Theft is a re-occurring theme Robert. It wipes out community gardens. You will find other discussions about it in the community gardens ACGA archives. Gardeners in Detroit can maybe speak to this better but as I understand it the only really successful strategies are about eliminating the us and them situations in a community. The thieves are neighbours. They live close by 99% of the time. I mean they are lazy and they are not likely to cross town to steal from you so yah, its Joe down the way. Also its usually only a few people that regularly do it so if you could stop one or two the others might back off as well. The question comes down to, "Do you want to go beating up someone or to have someone arrested that have children in the same school as yours?" Tension in the neighbourhood would result and the thefts might even increase.
So lets say you catch a thief, what then if "a no cops and a no fights" policy makes sense then whats the alternative? Why not turn the whole thing on its ass? Why not invite the thieves to become gardeners? And if they refuse try baking them a cake and taking it to their house !!! or worse invite the entire membership of the community garden and their friends to the thieve's house for a potluck dinner as soon as possible. Post the invite on all of the telephone posts and local store fronts. If they won't let you in host it on the lawn. All humour aside consider that garden thieves have a lot in common with gardeners. Both like the outdoors, both like to see growing things, both are observant of natures bounty, both like fresh food and will scrounge around a bit to get it and they already live close by each other. It's almost a marriage. It only needs one more step to transform a thief to a gardener. When you catch the thief you might try a reverse strategy saying " Oh, you didn't get any carrots! Here are some! If you had come yesterday the beans were perfect. But I need to teach you how to pick peas so that you don't damage the plants. Can you come on Wednesday when we have a class in the teaching garden ? I will have some some beets and rhubarb to give those who can make it" Or you can just say to them " I need your help. If you don't stop thieving we will plough the entire garden under and close it for good. So help me out here." Show them that no one wins if they continue. Appeal to their humanity. They really are of your community for good or for ill. They could be an opportunity. They seem to have time when no one else is around! They already know about thieving and probably know all of the thieves, so they can be much better at stopping it. Perfect! Then they can be there when thieves arrive. Teach your neighbour thieves instead of punishing and as they mature in knowledge and trustworthiness offer them the abandon plots of gardeners not able to finish the year. This is the message of Victor Hugo in "Les Miserable" as the priest in the story turns Jean Valjean's life around. Someone told me that one garden gathered all of the grocery store potatoes that no one wanted and were going to be thrown out anyway. They planted an empty lot in hundreds of pounds of old sprouting potatoes. They used thousands of bags of leaves ground up as mulch several feet deep over top of the potatoes planted in the last inches of melting snow. In this way they could start planting in March and continue into April and May. They invited people from the community to a potato harvest day. The thieves came mixed in with everyone else, so they remained unknown as the thieves and instead became friends. Later they invited the community again to a pizza making day. It got the theft and mistrust situation turned around by involving everyone. Felton Earls is the authority on neighbourhood crime. He says that neighbourhoods that stand together, know each other and don't leave people out are less likely to experience on going crime. The best indicator for security is the willingness for neighbours to stand up for each other. The old, young, immigrants and weak are all included then you are safest. Look him up and email him. He will answer you. ~ robyn >________________________________ > From: Robert Burgess <[email protected]> >To: "[email protected]" ><[email protected]> >Sent: Saturday, September 7, 2013 10:50:33 PM >Subject: [Community_garden] Vegetable theft > > >I'm wondering what other community gardens do when faced with thefts. Our >gardeners have lost lots this summer, eggplants, squash, tomatoes, peppers, >onions etc. We've put a lock on our gate, but we're conflicted about that >route. We're on public land, but run and maintained by a nonprofit and our >members. There are residents who think the space should be open at all >times - but if the fruits of our labor are stolen not many people will want >to garden there anymore. >Thanks, >Robert Burgess >Hudson MA Community Garden >-------------- next part -------------- >An HTML attachment was scrubbed... >URL: ><http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20130907/9aeb3108/attachment.html> >_______________________________________________ >The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's >services to community gardeners. 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