Thieving from a community vegetable garden

I've been looking at ways that I, as a renter, can implement GliderGuider's "I HELP" plan to insulate myself and others against the shocks of Peak Oil http://www.paulchefurka.ca/I%20Help.html. One obvious step that I've been trying to convince my apartment manager to allow is to begin a community garden in the courtyard and plant a few fruit trees. She asked me a question the last time we spoke that's been stumping me though.

"How do you ensure that no one just comes in one night and steals all your tomatoes?"

I realized that I had just assumed that human nature would be good and just, and that people would respect the hard work other people had invested in the gardens. Boy, do I feel stupid.

I guess the first step would be to make friends with my neighbors and develop a strong sense of community with other residents. However, there are hundreds of people living here. My apartment manager is right: a few unscrupulous people could rob us blind in a few days. Short of setting up watches, I don't see how I can implement a veggie garden successfully.

I'm pretty bummed right now.

A guy had a watermelon patch and every day he would go out to see the progress his melons were making. One day as the melons were ripening he saw that one was missing. Someone helped himself to one of the guy's melons.

So the guy made a sign to put in his patch that read, "one of these melons is poisoned". The next day he went to the patch and saw all the remaining melons still on their vines. He was proud of himself until he looked at his sign.

Someone had written on it, "now there are two".

...and I haven't heard of many problems with vegetable rustlers.

:shrug:

Here's a link to them:
http://www.cacscw.org/gardens/

From their FAQ:

What about theft?
All the gardens experience at least a little theft or vandalism. Gardeners have found that theft diminished with signs and outreach to neighbors to tell them about the garden and invite them to get plots. Fences can also help.

I haven't even started the garden, so I don't have any direct evidence there will be thieving.

What I'm concerned about is that, as food prices keep going up as we progress down the Peak Oil slope, the temptation to grab a few "free" fruits and vegetables will be too much for some to resist.

the criminal element prefers zucchini. And carrots. :P

Seriously, though. I might worry about vandalism, but how common is vegetable theft? The street value isn't huge, and most people don't need 50 tomatoes for personal use. :shrug:

most of which was nowhere near ripe, and some things not edible, such as flower buds. Everything was stripped to the stalk. My guess at what purpose it served would be "throwing" but I am not sure.

"I need to plant a much bigger garden, so they won't be able to steal everything..."

More seriously: If it's a hobby garden you should take your losses philosophically. If losing the produce would result in actual nutritional hardship, you should protect it to the degree that makes sense given the degree of potential hardship.

I don't tend to get upset about stuff or loss of stuff, beyond it's usefulness to me. When my bike - which was my only vehicle at the time) got stolen, it pissed me off some, but even then it's not worth stressing over 'stuff' as much as possible. It was annoying a little because I did plan on eating those veggies, and was fairly poor at the time, but it wasn't life-threatening either.

She said that theft isn't nearly as much of a problem as people expected. Here are some suggestions for keeping down the level of theft and vandalism:

Get as many people as possible involved, especially older kids that might decide to trash the place. A sense of ownership is the best deterrent.

Put up a fence. Any kind of fence. A locked gate would be nice, but may be impractical. Basically any barrier to entry will act as a psychological barrier to entry...

Ask the police to swing by a couple of times a night during August and September.

Put up a pole with floodlights on a motion sensor switch.

Post signs warning of the major league bad karma that comes from from stealing food from children. Make them funny but pointed.

Accept that you'll lose some produce. I bet that six-legged and four-legged thieves will get a lot more than the two-legged kind anyway. Be philosophical - nothing worth doing was ever easy.

Don't give up. Try it anyway. What do you have to lose? At the very least you'll make new friends, and that's What the "H" is all about.

By the way - good on you for doing something! The key is to take that first step.

garden center here in Los Angeles. The public could enter and walk around, and they would often just walk right into plots and steal perfectly ripe bell peppers and tomatoes and such.

Made me want to get a gun and lie in wait, I'll have to confess.

Plots cost $20 a year. The thieves were just too frickin' LAZY to do the work and grow their own.

plums, apples & pears. The fruit just rots on the ground. I'm the only person I've ever seen picking it.

just for perverse pleasure is also not uncommon.

(Also handy at keeping pesky squirrels away from the nut trees)