few growbags of tomatoes crammed up against the side of the building, on the 2 feet of room we had wasn't on the sidewalk. A few tomatoes were taken, but noone ever took the plants. What was funny is someone would take one or 2 but would always leave some. It was near a train station, wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person walking by on the way home from work. They really could have buzzed the door and asked, I'd have been flattered.

Someone did dig a geranium out of one of the windowboxes. Just one.

The police will recommend you setup a motion camera. This happened to a friend that went north for the summers. Two years in a row someone came into her secluded yard and stole her prized plantings. The second year it happened she called the police, because she had a suspision who it was. The police told her to buy a motion camera hooked up to a computer. I haven't heard from her in a while so I don't know if she ever captured any images. But it's an idea if you think it might happen again.

Good advise about the motion cameras, I will keep popping up because I am angry about what happened to you, its not fair, I often wonder if people who take stuff understand what they are doing to you? I was a victim of robbery about 15 years ago, I signed up for a program which matched victims to perpetrators, I was disappointed because my 3 when caught about 18 months later had so many victims (I hate the word victim, it wrong?) the criminal justice system said they where exhausted by the amount of one to ones??? who cares?? not me? it has been prove that matching victims to their perpetrators lowers reoffence and helps the victim to close the book on it, as you can tell, I am not a closed book!

Greed is older than recorded history.

Even in countries where stealing can get you VERY severe punishment people still do it for the short term reward. In countries where you can be put to death for corporate irresponsibility that leads to death (China) people still cross the line in the name of greed.

Still...walking onions out of all things. Sorry for your loss and all, but that's an odd target...heh.

Damn, cassie...that's f'ed up. I'd bring you some onions, but i'm in TN...I can mail you some garlic chives. They'll last the trip fine.

That was pretty rotten. It amazes me that there are people who feel they have the right to take something someone else has worked hard for. Hope you get more soon and they are left alone. I don't grow them, but if I did, I would send some to you.

That stinks!

In my neck of the woods, I few shotgun blasts would make someone think twice about coming back, that is if you could catch them in the act.

I grow a big garden and I live out in the country. I always wonder if people are stealing from me. I don't always thing about it, but it does make me wonder.

I'm sorry. When I lived in St. Paul, in a very urban part, I grew some pumpkins in the alley. I'm pretty sure the trash collectors took it. I was doubly pissed because they tore up the plant in doing it, which killed that side of the plant and made it impossible for any of the other smaller fruits on it to mature. I called the waste collection company and complained. It made me feel better.

What a dastardly deed!!! sure sounds like a neighbor to me! Someone who wanted the plants and instead of asking; just took them because they wanted them, dang it!!!! it is not fair to you or to anyone. I like to believe at least most of my neighbors know that if they would like something I have; that I would either take a cutting or dig up a bulb or start the seed and grow it out to a point in which it is healthy enough to withstand the lack of proper care others may give...it really chaps my hide when all they needed to do was ask you if they could get a start or something and am sure that you would have at the proper time given them what they wanted...I believe most of us would do the same!

what the law on killing someone on you property? I was in Kenya for 6 weeks and witnessed 2 deaths, I will never be the same again! have you heard someone die, because you don't they make very little noise when moratally wounded,they wisper for their mum, if they have that much time! I never want to do that again, I understood and revaulated my beliefs but still, 2 men killed for stealing veg??? very harsh!

A few years ago, the people that my father-in-law renter this house out to before my wife and I moved in, came over WHILE I WAS IN THE YARD, and proceeded to dig up one of the blueberries that they had planted about 5 years ago. Didnt say a word, just came over w. a spade, dug it up, wrapped it in burlap, and left. I dont know if they knew I was there watching, or even cared, but talk about b*lls! I couldnt believe what I was watching.

That very night, I called my mother-in-law, who is the secretary for the police chief here in town. The next day, the couple was served w. a no trespassing order, punishable by up to 45 days in jail and a $2,000 fine if they are seen on this property again.

If you catch the culprit on video, might be avenue you'd want to look at

bomber

That reminds me of something I'd totally forgotten.

Years ago I bought a house from a couple, and we had the closing and they moved out. We moved in on July 1 of that year. The couple was friendly with the next door neighbor whom they used to visit. He had planted tomatoes on the side of the house, a nice bonus for us I thought. But then he came over to visit the neighbor every Saturday, and at the end of his visit, he took all of the tomatoes that were ripe on the vines for a couple of weeks as I watched from the hallway.

It really made me angry. If he'd asked, I would have given him half of what I harvested, since he'd planted them and it was too late to plant more at his new residence.

So I played devious. Every Friday I picked every ripe or nearly ripe tomato from the vines. There weren't any more ripe ones for him to steal.

There are just people who have no sense of boundaries and will trample all over them to get what they want. cassieinmass certainly discovered that as many of us have.

NC, I almost have to take offense at your contempt for walking onions. IMO, they are one of a small group of ideal garden crops for the homesteader. Do you know of another way to have spring greens so early? Perhaps in your latitude where things over-winter more easily it doesn't seem like much, but here where spring is late it's a very important item. BTW, they are rare, hence the high price for bulbs.

Cassie, sorry to hear about the criminal in your area. Barring some misfortune, I have a huge supply of bulbils every summer, and basal bulbs. Dozens and dozens if you want. I can re-stock you probably about as fast as the thief can take them. You can have scallions again by falltime. Mine are Catawissa.

My email: pbeesky@gmail.com

Cassieinmass
I have bulbs left from last fall. They have sprouted a bit, but that is OK. My garden is small, so I don't care to have them walking. I will send you some. I don't separate the bulblets. You will have a beautiful display by fall. I'll pay the postage.
E-mail me at sawitt35@hotmail.com

I've often wondered if this is a common problem for gardeneners. I have the critters in mine, but our house is set back from the road 900 feet in the middle of a field, so no people problems.

My parents however, had moved into a house with a lot of shade. My mom LOVES tomatoes from the garden and had a spot with enough sun for ONE plant. It still didn't produce a lot, but a few here and there. They had their house reroofed after the hurricane winds last September and the roofers took every last one of them. It was late enough in the season that she didn't get any more that year. I couldn't believe it. She was angry, but thought that the company would think she was nuts if she complained about stolen tomatoes.

I'm so sorry. Obviously they stole something more precious to you than the walking onions--they stole the enjoyment you get from your garden and that is what makes me angry for you.

You've got a great group here--it is touching that so many have offered you their help replacing them!

Oh my gosh you guys!!!! The fact that you all took time to anwser this means so much to me!!! You have no idea!!!!!! Truly from the bottom of my heart thank you!!!!!!!!!
My boyfriend set up a camera and we are recording everything...
My boyfriend and I were talking about the poisonous plants that day too. Too bad poison ivy didnt affect us or id plants it everywhere LOL!!!!!!
What urks me the most and I said it in my earlier post is that I would have shared them with anyone even remotely interested because these are the plants that got me into gardening in the first place...I got them from someone who sent me a african violet. From Garden web LOL!!!
Well, I will be emailing you guys that offered, and once again thank you for taking the time to help me. You guys are right about the Karma deal. You guys will have some great Karma coming back your way for helping me so much. Even if there wasnt anyone offering to help me, you just replying to my posts helps tremendously!!! THANKS!!!! -Cassie

I have no contempt for walking onions...

Out of all the landscape and garden thefts I've heard about over the years walking onions is just an odd one to me.

It can be used as an architectural plant in a mixed landscape, but generally a stand of the stuff looks like an alien army is trying to escape from below the soil. hehe...

I do hate that the original poster lost a stand that she's been moving for years, though...that's a commitment to cultivation.

You might take a look at your local Craigslist. People sell stuff on there all the time.

Cassie,
I need your mailing address. I will delete it after sending the onions tomorrow. I'll mail them in a bubble envelope. A gift from a gardening pal.
Shirley

I do not understand the onions being stolen but i do understand! My husband and i had bought our first and only house and i used to grow irises...the very expensive kind.
There were many, maybe 20 different kinds if not more, ready to bloom, I had babied these from the moment I planted them, they were almost ready to bloom and the next morning I got up to tend them, and they were all gone! The plants were there, but the flower stalks all were gone except one. That was the last time I had an iris garden.

What really bites about moving the patch was that when I got divorced from my ex-husband, he destroyed my garden and all my perennials, so I thought I had lost them. Being the hardy onions that they are, they started growing again and I went over his house with a shovel and pulled them up and got them out of there. They never stopped growing and were happy where they were. I loved that patch..
I know what you guys mean about it being random that someone would do after the onions...But I guess maybe someone saw them and knew what they were and figured why pay for them when they can take them. I dunno...
Shirly- I emailed you...Thank you so much!!!!!!
-Cassie

Cassie and Shirley thank you so much you have shown us the best in humans, as well as the rest of you posters, I thought at the time, oh I wish I had brought those onions! so I could share! I alway say that most people are decent and hardworking and this in a funny way has proved it! and why oh why do people do such horrid things in divorce, my hubby is trying to repair our neighbours nearly new lawn mower and snowblower that her ex tampered with! that said my dad always said to my hubby to be as he was at the time! don't mess with Heather she will have your balls on a stick...and he was right!
that said it against my nature to be evil! we have kids to think about now. but I will not be taken advantage of!

I would encourage anyone reading this that if you're in the yard or house or whatever and you see someone coming into the yard and taking some of your plants, or plants that you suspect don't belong to them, then go out and ask them what they're doing! I'm flabbergasted to read more than one person saying they saw someone taking fruit or plants and did NOTHING to stop them. Just go over and say, "Hey man, I'm pretty sure that's my blueberry plant" or "I'm sorry, but when you sold us the house, you sold us the tomato plants too. I don't mind sharing with you, but please ask first in future."

They might lie to you, they might get huffy and angry, but at least you will have done something.

cassie: If you want some garlic chive bulbs, e-mail me. I also have several seeds for various pants & vegetbales, if those would help.

stephen.boutin@lightningsource.com

GB

Now that I'm older, I might verbally confront the guy who stole my tomatoes, but at the time, since I'd just moved in from a place 1000 miles north and didn't know a soul OR the accepted practices in my new area, it just made sense to make sure he couldn't steal anymore. I learned later he was pretty much a jerk and a bully, but he didn't try to steal any more of what I planted. And he didn't visit that neighbor anymore either.

if i caught some in my garden with out permission they would
in jail since i have tall 10,000 volt electric fence and lock on my gate. Anything touching fence would knocked out. So far only deer and ground hogs have gotten shocked do to the camera photos. It might injure a human but then have go past the warning signs and outer fence get to electric one. which have signs saying beware of dog and trespassers will be shot.
empty shell casing are displayed to prove the point.

Yow...and people think it's dangerous to live in the city. hehe...

I don't think anything has ever threatened me enough to need a fortress.

I am very sorry that happened to you - that would make me cry if someone stole a part of my garden! I used to have theft of tomatoes and tulips when I lived in the inner city, but now that I am in the 'burbs it has not been an issue. I feel for you.

I have never posted on this forum before. I am one of those flower gardeners. :) I haven't grown vegetables in a good decade, but this year, it felt important to do so, so I am, and I have been reading up on you guys. (Nice group, by the way.)

I have 2 comments on this topic. First, I live in a gated community. (I know. but here me out.) I was really nervous about living in here, but these have been some of the best neighbors I have ever had. They are very well heeled (I have the smallest house), and among the dozen homes, there are three board members on the United Way, a lady who has served with the Salvation ARmy for years, and on and on. These folks give alot to this community.

We keep a lovely garden at the gate. We genuinely hope it is a pleasure to all who pass by. But, every season that we change out our annuals, some smart aleck will inevitably and intentionally drive off the road and right smack through our flowers. Once, someone stopped and dug up a dozen shrubs right out of the ground.

Which leads to my second comment. My beloved grandmother used to say "the world would be a better place if everyone would just stay home and tend their garden". We used to laugh at her. Not anymore. (Remember when we had "prison farms"? Maybe that old idea should be revisited. :)

Heather, you have my sympathy. I have steam coming out my ears when the armadillos dig up my plants. I don't know what I might do to a two legged varmint!

Put a sign on your garden that says "fertilized with Piss".

On the side of our house, under our grape trellis, we had a very cool old porcelain sink that we were using as a planter. I had found it in the basement years before when doing a project down there. It made the coolest planter the world has ever known.

A few weeks ago, somebody took it.

It is very old and quite heavy, and generally not the sort of thing you would think someone would want to just take, but one day it was just gone. They just dumped out all the soil and plants that were in there and took off with the whole thing.

It was a really cool planter. We were pretty sad about it. We put up "missing" notices around the area in the hopes that it might have just been one of those unwise 2AM decisions that young people sometimes make. We got nothing out of it but about a half dozen prank phone calls. Sigh.

Sorry to hear someone took your plants, Cassie. It sounds like you'll be able to score yourself some new ones from your gardenweb friends, at least, but still. It does stink to have something like that happen. Hopefully you won't have to deal with that again.

- Chris

I am so so sorry that this happened to you! Unfortunately, it's the norm in high-crime areas. I live in a high-crime area myself, and when I went to City Hall to ask about starting a community garden, they laughed. "Don't you realize that people would just steal the vegetables?" Makes you mad, sad, and everything in between. I would like to believe better of my fellow humans, but some people just, well, SUCK.

I could send you some poison ivy if you would like some. Heck, I have enough for everybody. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to keep anyone from coming on my property. I have seen kids walk right through it barefoot and they usually come back.

"ome smart aleck will inevitably and intentionally drive off the road and right smack through our flowers."
*********
Stealing is almost preferable to this kind of baffling behavior.
I'm close to the Presby Iris Gardens in Montclair, NJ., a local garden attraction. Two years ago, part of the garden was ripped up and trashed. Volunteers helped to get it back to rights but many of the destroyed bulbs were of an old leniage and couldn't be replaced.
The usual story when the culprits were caught. Several drunk teenage pinheads, who had no real reason for what they did. And these weren't some cliche street punks. They were from local, well-to-do families.
I forget what sentence they got. My preference? Put them in stocks for the day in the Iris garden itself, and let locals pelt them with rotten root veg's.

JITC

Rotten tomatoes! Rotten gummy lettuce! Nothing is nastier...

Sometimes I think there should be a mental illness coined for destructive teenagers! I once planted a tree in my front yard, staked it, and watered/fed it for two years. Just as it was taking off to really grow, some neighborhood teenagers who were given an axe for Christmas by a complete idiot chopped it down just for the thrill of it. They were caught red-handed chopping up the picnic tables at the park down the street. That was township property so the police got involved. The axe was apparently removed from their possession, and they ended up in juvenile court. I'm sure they're still causing trouble somewhere.

Cassie, I'm sorry this happened to you. I'm not going to add my story to this sorry litany, but yes, I've had plants stolen. Anyway, what I wanted to say is that I have billions of some kind of walking onion here. They were here when we moved in, but I'm new to veg gardening, and I haven't yet tried to ID them. Anyway again, if you get enough of them from the other posters, that's great. But if you need more, I have them. :)

And thanks to the posters who cautioned that people might try to sell them. It never occurred to me to do that, but I might try to sell my extras on Craig's list, maybe even on eBay.

Isnt it crazy that almost everyone has a story about their garden being robbed? I still cant get over the stories of what you guys have all had to deal with. I am only 29 and my parents taught me to respect my neighbors. Why are there so many jerks out there that have no respect? I dunno. I grew up in a very sleepy town. My front door growing up litteraly didnt have a lock on it. I loved that life. Now I have to lock my doors, my windows, my car, my bedroom door, install security systems, steel doors etc. I work in a prison for a job. I hate living in a prison in my home....-Cassie

OOH, do I ever have a deterrent plant for you!!

Good old Urtica dioica--around here, known as Urtica diabolica, Common Stinging Nettle.

NOBODY gets through that stuff without knowing allll about it--about ten seconds later.

I had been wanting to plant a host for the Milbert's Tortoiseshell butterfly, and there was this kid...he'd walk right through my front flowers, rip stuff up, pick anything he wanted. Even with momma right there!

So I put in stinging nettle, a nice, green, PRETTY plant with a nasty hidden secret. He was wearing shorts in early summer, wanted my blooming lilac, and walked right through it.

I haven't seen a kid walk that funny in YEARS, and I about laughed myself sick. He howled allll the way home, too, and now walks on the OTHER side of the street.

CAUTION: THIS PLANT CAN HURT YOU!! Put it somewhere YOU don't have to fight with it; keep it sheared down to about thigh height by pinching/cutting. Wear HEAVY leather gloves to work with it; I suggest welding gloves to avoid up-the-arm nastiness.

If stung by U. dioica, DON'T SCRATCH!!
Use either a sharp tool (scissor blades work, or boxcutter blades used with GREAT care) or clear packing tape/duct tape to remove the prickles. Drag the blade across the area firmly but without cutting yourself, and wipe on your glove. To use the tape method, lay it lightly across the stung area and pull slightly sideways, then pat down and strip off. Repeat until all spines are gone.

Hydrocortisone ointment will take care of residual itch/sting.

Good luck and may the plant-stealers of the world try to steal THAT!! :) Or reach through it...I doubt there are many city folk who would even recognize the stuff.

OOOOOOooooOOOOooohhh!!!!!!!! What a AWESOME IDEA!!!!!! I can totally work them into my garden too. Since me and my boyfriend are the the only ones allowed in my garden, we will know where they are planted!!!! My boyfriends even thinking of gettign some window boxees and plating them outside the windows on top of the security system! What a great idea it is!!! Ive been stung by them once and I still remember how nasty it was! I scratched it and made it worse LOL! Im actually looking forward to finding myself someof those now....THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!

I agree with the stinging nettle idea, today on a walk my 4 years olds invaded two gardens and ripped up flowers before I could react, one house they did it once going and once coming back, both times the owner witnessed it, I was mortified, lawns and gardens here are so much neater than in the UK, sterile I might say?, as in, all gardens had stinging nettles in the UK they encouage some good insects, dock leaves tend to grow by them and they take the sting away, do you have dock leaf here? if my boys had, had a nasty shock, I would have tended to them but told them that, that is why you don't go in other peoples gardens, and a lession well learnt! that said in the UK they understood gardens/lawn as we enclose as so little space, but I do hope the poor families that they took flowers from "for you mummy" understood! my neighbour who was with me said "they will understand, they have kids" but on any child, if the mum just stood by and let them trash a garden? grurr! the mum should have had stinging nettles thrown at her!

Hi Cassie -
I came across this thread while looking for something else. (I read it because it reminded me of the community garden at my kids' summer camp which has a tasteful sign warning people not to take vegetables that the gardeners have worked hard to grow). Anyway ...
You probably already thought of this, but, was it your ex who took your plants? As you can see from my username I am a lawyer. I have a dear friend who does divorce law who has regaled me with stories about the odd and cruel things people have done to their ex's. He once ruined your garden, correct? You then rescued (rightfully, because you purchased, planted and tended them. I'm not sure about the trespassing angle ;-) ) the remaining onion plants. Might he have come back to take them? If you think so, handle it in the same way you would if he did something else spiteful. Btw, the stinging nettles sound awesome, I'll have to tell my friend about them....

I've never had plants stolen, but I have had tools stolen.

I used to live in a rental house in a neighborhood in a bad part of town. My roommates and I were NICE to the homeless people that lived around there. We'd give them money/food/cigarettes to wash our cars or do things in our yard or help us with some heavy lifting or whatever. This one guy even kind of "adopted" us, seemed like a nice guy, would go on and on and on about how he came to be in this situation and how he's a hard worker and will work his way out of it and so on. Oh, and he'd also go on about how he's a Christian and talk about his faith in Jesus and he's forgiven for his sins and so on. He said he'd watch over our house because we were his friends and people have to watch out for each other, and that was nice, we thought.

Anyway, our homeless people started getting more and more insistent over time, knocking on our door at all hours, asking for more work to do even though we didn't have any more that we needed, trying to get higher prices for what work they did do, while we tried to explain to them it's not like we're rich either. It started to get to where we didn't like going outside our house much because someone would come up begging for something, so we finally started being more firm saying no to them.

So you know what they did? They stole all my garden tools, some tents we had in our backyard drying after a camping trip, and my roommate's bikes! And no only did our so-called friend not stop them, he's the one that planned it, after hanging around us long enough to tell when we were home and not. Yeah, so much for "love thy neighbor" Christian morality! That's the thanks we get for trying to reach out in friendship to people in need. We aren't even Christians, we were just trying to be good people, and this is what happens!

These kinds of things really jade me. People don't care about other people at all, they just look at you and think of what they can get from you.

Phew, I see somebody resurrected this post from May. My first thought was, 'Oh no! Don't tell me Cassie got ripped off again!'