My neighbor has but they have stuff growing way out in front. I think they had 2 good sized squash and fruit stolen...

My mom had orchids disappear but I think my brother had something to do with it...

Yup--my current spot is part of a community garden. Last year, while waiting rather impatiently for my FIRST tomatoes to ripen. Finally, walked over to get one for that dinner's salad and....gone. Grrrrrrr!

Fortunately, the rest of the season went better, but once things really start coming in it's hard to tell too.

We have no problem out on the farm.

It may be because my 10 acres are next to family or that we some times practice firing the shotguns in the late evenings.

My vegetable garden is along the street. I've never had a plant stolen, but the first watermelon I ever grew was.

Yeah, I have. Just last year I had a volunteer sunflower that I let grow along my fence which had it's head twisted off just as the seeds matured. I live on a corner with a sidewalk right along my fence so it could have been anyone.

Rodney

My canteloupe patch is on our parking strip (aka hell strip). So people walk right by it on the sidewalk. I try to make the fruit look as inconspicuous as possible by hiding it under foliage (no, the people that walk by aren't smart enough to recognize canteloupe leaves). That's easy to do until the melons get big. I can't say I've ever had a melon stolen by people, though there are some squirrels around here that need to be up on "WANTED" posters for burglary and malicious property damage. The latter should get 'em six months in jail, which would keep me safe for a season.

When I lived in San Diego in the 80's, I gardened for a year in the City Heights community garden. There were a lot of great gardeners there, but theft was a major problem. I had my entire sweet corn crop stolen the day before I had planned to pick it... another gardener said they saw someone selling it on a corner a few blocks away.

On another day, I found a mother with her young children walking through some neighboring plots, and asked her what she was doing there. Her reply was "This is a community garden, we can take what we want". That was the last year I gardened there.

Since then, I've often gardened on other people's land, in exchange for services rendered (such as mowing or keeping trash picked up). Only once did I have someone attempt to steal something - which was carrots. It seems the culprit didn't have anything to dig with, so they just stole what they could pull out. Fortunately for me, they didn't get much; the roots were already deep, so most of the tops broke off. They left a pile of leaves in the parking lot.

Lots of trade offs to community gardens. But when the only other option is to not garden except in pots, I'll take my chances. Right now I have so much hardening off in my very small townhouse yard that my kids can't play out there--not fair to them. Looking forward to new house where I will have more room, but not enough sun for everything I'd like to grow, so I will probably find another community garden for growing corn and root veggies.

So much is education, but if people don't care to read a sign, then they probably don't care that they're stealing. Denver Urban Gardens does have very nice signs at the entrances stating that the produce within is lovingly grown by those who tend it and not for public taking.

I'm way off the road and the garden is behind the house, so no problem. In fact I often put a free/gratis box out near the road.

But a park near where I take my walk in town has a beautiful community garden that was almost shut down cause some people were caught selling the produce at a near by farmers market. Apparently a No No!

"Stealing food is no violation of property. it's a sign of something else entirely."
It is indeed a sign of something else... disrespect for the rights of others. Few people steal from gardens because they are starving, they steal because they want it, and feel entitled. They steal because they would rather eat the results of others' labor, rather than to expend their own.

There is no justification for stealing... if anyone really needed food from my garden that badly, all they would have to do is ask. To do otherwise is to violate the property of others.

Zeedman, I remember that community garden... We passed it a few times when my older bro worked a double job at a car stereo place around there during that time.. It's still in the same place, now located on a bridge, but with I15 running under it..

Yes Mav72, my own bad experiences aside, that community garden represents a triumph of sorts. It was originally begun in a corridor where all the homes had been demolished to make way for an expansion of Highway 15, and the gardens were only intended to be temporary, until highway funding came through.

The gardens eventually became popular with the local community, and expanded until they occupied what had been several city blocks... I played a small part in that, by reaching out to some members of the local Asian community (who now form a large percentage of the gardeners). In time, the gardens became so important that it was argued - successfully - that their loss would be detrimental to the community, and it was decided to re-route Highway 15 under the gardens. Essentially, the people reclaimed the land which the government had taken away... a great victory for the community.

I once had my entire potato crop stolen from my yard during the middle of the afternoon. They also stole some tomatoes, but I was really heartbroken about the potatoes which involved hours of patrolling for potato bugs. Now I cover the potatoes with netting to keep the bugs off and I never leave harvested crops anywhere visible from the road.

I personally have not, but I have friends who live in the "not quite gentrified" parts of Atlanta where they have had rose bushes, Mums, Hostas, Veggies and even a porch swing stolen. Basically any flower planted at the mail box would be pulled and stolen within a few days.

Knock-on-wood no stolen veggies or flowers from here. If I used a community garden I'd post a sign in my plot as follows : "Smile! You're on Candid Camera"

No need for a camera, just a sign.